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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1974.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED W09 Editor C M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET LONDON S El Telegrams: Tiuditur, Sedist, London. 8-10, CORPORATION ST. COVENTRY. Telephone : Waterioo 3333 (50 lines). Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry Telephone : Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Te egrams: Airtopr^s Birmingham. Telegrams: lliffo, Manchester. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). Telephone: Blaekfriars 4412. Home and Canada: Year. <n ,3 o. . 6 months. 1*. fid. Other Countries: Year. £1 10 0. 6 months, ISs. od. 2CB. RENFIELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams: lliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4SJ7. RATES: 3 months, 8fl. 6d. 3 months, 9s. Od. No. 1592. Vcl. XXXV. JUNE 29, 1939. Thursdays, Price 6d. The Outlooks Too Many Accidents A LLOWING for two or three cases of sheer bad luck f~\ such as the Connemara fire a little over a week ago —there is, nevertheless, reason for what is usually known as "disquiet" when the number of accidents suffered in the last year or two by Imperial Airways is remembered. There is no question that the greater pro portion of these have been directly or indirectly due to pilots' errors. The man in the street not unnaturally asks, first of all, whether flying boats are, in fact, entirely suitable for the Empire services; and, secondly, whether the pilots are sufficiently experienced in boat operation. No doubt every expert consideration was given to the first question when it was originally decided to re-equip with flying boats, and there is certainly nothing wrong with the Short "C" class boat as a type. There remains, therefore, the second question. Admittedly, the conditions of operation are not by any means ideal over the Empire routes, and at several points the machines must be put down in restricted, busy and otherwise difficult areas. In the circumstances, sheer skill and experience in the handling of flying boats, both on and off the water, become of paramount importance. The doubt is whether all the Imperial Airways' Captains and Acting Captains have had the training and experi ence necessary to deal with all manner of new and dif ferent circumstances at every base. Originally, the Imperial Airways pilots who were due to take command of the boats went through an intensive course of special training, though even this, with the comparatively short schooling time at their disposal, could not possibly have done much more than to give the pilots a good grounding, if so it can be called, in sea manship as applied to flying-boat operation. The machines used for practical training were by no means modern or in any way similar to the Empire class. Only on the routes could the real experience be gained, though there was a sufficiently large nucleus of boat pilots already in service with Imperial Airways to help the new pilots out at the start. Nevertheless, there was obvi ously an insufficiency of really experienced crews, and it was necessary for quite a few of the landplane pilots to take charge of the boats almost from the outset. Now, we believe, the new flying-boat pilots receive their only training in the Second Pilots' seats on the Empire routes. This system has the advantage that the shortly-to-become Acting Captains obtain first-hand ex perience with the equipment used over the routes and of the particular conditions which apply at the different points of arrival and departure. But, again, only fully responsible experience in the Captain's seat is likely to be of much real use, and it is inevitable that there should have been a certain number of major and minor acci dents due to sheer inexperience. The new Corporation may well find it necessary to re consider the whole question of flying-boat training, and even, in fact, the more basic question of whether, all things considered, the flying-boat scheme for the Empire routes is actually the best. As we have said before, there is nothing wrong with the boats themselves, but it is doubtful whether, without a special and inevitably expensive training system, a sufficient number of pro perly experienced crews can be permanently available. An Unnecessary Committee ANYONE reading through the recent Report of the /A new Gorell Committee and, later, the Air Ministry memorandum on this report, must have felt that a very great deal of fuss was being made about prac tically nothing. In ten or twenty years' time it may be necessary to formulate a series of new rules and regu lations to safeguard the public against the dangers cf low flying, but at the moment there are a great many other matters which might more reasonably have been given the studied attention of such a Committee. In any case, the majority of the recommendations are already very largely covered by the existing legis lation, while some of the remaining recommendations cannot possibly be put into adequate effect. . To quote just one item in the Report, it is demanded that pilots should make the fullest possible use of the available "runways" at Croydon. Knowing the char acteristics of the present-day transport type when fully
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