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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0168.PDF
JANUARY 18, 1940. stead of being started in its proper place at the beginning. To illustrate my point, may I quote from your own article in which you state, apropos of power flying to gliding, " One may compare gliding and power-driven flight with sailing a light dinghy and driving a destroyer through a rough sea. The similarity is not much greater than that." This, I think, is meant to convey how little use gliding ex- perience would be in circumstances such as the present. This view, I suggest, misses the whole point inasmuch as it ignores the basic reality that the beginning of all things worth while springs, in the first instance, from human inspiration and keenness, followed by action. Therefore, to answer you on your own thesis, I suggest that if you climbed aboard any one of those hundreds of destroyers on war patrol, aye, and battleships, too, and interviewed their captains and chief officers, you would find that a high per- centage had commenced their sea careers and acquired love and knowledge of the sea, by sailing in their youth that appar- ently despised little dinghy down the estuary to sea, per- haps against parental orders. In the same way that dinghy sailing, which is both delight- ful and yet adventurous and calls for no little skill, gives the call, and opens the door for the average British boy to a sea career, so gliding fills its exact counterpart in the air; it is the modus operandi of attracting our youth and actually get- ting them into the air under their own pilotage. It is, there- fore, I submit, the letter "A" of aerial alphabet. Also be- cause it is the only way to the air for the average lad, except by direct entry into the Air Force, it should, in my view, be continued in wartime, to enable our present lads to take a hand in the great game of mastery of the air, and prepare for what is to follow. Like dinghy sailing, gliding is cheap, safe, and of easy access, all very necessary attributes to bring the sea, air, and young Britain into close intimacy. But while a boy can save up and buy a dinghy and operate it with relative ease and safety, it is absolutely necessary for him to get his early air experience in the company of skilled companions, and on airworthy craft on a safe site; and for this reason it is imperative for him to join one of the many gliding clubs which occupy the great natural soaring. sites in.this country, and able, therefore, to deliver the flying " goods " as an economic price necessary for for the young. And yet they are shut down by order. In conclusion, I should like to add that in 1907 and 1908 I used to read of the doings of Jose Weiss in your excellent paper, and have read it ever since, in spite of the fact that recently my interest has been centred in motorless flight, for the above reasons. . C. ESPIN HAXDWICK. Midland Gliding Club,. Ltd. GLIDING AND SOARING IN your paragraph on gliding in wartime in last week's Flightyou seem to have made the common mistake of confusinggliding and soaring in high-performance sailplanes. I agree that - the technique of flying a sailplane is quite different from that of flying a bomber. But it has great value in teaching a pilot a certain respect for the air and its sur- prisingly powerful currents, which might have prevented many accidents if it were more general. Nevertheless, the objections to filling up the sky with sail- planes are obvious. But I fail to see that there are any objections to carrying on with ordinary gliding training. After a short course in gliding a pilot should be able to fly straight and level in gusty weather, have a fair judgment of height, do simple turns, and have a good sense of wind direc- tion and drift, all of which he must acquire sooner or later. The usefulness of gliding as a training for power pilots could be increased greatly if a type of. training machine, with con- trols of the same sensitivity as those in an aeroplane, were used. Gliding is also a surprisingly good method of separating the sheep from the goats, those who have it in them to become pilots and those who have not. It is certainly a far more reliable test than mathematics. It also has value in teaching something of the maintenance and handling of aircraft to budding ground engineers. Many of the air cadets trained in the summer took as much interest in the woik they did in rigging and repairing gliders as they did in the gliding itself. Every ground engineer must learn how to put in a split pin sometime, and only practical experi- ence can teach him. I fail to see how gliders could possibly add to the congestion in the air. Most training is now done by winch launching and not, as you state, by hopping from hillsides, as sites suitable for this are rare in England. With a good winch, heights of 1,000ft. have occasionally been obtained in elementary gliders, but a height of 600 to 800ft. is more common. In a primary glider it is generally impossible to stray far from the aero- drome—even if you want to. The need for military aerodromes should of course have precedence over the need for gliding schools. But, in fact, very few gliding clubs ate also used as aerodromes, and there seems to be no idea of making them into aerodromes. One gliding club which might be made into a good aerodrome is in danger of being ploughed up by its farmer, urged on by the Ministry of Agriculture. It seems a waste that gliding cannot continue. Many clubs bought much extra equipment for the air cadet camps in the summer, chiefly with public money. The gliders rust in their hangars, the instructors and ground engineers take other jobs, and the aerodromes are ploughed up. Let the sailplanes wait in their trailers for better times if they must, but why not go on with gliding? It was only just beginning to become established in Britain. It would be a pity to have to start all over again. Reading. JOAN BURCHARDT. THAT 200 PER CENT "E*URTHER letters on the subject of exhaust efflux propulsion J- having come to hand, the publication of Dr. Lanchester's final reply is deferred until he has had an opportunity of examining them.-—ED. National Aeronautic Association Presidency BRIG. GENERAL WALTER G. KILNER has now refusedthe presidency of the National Aeronautic Associationwhich was recently offered to him. The choice of a successor to Mr. C. F. Homer, who is said to be retiring, appears to be very open. General Kilner has been appointed to succeed Colonel Lindbergh on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Douglas Civil Orders IN spite of the wartime boom in military aircraft, orders forcommercial transports in the last six months of 1939 fromairlines in the United States and elsewhere have broken all records, the Douglas Aircraft Company has announced. Since the first of June, 1939, orders for 82 airliners valued at approximately $10,000,000 have been placed by operators with the company Most of these machines are 21-passenger DCjs. In the-first six months of last year 37 of this type were delivered. Approximately 500 airliners have been built or ordered. The Empire Training Scheme MR. J. V. Fairbairn, Australian Minister for Air, speakingin Melbourne a few days ago, said that the Empire Air Scheme involved the Dominion in the development of an air force twenty times greater than the existing force. At the end of this year, when several thousand would have been trained, the intake for the Scheme would be at the rate of 15,000 per year. Maximum rate of output would be reached at the beginning of 1942, and would continue throughout 1942-43. Ground staff needed to maintain the schools would be between 25,000 and 27,000, compared with 5,000 in the R.A.A.F. at present. Those Interlocking Directorates HPHE Civil Aeronautics Authority has given a decision which -«- may be quoted as a precedent on the matter of interlock- ing directorates. It has decided that Lawrence C. Ames shall not be allowed to serve as a director of Continental Airlines while in a similar capacity with the Lockheed Aircraft Corpora- tion. In giving its judgment, the C.A.A. said; "Not only is the payment of excessive prices for equipment a hazard potentially involved in the existence of such a relationship, but the freedom of the carrier in choosing the type of equipment best suited to its operation may be affected." On Making Sure ECONOMY is the watchword of the day, and it applies topaper no less than to other commodities. Newsagents have to make sure of selling all copies of journals and papers. You want to make sure of getting your copy of Flight every week. There are two ways in which that can be assured : Either place a definite order with your newsagent (it is not his fault, remember, that this has become necessary), or send your sub- scription direct to Flight's offices at Dorset House, Stamford Street, London, S.E.i.
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