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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0278.PDF
- 112 FLIGHT FEBRUARY 5TH, 1942 THE CRUISE of the BERWICK Bermuda to Plymouth Within One Minute of Schedule : Capt. Kelly Rogers' Report on Historic Flight AFTER the flight of 3,365 miles across the Atlantic, the /A British Airways' flying-boat Berwick, which bore the "* "* Prime Minister and his party on their journey home from the United States, touched-down at Plymouth within one minute of its estimated time of arrival. This is revealed in the report on the flight which the Com mander of the aircraft, Captain J. C. Kelly Rogers, has made to the British Overseas Airways Corporation. Late in the afternoon of Monday, January 12, I received an urgent summon? to the Air Attache's office at the British Embassy in Washington, says the report. There was such an air of suppressed excitement that I realised the flight was of the highest importance, and I was told that the passengers would include the Prime Minister and his associates. A special train was to leave Washington the evening before the flight with the passengers and baggage, and would arrive at.Norfolk, Virginia, at about 04.30 in the morning. The crew and I slept aboard the aircraft and rose about 4 a.m. We obtained little sleep as it was bitterly cold. The train arrived on schedule and was shunted into a siding at the airport, where the baggage was unloaded while the party slept on. Some of our staff had travelled on the train, and the baggage was swiftly transferred from train to dock and dock to aircraft. All baggage and freight was aboard the Berwick by 6 a.m., and the passengers started to arrive about 6.30 a.m. I had previously been ashore and obtained the flight forecast, together with final instructions. The plan indicated a flight to Bermuda of four hours, and the actual time on course proved to be three minutes less than that. There were no docking facilities at Norfolk, nor could a tail line be provided, so we had to rely on the engines starting immediately from cold. It was a very cold morning and nearly calm, so I slipped the buoy before attempting to start the engines. A launch was standing by in case of emergency, but its use was not necessary, as the engines started up in record time and in eight minutes we were airborne. The morning was a typical winter's one—cloudless with a light surface haze—and the take-off was normal in every re spect. All passengers were seated and properly distributed throughout the aircraft so as to give a reasonable centre of gravity position. Capt. Kelly Rogers then goes on to describe how, after Mr. Churchill had breakfasted in his private suite aft, he showed him over the Berwick and introduced him to the crew. Mr. Churchill Takes Over The Prime Minister's questions concerning the operation of the controls and general behaviour of the aircraft, the report continues, made it quite clear that he would like to handle her himself. I invited him to do so and he responded imme diately. I disengaged the automatic pilot and whispered an instruction in Captain Shakespeare's ear, who was on watch at the time in the co-pilot's seat, to apply only such corrections 10 the controls as would be necessary if the aircraft got beyond the Prime Ministers control. No major correction was neces sary. In fact, the Prime Minister asked if he could make a couple of slightly banked turns, which he did with considerable success; he was at the controls about 20 minutes altogether and afterwards commented upon the difference between this aircraft and the one he had flown as long ago as 1913. I would like to say here that at all times the crew responded wonderfully to the calls made upon them, which were many and exacting. They were conscious throughout of the great responsibility placed upon fhem and the honour involved in being invited to assume it. On the morning of departure I went over to the Meteoro logical Office in company with Captain Loraine and First Officer 13lick, the navigator. Before doing so I had checked with the engineers the amounts of fuel and oil required. <>ur departure was without incident; the aircraft became airborne in less than a minute. Conditions indicated a fast flight. A very careful analysis of the weather forecast was made, in order to produce a flight plan, and our ability to reach suitable alternative alighting areas was carefully worked out. If in the course of the flight the weather conditions were likely to be different from those anticipated, it is possible for the control stations to supply the aircraft with amendments to the forecast already in its possession. As it turned out, the forecast proved to be extremely accurate and no ainendments were necessary. The accuracy of the forecast was so striking that I caused a signal to be sent to Dr. Macky, at Bermuda, congratulating him on his success. I invited Sir Charles Portal on the control deck for the take-off and he was impressed by the performance of the air craft, particularly as the density altitude on the surface at the time of departure was 1,600 ft. We climbed rapidly to our cruising altitude and settled down there. It was possible to do the whole flight under standard cruis ing conditions because of the extra fuel carried and the favour able flight forecast. This was of great advantage because in addition to providing a 'higher air speed, it resulted in the aircraft adopting a more comfortable attitude in the air, and both results combined to make her more stable for flight through the four ccld fronts which the flight forecast showei had to be negotiated. Accurate Navigation As the flight progressed it was obvious that we were travel ling very fast, but it was only possible to take single sun position lines until the arrival of darkness. These position lines established at least that we were adhering closely to our track, but when, shortly after dark, a star fix was obtained we found ourselves to be 90 miles ahead of the flight plan. This gave a speed of 199 m.p.h'. from the start and 207 m.p.h. during the previous hour. The actual distance covered proved to be 2,924 nautical miles or 3,365 statute miles. Except when flying through the cold fronts, we mostly flew between two layers of cloud, which made the obtaining of astronomical fixes difficult, and the greatest credit, therefore, is due to the navigator, First Officer Buck, for the wonderful accuracy which he displayed. Icing conditions were experi enced at all times when in cloud or rain, but caused us no embarrassment. As soon as the outside air temperature indi cated the possibility of such conditions the carburettors were put on hot air and functioned like that for most of the re mainder of the flight. It is worth recording here that the engines ran beautifully throughout and never gave us a moment's worry. The ice which formed on the loading edges of the wings was easily disposed of from time to time by operating the de-icer boots. During the evening the Prime Minister and Lord Beaver- brook again visited the control deck. The aircraft was riding through a brilliantly star-lit sky, with the outline of the cloud tops just visible below, and both the Prime Minister and Lord Beaverbrook surprised me by saying that they envied me my job. • All passengers had gone to bed during the night, excepting ^ I.onl Beaverbrook, who sat up reading the whole time. Just after witnessing the dawn the Prime Minister went below and joined the other passengers in a light breakfast preparatory to returning to the control deck to witness our landfall on the English coast. He had taken all his meals with the other passengers on this flight. Fog Encountered No radio bearings had been asked for or received throughout the whole of the flight until fog was encountered, but in order to make absolutely certain whether we were north or south of our track we requested a bearing, which we received, confirming our view that we were slightly south, so we reset our course By this time the Prime Minister was seated in the co-pilot's seat. Lord Beaverbrook standing behind him. All that was visible was a rolling expanse of fog, and they could not, there fore, appreciate the fact that we were following a definite plan of action, which was apparent to us by the radio bearings, but remained hidden from them. The conditions actually encountered caused me no concern, whatever. Before we landed, the Prime Minister vacated the co-pilot's seat, which was then occupied by Captain Shakespeare, who was acting as Chief Officer. A mooring was ready for us, launches were standing by, a guard of honour mounted on the breakwater. •& We had been in the air for 17 hours 55 minutes. Our esti mated time of arrival, as worked out before leaving Bermuda, was fixed at 09.00 hours Greenwich mean time. We touched down at 08.59 hours. *
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