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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1537.PDF
JULY 23RD, 1942 FLIGHT &i FERRY COMMAND BIRTHDAY A British Overseas Airways Liberator I unloads on the tarmac. 'Flight" photograph. The flights are always made at a great height, where there is little prospect of trouble due to icing. "George," the automatic pilot, is in charge for most of the sea cross ing, although some of the newest and fastest types to make 'the journey come over without one being fitted. Also, of course, if by .any chance an engine goes dead while flying over the middle of the Atlantic, it means disconnecting the automatic pilot and man-handling the flying controls for some seven hours or more until land is finally reached. Cold on the trip is intense, and it seems almost impos sible—short of the trouble taken over a peacetime air liner—to alleviate this discomfort. On arrival in this country, the machines are taken over by A.T.A., who deliver them to R.A.F. depots; trained air crews are seat to a reception depot en route for an operational training unit, and civil crews await the next machine returning to the other side. Recently a civilian crew of a Liberator under Capt. F. A. Dugan flew the Atlantic five times in nine days on the Montreal-Britain run. The same crew have put in more than 500 hours of trans-ocean flying in the past go days. This included trips over the Atlantic and eight journeys to and from Australia. Normally, Capt. Dugan and his crew are engaged in ferrying bombers across, but for the five Atlantic crossings they were supplementing the shuttle service. " Record " Runs Occasionally the lay Press get hold of a crossing time, and immediately refer to it as a record. Actually, the " flight " photographs. (Left) The " conversion " of a Liberator for the Atlantic passenger service. Austerity with a vengeance. (Above) Fifteen hours previously these goods were in Montreal.
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