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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0333.PDF
FEBRUARY 17TH, 1944 FLIGHT THE Keeping Fit in the Factory HEALTH WEEKS" are to be held in all factories of the Rootes group for the benefit of their 40,000 workpeople. Sir William Rootes himself has inaugurated the scheme which in cludes a medical "Brains Trust" of eminent doctors to answer employees' queries on health subjects. Three Instructional Films -^THHREE sound films, dealing respec- :*N, tively with the latest practices in mafcbiuing riveting and welding alu minium alloys, have been obtained from America by the Wrought Light Alloys Development Association for loan to in terested industrial and educational organisations in Great Britain. The films have been specially prepared for the guidance of technicians and operatives in the light alloy industry. Listen To-night T WO U.S. fighter pilots are giving talks in to-night's B.B.C. Home Service programme at 6.30 p.m. One fought in the S.W. Pacific and the other up in the Aleutians, but both are now engaged in escorting day-bombers over Germany. Maj. Jack Donaldson, D.S.O., Silver Star, D.F.C., calls his talk "From Bataan to Emden," and he will be fol lowed by Cap€. Delynn Anderson, who will tell about his experiences with a " Fighter Patrol in the Aleutian Islands.'' 1 The feature is given under the title ., (*»'•' American Flyers Against Jap and Nazi." Egyptian Ambition '"THE Egyptian Government intends to -*- make Egypt one of the greatest aviation centres in the world, according to Sir. Amin Osman Pasha, their Finance Minister, who said that a five years plan, which they intended to put into opera tion after the war, would guarantee work for all employees now working for the Allies. Sir Amin was presenting Egypt's re cord ^70,000,000 budget which would, he said, be balanced without recourse to reserves. The increased expenditure covered the building of new airfields, the improvement of existing ones, and "the encouragement of aviation in Egypt." The budget was approx'ed by Parlia ment. Ju 88 Gadgetry A DECIDEDLY unusual "gadget" •*3f found on the Ju 88 -captured in Cyprus and later flown to America is the device for getting rid of external bombs •ind wing-racks in emergency. The racks 'ire secured by hollow bolts filled with explosive, and the touch of a button DETAILS UNFOLDED : This picture*of a Grumman Avenger discloses the details of its wing-folding arrangements. Fleet Air Arm pilots are being trained on Avengers in America. blows them off—without exploding the bombs, presumably ! But why not a simple quick-release catch? De-icing equipment takes the form of heated air from the engines led through ducts along the leading edges of the wings. Comment is made on the functional adaptability of the design, but the " lack of meticulous machining in the engine housing and flight instruments" is a point of criticism. The "York" for S. Africa LAST week we quoted a statement from' the Rand Daily Mail to the effect that the British Government was presenting General Smuts with "a giant Avro," costing some ^100,000, as a token of its appreciation of his war effort. Since then another statement has been issued on the authority of General Smuts which says that an Avro York has been ordered by the Department of Defence, and will remain the property of the South African Government. "General" Smuts, of course, actually holds the rank of Field Marshal, but said, at the time of his promotion, that he would prefer to go on being called General Smuts. To What (Air) Base Uses LAUNCHED in 1939, the luxury liner Pretoria Castle is now an experi mental aircraft carrier with the Fleet Air Arm—a sort of floating Farnborough where new equipment ranging from Mae Wests to the latest aircraft types are tried out. When war was declared the Pretoria Castle, after only two voyages as a luxury liner, was converted into an armed merchant cruiser, but after a period of service in' this role was re called for her second conversion and became an aircraft carrier. Representatives of the British and American aircraft and ancillary in dustries watch their products undergoing tests under active service conditions On her deck, and she was also used in effect ing the standardisation of British and American signalling methods for deck landings and take-offs. The First of the Many FULL marks to the Leicester Wing of the A.T.C. for its excellent little booklet about the Air Training Corps in general and the Leicester squadrons in particular. This is attractively arranged and copiously illustrated with photo graphs, and should amply justify its newsprint allocation by its recruiting value. When Air Comdre. J. A. Chamier started the Air Defence Cadet Corps, one of his closest associates in the project was Sir Lindsay Everard, of Leicester, and thus it came about that Leicester had the distinction of raising No. 1 (Founder) Squadron, which eventually became No. I (F) Squadron of the A.T.C. and the 1st City of Leicester Squadron. To-day the Leicester Wing boasts nine squadrons, namely, three city, one schools squadron, four district, and one for deferred Service airmen. Popular Fallacy T HERE is a widespread notion among the general public in Great Britain that practically every American town and city of any significance has an air port, and that civil aviation is a common place social amenity. Actual figures recently given by the Montreal Gazette indicate how far this is from being the case, for of the 122 cities with a population between 25,000 and 50,000, only 52—less than half—enjoy a direct air service, while of the 413 cities in the 10,000 to 25,000 population cate gory, the figure is 58, or fewer than one- seventh . The war, of course, has multiplied the airfields, and by the end of 1943 there were 940 "suitable for U.S. transports," compared with 94 at the end of 1940. But the total in all categories is now 3,000 airfields, and according to C. L.
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