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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0710.PDF
37° FLIGHT ApRIL 6TH- 1O44 SI EBEL SI 204 The Siebel Si 204A transport and the 204D blind-flying, wireless and navi gation trainer differ only in the in ternal arrangement and the cabin roof ing. In place of the front luggage compartment of the A version the Si 204D has been given an extended glass house allowing good field of view for the training of combat pilots. Concurrently, ;the cockpit has been fitted with dual controls, and both the layout and number of instruments correspond to that customary in combat aircraft so as to avoid further transition periods after training. The cabin itself is equipped as a " flying class-room '' for wireless and navigation training and has seating accommodation for five pupils. The parent producers of the Siebel Si 204 are the Siebel Flugzeugwerke, of Halle. This company produced in 1937 the Fh 104 light five-seater cabin monoplane which served as a basis of development for the. Si 204. By the end of 1941, when the French aircraft industry was incorporated in the German war effort, the main share of production had been switched over to the S.C.N.A. du Centre and the production of the Argus engines was taken up by the Caudron-Renault group. When the Farmari aircraft plant at Billancourt, near Paris, was destroyed some time ago by Allied bombers, the sub stantial orders for Siebel Si 204 placed with S.N.C.A. du The Siebel Si 204 D powered with two Argus As 440 h.p. engines. Centre were allocated to their plants at Bourges and Fourchamboult, but their output was unsatisfactory. Some time last year it was reported that the production programme for the Siebel Si 204, planned to be completed by March, 1943, was so much behind schedule that the German authorities were forced to spread it to other French industrial units. In March, 1943, an order for 200 of this type was therefore placed with the S.N.C.A. du Sud-Ouest, builders of the Bloch 161 four-engined transport air craft. The destruction of the S.N.C.A. du Sud-Ouest aircraft plant at Chateauroux Deols carried out by R.A.F. heavies on the night of March 10-nth thus sealed up yet another source of the Luftwaffe's supplies. From photographic evi dence of the raid it is clearly evident that the Siebel has lost an important home. Mr. Burden is Optimistic Predicts 20,000,000 Post-war U.S. Air Passengers a Year and Fares Well Below Present Rail Charges S PEAKING of the need for more and larger airports in the U.S., Mr. William A* M. Burden, U.S. Assistant. Secretary of Commerce, recently told the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce that in his opinion aircraft will carry about 20,000,000 passengers a year in the U.S. and that practically all long-distance travel will be by air at fares considerably lower than present railroad fares. He said in part: — "It is extremely misleading to talk of aviation's future in terms of airplanes because of the vast differences between a huge trans-oceanic airliner and a thousand-dollar sport plane. But—for those who like to talk in terms of num bers—the Civil Aeronautics Administration soberly contem plates that within a decade after the close of hostilities the U.S. may well have a million military, commercial and private planes in active service. The number of military aircraft will, of course, depend upon our national policy and the state of world affairs. But it seems probable that under any conditions our Air Forces will have at least 50,000 combat and training planes in service. Before Pearl Harbour we had approximately 500 airline planes and 25,000 privately owned airplanes in service—a ratio of one transport plane to 50 private planes. " If the ratio were to remain about the same in 1950, with an estimated 450,000 civil aircraft in operation, we would have 9,000 commercial transports and 441,000 pri vate aircraft. Obviously the suggested total can be achieved only if the development of private flying is aggres sively and successively prosecuted. '' The manufacturing facilities necessary to produce this number of airplanes on a one-shift basis might not exceed 10 to 15 per cent, of our present war-inflated industry— currently producing more than 8,000 planes a month, a high proportion of them large multi-engined bombers and transports. Such a slash necessarily means the forcing out of many of the less efficient producers. But if this estimate of 10 to 15 per cent, is achieved, we will have salvaged a significant portion of to-day's aircraft plants and will have an industry five times the size of that before the war. The first entirely new transport models to make their appearance on the airlines will consist of perhaps four or five basic types varying in size with the kind of route for -Q which they are intended. In appearance they will not i5| differ from the transport airliners in use to-day, except that the tricycle lauding gear will be standard, and pres surised cabins will be common in longhaul service. "It is unlikely that really unorthodox designs will be seen in commercial service in the first post-war decade. The flying wing and jet propulsion have received much study, but the adaptation of these principles to commer cial use seems some way off. Moreover, the giant airplane of 300 to 500 passenger capacity, though technically pos sible, appears to offer little economic advantage and to involve reduction in schedule frequency which results from using such large units. "Once this first generation of post-war airplanes is in operation, the standard of airline service will be greatly improved. Safety should continue its sharply upward trend. Travel time will be greatly reduced. More impor tant, passenger fares can be cut perhaps as much as 30 per cent, below present Pullman fares'. These improvements in air transport services will mean that by the end of the post-war decade the average moderately well-to-do Ameri can will do almost all of his long-distance travelling and a substantial amount of his short-distance travelling by air. Excluding very short haul traffic as too difficult to forecast, we should transport by air in the U.S. some 20,000,000 passengers a year, or 70 per cent, of the pre-war Pullman traffic." U.S. GIVES AIRCRAFT TO BRAZIL ADMIKAL JONES INGRAM, commanding the 4th U.S. Fleet, handed to the Brazilian Air Minister five aircraft, the first of a squadron of 14 aircraft which the U.S. Govern ment is presenting to Brazil. ^
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