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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0959.PDF
IUAY IITH, 1944 FLIGHT hi ERE AND THERE production is now at the rate of 400,000 barrels a <lav. This was revealed re cently by Mr. Harold L. Ickes, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, at a Press con ference. The programme for the construction of the special plant needed, 85 per cent, of which is completed, involves an ex penditure of $100,000,000 (about £25,000,000), and the remaining authorised units are expected to be in action by the end of the present year. V Old Soldiers Never Die VETERAN of the Boer War and the 1914 18 War, Aircraftman J. W. Jelfs, of Coalpit Heath, near Bristol, claims to be the oldest member of the K.A.F. He is.Oc.. When he first tried to enlist, in 1940, hs was told he was too old, but after badgering the authorities with unrelent ing persistence and even offering to pay «-*^!|for his own "medical," the R.A.F. finally decided that such determination ought not to be wasted, and accepted him. Any grandpa want to challenge his claim ? Looking Well Ahead IN a recorded address to the Silver Jubilee meeting of the Wireless Section of the Institute of Electrical En gineers in London, Dr. Smith-Rose, the radio scientist now in America, forecast a trans-Atlantic freight service by pilot- less aircraft, which, he said, would be remotely controlled from land bases and flown over specially selected routes. Radio-operated devices would prevent collisions. The war, he explained, had brought '^bout revolutionary advances in radio as an aid to aerial and marine navigation, and the results would clearly be applic able to direction-finding with the aid of transmissions from beacons. Pan-American Preparation PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS cannot be accused of letting the grass grow under its landing-gear, for it has recently published a post-war world time-table for July, 1948. Possibly the most interesting item is: " Leave New York 3 p.m., arrive London 8 a.m. next day. Return fare, £46." Allowing for the five hours' difference in time, this means a 12-hour trip at a return fare which is about two-thirds the cost of carry ing a passenger one way in a present-day four-engined air craft as estimated by a British expert not long ago. informal Presentation A DELIGHTFUL story from Kandy, Ceylon, illustrates how the grim realism of war cuts away un necessary formalities even when it comes to the presen tation of awards. Col. Philip Cochran, the U.S.A.A.F. commander of Air Commando Force, o was recently awarded TAXI 1 Frank N. Piasecki, president of the P-V Engineering Forum Inc., demon strating his new helicopter in public for the first tims at Philadelphia. With a speed of 95 m.p.h. and capable of landing in a 50ft. square, its post-war potentiali ties are obvious. Note 'he hooter just below the side window the D.S.O., received an invitation to lunch with Air Marshal Sir John Baldwin at his bungalow. After lunch they strolled out into the garden and Sir John, taking the decora tion from his pocket,, pinned it on his junior colleague with the casual remark, "By the way, Phil, this is yours—and you damn well deserve it! " Undercarriage Weight MR. ARTHUR GOUGE has pointed out to us that in the summary pub lished in our issue of February 10th of his lecture to the London Association of Engineers, the sentence which dealt with his comparison of flying boat and land- plane .undercarriages was open to mis understanding. His actual words were: "The weight of wing floats and hull of a flying boat of, say, TOO tons can be predicted with The glider pilot takes up cycling. reasonable accuracy and would be ap proximately 12-13 per cent, of the all-up weight. The main chassis, tail chassis plus body of a similar landplane will probably be 13-15 per cent, of the all-up weight." Dry Dock C*ASES of big flying boats being suc-' cessfully put down on chy land must l>e few and far between, though the feat has several times been accomplished on nice oozy mud, and on wet grass, with a low coefficient of friction. But we recently mentioned on this page the case of an Australian Sunder land pilot who safely landed his boat on an airfield because its hull was badly holed and now comes news, via The Martin Star, of a 24-ton Martin Mariner being accidentally landed at night on a stretch of sand, which would be a very different proposition from, say, wet grass. Photographs support the story. The only damage sustained by the Mariner, says the report, was two coats of paint scraped off the bottom of the hull and a damaged wing float. " Not even a rivet popped," announced the makers with just pride. For Consultation A DESIGN and technical •service is offered by Tech- nicair, Ltd., a newly formed firm of aeronautical consult ing engineers which, in addi tion to experimental work, is prepared to assist companies or individuals in surveying aircraft and submitting reports on repair problems, etc. The directors are Mr. H. Best-Devereux, who has had considerable design and development experience, and Mr. D. R Williams, formerly of the A.T A. Post-war private aircraft will be a speciality.
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