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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1151.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD •• FOUNDED WO9 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY : 8-10, CORPORATION ST. BIRMINGHAM, 2 : GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar,Coventry. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). Telephone i Waterloo 3333 (35 line*). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 : 260, DEANSGATE 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams: lliffe, Manchester. Telegrams: lliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. Telephone i Central 4857. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. No. 1850. Vol. XLV. June 8th, 1944 Thursdays, One Shilling. C IFe Outlook Seeing is Believing E DWARD BOWYER, in the third of his series of articles recording his impressions of a 26,000 miles tour by air through Africa, India, America and Canada, this week touches upon points which merit the very closest study by all who are connected with the design and manufacture of aircraft for long-distance overseas air routes. Many are the desirable and undesirable features "to which he calls attention, and one sentence deserves to be printed in large letters on wall ^ cards and hung up in all those of our aircraft factories acd offices which have any ambitions in the direction of commercial aircraft. It reads as follows : "In my view, few better services could be rendered the British aircraft industry by the Government than the utmost help in facilitating visits by British designers and engineers to the main operating centres abroad. It will obviously be difficult for key men to leave their factories while the war remains at its peak, but as soon as possible British technicians should be sent out in swarms. They will learn more in a few hours of discussion with the men on the spot than in months of study of reports and memoranda. The mind is not sufficiently receptive to the problems of great heat when the the*momoter outside the drawing office window stands at 60 to 70 deg. Fahrenheit." That paragraph, and particularly the italicised sentence, contains a fundamental truth which is far too rarely realised. If it were really brought home to firms in the industry, so that sufficient pressure could be brought to bear on the Molochs of Millbank, the benefit to British aviation would be incalculable. There is no reason for delaying. To argue that the necessary men could not be spared (although Mr. Bowyer accepts the argument, more out of politeness than anything else we imagine) is plausible but futile. There is not a firm in the country which could not somehow manage for a ynatter of three or four months without a man suitable to report on the operational and maintenance aspects. Unless we do something of the sort we shall risk pro ducing some very nice aircraft which nobody will buy. Pressure Cabins A LREADY before the outbreak of the present war we on Flight held the view that pressure cabins * would become essential, not merely for so-called stratosphere flying, but on long-distance routes at much lower heights. We based our opinions on the assump tion that once an air passenger had tried the comfort of such a cabin he would never be content to put up with the ear-splitting air pressure changes of the ordinary leaky contraption. In competition on the routes, that company which could advertise pressure cabins would scoop the traffic. We are extremely interested to learn that on his travels Mr. Bowyer found many practical experts who also hold that view. It is no manner of use arguing that the weight cannot be afforded. It will have to be afforded, even if certain other aids to comfort have to be sacri ficed. It is small consolation to a passenger that he can spread himself in a voluminous armchair if his head is in the tropics, his feet in the Arctic and his ear drums bursting. The future passenger will not be content with two-dimensional comfort on three-dimensional travel. Civil Flying in India W HILE complaints are heard on all sides that the Government in Great Britain will not make up its mind about future policy for civil flying, and that in consequence no plans for the future can be made, the Indian Government has, as mentioned by Mr. Bowyer last week, begun to plan ahead, and the Posts and Air Department has produced a scheme to give India 10,000 miles of civil air routes. Details of the plan are not yet known. It will be
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