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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 1207.PDF
P AIRCR/ CHT and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL MEKLY IN THE W*RLD .• FOUNDED 1909 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.E.I Telegrams : Truditur COVENTRY s 8-10, CORPORATION ST. Telegrams: Autocar,Coventry, Telephone: Coventry 52 10. Sedist, London. BIRMINGHAM, 2 : GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 297 1 (S lines). Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). MANCHESTER, 3 : GLASGOW, C.2 : 260, DEANSGATE. 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams: lliffe, Manchester. Telegrams: lllffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. Telephone: Central 4857. No. 1851. Vol. XLV. Registered at the C.P.O. ar a Newspaper. June 15th, 1944 Thursdays, One Shilling. C The Outlook A Notable Anniversary T HERE is a certain fitness about the coincidence, within ten days or so, of the Anglo-American invasion of "Hitler's Europe" and the twenty- fifth anniversary of the first direct non-stop flight across the Atlantic. The latter may be said to have marked, in the words of Mr. Winston Churchill, the "significance in drawing together all the great English-speaking com munities that dwell on both sides of the Atlantic." The former is proof positive that this drawing together, again quoting Mr. Churchill's very true and, as it has proved, very prophetic words, was indeed a "symbol of the attempt to unite, not merely in the sense of eliminating 'distance but the attempt to unite into one harmonious association all those .great communities of English- speaking free democracies which, combined together, working in true comprehension and perfect freedom, constitute an absolute guarantee for their own safety and the surest promise of the future advantage and security of the world." Those words were uttered by our present Prime Minister twenty-five years ago, when he was asked to present the Daily Mail cheque for £10,000 to Capt. John Alcock and Lieut. Arthur Whitten-Brown for their flight from Newfoundland to Ireland in a Vickers Vimy biplane. They should fill us with admiration and with shame; admiration for the crystal-clear mind which foresaw, even so long ago, the necessity for a close Anglo-American unison if peace and freedom were to be preserved; shame for that it took us as a nation more than twenty years to realise the worth of Winston Churchill and to give him that place in our public life to which his remarkable mind and personality entitled him. .We have paid dearly for our slothfulness, but tfiank goodness we remembered him just in time. On the beaches of France to-day, twenty-five years after the first Atlantic flight, Britons and Americans are fighting side by side for '' the future advantage and security of the world," and it is very largely due to the development of long-range flying that this co-operation has become so intimate. There is a chain of events and circumstances which links the landing of Britons and Americans on the French coast on June 4th-5th with that of Alcock and Brown on the Irish coast on June 15th, 1919. The chain which these two helped to forge has been strained, sometimes almost to breaking point, but it has held, and to-day it is stronger than ever. Only folly and selfishness can weaken it in the future. Conquering the Atlantic E LSEWHERE in this issue we give Sir John Alcock's own account of that remarkable flight. He was not spared to see the fruits of the pioneer work which he accomplished, but his partner on the flight, Sir Arthur Whitten-Brown, is happily still with us, and he has sent us some thoughts which this anniversary has raised in his mind. Of the flight itself we need say little here, except perhaps to point out that it was even more daring than anyone realised at the time. That this is so is proved by the fact that not for another eight years did anyone else succeed in making the crossing non-stop. Then it was made by a young American, Charles Lindbergh, who flew solo to Paris. For that feat we may forgive him for much that he has said and done since. But it seems rather sad that after forging such a strong link in the Anglo-American chain he should have done his utmost to weaken it again. It is a somewhat curious fact that in the attempt to make the flight in the opposite direction, honours for being first should be shared by two Germans and an Irishman. Several unsuccessful attempts were made, and it
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