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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 0856.PDF
474 FLIGHT MAY 3RD, 1945 Flying Boat ill 001* in New Saro Scheme Automatic in Action : Berthing Time Reduced to Five Minutes SINGLE-HANDED picking-up ofseaplane moorings is a trickybusiness. It can be done. We have seen it done—by Mr. John Lan- kester Parker in a Short Mussel float- plane on the Medway. He taxied up to the buoy, throttled back, jumped out on the port float and walked to the bows, and picked up the rubber buoy designed by the late Mr. Eustace Short. But the performance is not one that could by any stretch of the imagination be termed a " commer- " cial " operation. In the large flying boat it has hitherto been a question of a man in the bows with a boat hook picking up the buoy, and a motor launch taking passen- gers ashore. That is a some- what lengthy business, and an inconvenience to which future passengers should not be sub- jected. It has only been neces- Mr. Arthur Gouge withthe model of his moor- ing and berthing scheme.The breakwater from which the stern mooringis handled is outside the lower edge of the picture. How a large six-engined flyingboat might appear in its berth at a terminal. The " waisting " ofthe hull appears to indicate a pressure cabin. sary hitherto because no_proper terminal facilities have been provided for flying boats. The fact that in spite of such handicaps the flying boat has been able to do good work year after year appears to have been the cause of the neglect which has been its lot so far as docking arrangements are concerned. Yet steamers of every sort are provided with harbours, except for out-of-the-way places where cargo has to be unloaded into boats which take it to the shore. Can anyone seriously argue that if all steamers had had to do this, shipping would have been the tremendous industry it is? Surely then it is logical to argue that the time has come when flying boats should be provided with terminals at the ends of their routes, even if they can continue to make do with the present make- shift arrangements at intermediate and less important points. Roofed Docking What the flying-boat harbour will look like ultimately no one can foretell accurately, but obviously it will, at^ least at terminals, have to have a proper terminal building under the roof of which passengers and freight can be loaded and unloaded. That at once raises the problem of handling the flying boat after it has touched-down. Saundefs-Roe, Ltd., haye evolved a very neat scheme which makes the mooring and berthing operation almost entirely automatic. The Saro scheme, for which Mr. A. Gouge is largely responsible, is based on the assumption that opposite the hangar into which the flying boat is to be hauled there is a breakwater, paral- lel with the front of the hangar and facing it. On this breakwater is a line of rails on which runs a trolley. Between the breakwater and the inner wall of the hangar runs an endless cable, the upper run of which is kept floating on or near the surface by small buoys. Spaced some ten feet apart are also a number of stops. Under the bows of the flying boat is a special hook. After alighting, the pilot taxies the flying boat into position to cross the cable approximately at right angles. As soon as the hook touches the cable
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