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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1205.PDF
JUNE 2IST, 1945 FLIGHT 657 First Flight Cover A LETTER of greeting from QantasEmpire Airways, Ltd., has been re- ceived by Flight under the first flight cover of the recently inaugurated Lancastrian mail service from Australia to England. "This new fast mail service, bridging half the earth in less than 8o.hr.," says » the letter, '' marks yet another step for- ^ ward in Empire Communications and forms a strong link between overseas Dominions and the Mother Country." Post-war R.I.A.F. INDIA, after the conclusion of the warwith Japan, will maintain the Royal Indian Air Force with an initial strength of not fewer than ten squadrons, the Government of India announces. The force will include, in addition to flying and servicing personnel, the necessary training and ancillary units required for full effectiveness and to ensure adequate scope for the careers of permanent personnel. The Government announcement em- phasises that this is only the initial and minimum strength, and will be expanded. Credit to the Scientists f ENERAL SIR FREDERICK PILE, v-J Director-General at the Ministry of Works, and former G.O.C., A.A. De- fences, told Westminster Savings Com- mittee recently that ninety-nine and a half per cent, of the credit for the A.A. success against enemy aircraft was due to the scientists. They produced '' instruments of such accuracy that they rivalled the human eye—of such speed that the speed of light was equalled." So successful were the scientists it had been possible to withdraw Fighter y Command's squadrons from the defence •* of London later on and to hand over the job to the guns. The DM. Goblin "DEING the first engine to pass the •*-* official type test in the new gas- turbine category, the de Havilland jet- propulsion unit, known as the Goblin, is the proud possessor of Certificate No. i. It powers the de Havilland jet fighter, the Vampire, which is reported to exceed 500 m.p.h. by a handsome margin—and over a wide altitude range * throughout which it is believed to be the fastest aircraft in the world. Production of their gas-turbine engines was taken over by the de Havilland Engine Co., Ltd., which was " budded- "ff" from the parent firm in January,] 944, and it is intended that this sub- sidiary enterprise shall also take over production of the Gipsy range of piston engines at the end of September next. Over-drive Top "T SHOULD like to see this nation-*• geared to at least 50,000 aircraft a year. Furthermore, I believe that thisnation should plan a programme which will provide us with 50,000 military andnaval aircraft."—Thus President Roose- velt in May, 1940. To-day America is producing aircraftat the rate of 80,000 a year, and, more- over, they are better armed andarmoured, and of appreciably greater structure weight than the 1940 types. Farnborough's Fear /TVHE Government's proposal to trans- •*• fer certain activities from the RoyalAircraft Establishment at Farnborough to the projected new research station atBedford has alarmed the Farnborough Urban Council which fears it wouldseriously affect employment in their own .and adjoining districts Ln Hamp-shire. As a result, the Council has alreadymade representations to Capt. Oliver Lyttelton, M.P. for the Aldershot Divi-sion, and is convening a conference of local authorities with the idea of takingjoint action. Prejudice Without Pride IN an article in a recent issue of theAustralian journal, Wings, entitled "So You Want to Fly for Fun? " thewriter, Aired Heintz, goes out of his way to disparage the air-cooled, horizontallyopposed type of engine fitted to the light (mostly high-wing) aircraft so popularwith clubs and private pilots in the U.S. Referring to them as '' under-poweredcabin jobs," he alleges that "the over- worked, overgrown motor cycle enginesneed too much maintenance." In view of the splendid service givenduring the war by hundreds of such air- craft this strikes us as a totally unwar- AT THE DOUBLE : Paratroopersat a base of the U.S. First Troop Carrier Command practice jumpingfrom both sides of a Skymaster simultaneously. All jumping hashitherto been in a single stream from one side only. ranted attack. British-built Austers, foiexample, certain marks of which employ tins type of engine, have done yeomanservice under very arduous conditions and with the simplest of open-air main-tenance. And any air-cooled engine could bedubbed '' an overgrown motor cycle engine " if one is prepared to ignoreaccuracy for the sake of an easy sneer. "Demobbed" Airmen AIR COMDRE. E. L. HOWARDWILLIAMS, air correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, Independent parlia-mentary candidate for Cambridge Uni- versity, and chairman of the executivecommittee of the R.A.F. Association, ex- pressed concern about demobilisationplans when he spoke at Kensington recently. He said that while they accepted thecontention that the war with japan must be won, they were nevertheless anxiousthat when airmen and airwomen were de- mobilised after the Japanese war theyshould not find all the best jobs gone. Chronological Confusion OWING to an error in transcription,two dates were wrong in the article on the Gipsy Major engine in last week's issue. The years of the first Gipsy and the first completion of 600 hours without overhaul were given as 1937 anc^ I93^ respectively. They should, of course, have read 1927 and 1928 respectively, a fact which was fairly obvious from the context. Bombers Into BungalowsI N a list of Government factories recently allocated to various manu- facturing concerns for post-war civilian production, issued by the Board of Trade, are included the Bristol Aeroplane Co., Vickers Armstrongs, and the Black- burn Aircraft Co., all of whom are to
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