FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1955.PDF
366 FLIGHT OCTOBER 4TH, 1945 VICKERS VIKING of the aircraft at below its full capacity, and if we assume the average payload factor to be somewhere in the region of 65 per cent., then the cost basis must be increased by 35 per cent. Again, we must allow the operator some margin of profit, and purely for the sake of fixing on some figure we might take the profit margin to be 10 per cent. Thus, to the basic standard we have to make an increase of 45 per "cent., which, in actual fact, might prove to be 30, 50 or 60 per cent.; however, we will take the figure of 45 and re-cast the cost accordingly. The result is 11.13d. per ton mile, and i.i2d. per passenger mile. Such a suggested operating cost level appears to be remark-ably low, but unless some of the items are very inaccurately assessed, the results we have seen should serve as a roughguide. It is, of course, up to Vickers to ensure that the quality and performance of the Viking is as high as pos-sible, and I firmly believe that they have achieved some- thing quite out of the usual rut. Again, the operator mustbe prepared to forgo a leaning towards voraciousness if the sum the passenger or despatcher is called upon to pay isto be brought really low. Frequency of service is another powerful factor influencing operating costs. To sum up, I must emphasise that the Viking is probablythe most useful commercial aircraft in its class that we shall see for some years and one that may well take thevanguard position in the future march of British aviation. After the "Cease Fire" Disbanding the Luftwaffe : Feeding the Vanquished By MAJOR F. A. de V. ROBERTSON, V.D. SOME* people may have imagined that once the '' ceasefire" had been sounded over Europe, the Royal AirForce would have nothing to do except evacuate prisoners of war and invalids and for the rest put in train-ing as every unit has to do in peacetime. Such a view, if held, was certainly wrong. Ever since the fighting endedthe R.A.F. has been exceedingly busy. Our prisoners of war in Europe were all brought back to England some timeago. The evacuation of sick must be a duty which never entirely ends, though now there are no more men beingwounded. The British Air Force of Occupation has so many otherjobs to do, that it must have been quite a relief when the prisoners of war and wounded had all been dealt with.First and foremost among these jobs, the R.A.F. has been put in charge of all the personnel and materiel of the Luft-waffe in the British zone of occupation. The men of the G.A.F. (German Air Force, as official notices now preferto style the Luftwaffe) cannot all be simply disbanded and turned loose upon the countryside. A good many havebeen discharged, and the figure amounted to 130,000 by the end of August. It is of primary importance that Ger-man agricultural Workers should get back to the farms as quickly as possible, Germany has to feed herself 30 faras possible, for widespread famine might (and still may) cause epidemics, which would have serious results for theoccupying troops as well as for the German people. The gathering in of the harvest was therefore a matter of thegreatest urgency. Hitler's aggression has brought such manifold disasterson all Europe that even humanitarians may well feel some satisfaction that Germans are now having to swallowsome of their own medicine. But even criminals may excite some pity when their punishment reduces them toan excess of misery; and all Germans are not criminals. Mr. Geoffrey Smith, the Managing Editor of Flight, hasrecently made a tour of Germany, and his account has told stories of families wandering miserably along the roads insearch of food and habitations, stories which must be admitted to be pitiable. From every point of view, thevictor nations must do what they can to restore Germany to a reasonable condition of prosperity—though, of course,the peoples of Greece, Norway, Holland, a ad the other countries which the modern Huns overran and ruineddeserve first consideration. Goring once said, in the days of German mastery, " If anybody goes hungry, it will not bethe Germans." Now the position is just the opposite of that; but still we must try to feed the Germans reasonably. So the G.A.F. men who were recruited in the Britishzone of occupation are being discharged to their home addresses, where they register as- civilians. Those whowere enlisted in the Russian zone are temporarily' released on a sort of "ticket of leave" which requires them to report back to the British authorities when summoned. Many G.A.F. men are still required to work for the R.A.F. For one thing many airfields need to be put in order again, and German gangs work on them under their own officers. The R.A.F. naturally occupy the huts while the Germans live in tents. The tents are more commodious than the bell pattern, which has housed so many British soldiers on manoeuvres and active service, and which sometimes accommodated as many as 13 men per tent. The Germans are not nearly so tightly packed. The men seem apathetic but obey orders without demur. One of the parties of which I heard was commanded by a Colonel who was shrewdly suspected of having been mixed up in the bomb attempt on Hitler's life. The British naturally bear him no excessive ill will on that account. Bomb Disposal Another big job which the B.A.F.O. (British Air Force of Occupation) has to tackle is disposing of German air- craft and ammunition. The Germans are masters in the art of dispersal, and much hunting has to be done. No fewer than 600,000 tons of bombs have been found in the British zone of occupation, and of these 40,000 tons^ were gas bombs. We cannot use .their bombs in our machines because the loading and fusing methods are different, so we have to destroy them. Sometimes they are blown up in dumps ; sometimes they are thrown into the sea. It is a delicate and dangerous proceeding to with- draw the charges, and it is better not to attempt it, though the metal casings would be welcome to us as scrap. Phos- phorous bombs are particularly hard to destroy. AH the gas bombs go into the sea. For H.E. bombs we often drive shafts into a convenient hill, fill them up with bombs, and touch them off from a safe distance. In the largest operation of that sort 800 tons were stacked inside one hill. Another and very different job which the B.A.F.O. lias to undertake is the charge of Luftwaffe hospitals. German Army hospitals are the business of the R.A.M.C., and it works very harmoniously with the R.A.F. Medical Branch. Of course, the Allied Control Commission is over all, and would settle any matters in which arbitration was neces- sary. The R.A.F. has handed over 13 Luftwaffe hospitals1 to the R.A.M.C Many have been retained for its oven use, for it is recognised now that a medical officer is not just a doctor. The M.O.s of the R.A.F. have to make a special study of the effect' of flying especially at great heights, on different constitutions, and knowledge on that subject is not normally necessary for an officer of the R.A.M.C. In days to come, when it may be fashionable for the rich of the United Kingdom to spend their week- ends in New Zealand, perhaps all general practitioners will need some expert knowledge of the effects of flying on aged dowagers.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
