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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0175.PDF
JANUARY 24TH, 1946 FLIGHT CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not'necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. AIR ACCIDENTS R.A.F. Transport Command's Record THERE seems hardly any limit to the human ingenuity whichcan be exercised by a skilled craftsman in his own field, and it is always a pleasure to watch him at work. May your readers therefore see how your experts reconcile the statement made on p. 28 of Flight, January 10th, that R.A.F. Transport Command '' achieved the excellent record of only one passenger fatality for every forty million passenger-miles flown through- out 1945," with that made in Parliament by the Air Ministry Under-Secretary on November 14th last, that during the first ten months of 1945 the passenger-miles flown were about 700 million and the passenger deaths over 300 ? H. E. WIMPERIS. [Our correspondent's quotation from Flight, January 10th, omits the all-important preceding phrase, " ... so far as normal scheduled services are concerned ..." and also ignores the fact that the next paragraph quoted the very much higher fatality rate of the "trooping" figures, namely, one passenger killed for every 3,000,000 miles flown. Even so, these two phrases, the figures for which were supplied by a senior officer of the R.A.F., do not by any means coyer the whole of Trans- j>ort .Command's activities.—ED.] •ft", NATIONALISED AIRWAYS Private Enterprise " Outlawed" answer Mr. Haynes' letter (Flight, Jan. 10th) I must refer him back to his original letter. Again, I must remind him that the attitude of Mr. Fever- lieerd and myself is defensive, and not at all destructive. 1 must also remind him that the Government took the initiative in this respect by outlawing private enterprise and taking over the fruit of its labours. His insistence that " we are the State " is in danger of becoming archaic, now that the State can act as it pleases, not only against the will of the majority con- cerned, but also to the detriment of the country. Maybe he does not specifically defend nationalisation. Maybe he does only "profoundly hope." So does Mr. Fever heerd, and so do I. But, in his first letter, he showed a dan- gerous disregard of the fundamental principles of economics! and a tendency to gloss over the serious shortcomings of the Government's scheme. While answering my previous letter of December 13th, 1 notice that he admits outright defeat at my first question, avoids the second with remarkable tact (doubtless not wishing to give the "Ordinary Civil Servant" a backhanded compli- ment such as appeared in his first letter!) and covers the remaining four with rather irrelevant generalisations. Incidentally, will he explain why he told us in his first letter that Nationalised Air Traffic would provide extra work for goods train services? I am sorry to see that he still regards nationalisation as inevitable^ but if it is so, of course I agree that the Govern- ment, if it can muster sufficient foresight, would benefit by its own kindness in allowing the experienced operators to run its airlines. Thus an organisation, built with the money of private enterprise, and run by brains developed in the exercise of private enterprise, would redound to the credit of the Government as an example of the superior capabilities of the State. Grand ! B. E. J. GARMESON. JET HISTORY Credit Where It is Due "T^ECHNICAL history of first importance is being made in the -»- jet propulsion field at the present time, and it therefore seems to be owed to posterity that a sense of proportion be retained by those who are supplying the valuable "gen." De- spite the paper shortage, Flight has admittedly fulfilled its responsibility in passing on the information, but, looking back over the last dozen or so issues, the impression is created that the ardour of the commercial interests tends to submerge the continuing contribution of the vital pioneers. Proudly and rightly, one organisation claims this, and another that, but too often the primary instigators are overlooked. But for one man's incredible persistence and the faith of his backers, it is probable that both Britain and the U.S.A. would have now been driven to the resort of feverishly imitating the Germans in an effort to catch up. Instead, we are, in the main, well and truly in the forefront. Everything that has followed arose from those early efforts and the initial team, now strengthened, can probably still claim to be inspiring the laudable commercial developers. The present writer is not one of the '' back-room boys '' and can therefore claim to be a true spectator. " T. H. B." [If our correspondent will read our articles again he will find that in almost every one mention is made of the pioneer work done by Air Commodore Whittle and Power Jets. In our summary of Dr. Roxbee Cox's Wright Brothers lecture the history and present set-up of jet and turbine research and development were outlined, the place of Power Jets in the general scheme being clearly explained.—ED.] IN PURSUIT OF SAFETY Retractable Rotor for Airliners I SEND this drawing to illustrate an idea of mine based on afaith, which for years I have had, in the ultimate safety of aircraft* I firmly believe that ahead lies a future which, if itis used properly, will make flying one of our safest and most reliable transport systems. I have just come out of the Army after six years' service,and during that time I was fortunate enough to get a number of flights in R.A.F. machines, but my view is that unless thesafety factor can be raised to a higher level, passenger transport by air will never reach the desired popularity. If commonsense is used, however, flying can b& a useful and profitable venture which will be the means of stopping war for ever byenabling the' ordinary peoples of the world to draw closet- together and understand each other better. POSITION OF ROTOR HEADAND VANES WHEN RETRACTED 1 am convinced that rotating wings provide the answer tothe problem of increasing the safety of commercial passenger- carrying aircraft, and I firmly believe that the person whowould be most grateful for the solution is the airliner pilot. The appalling accidents which have happened show, as you re-cently remarked in a Flight editorial, that man has not yet completely conquered the air. No, man has been too busy withhigher speeds and bigger loads to pay much attention to the safety factor. Whether we like it or not, the fact must be faced that thereis definitely a limit to load-carrying by air. In a norrpal forced- landing every aircraft has to glide forward at a fast speed soas to land safely, but picture the forced-landing at night with, perhaps, fog shutting ofi the ground, and it is easy to imaginethe terrific strain placed on the pilot. Check that forward speed with, the pilot still in full control, and the chances of asafe landing are at least doubled, and a large dividend will be had in the form of the full confidence of passengers and mount-ing passenger lists. Trouble in the air does not wait until the aircraft is near nnice flat landing spot; nine times out of ten it happens at places where no chance is given to the pilot of a conventional aircraftto make a safe landing—with the results which we know too well! I say again that the means of making airliners safe tothe highest degree lies in rotating wings. My sketch merely outlines the broad idea of a retractablerotor for safe vertical descent in an emergency, and it could be operated electrically, or in the event of that failing, by freeaxis rotation automatically started by the first downward move- ment of the aircraft. S. II. GOOTJRIGHT.
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