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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0233.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Ititarial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor - -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. Art Ed/tor - (W7NG CDR., RAF.V.R.) - JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED WO9 Editorial, Advertisihg and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. COVENTRY: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 52 10. BIRMINGHAM, 2: GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2974 (5 lines). Telephone: Waterloo 3333 (35 .inej). MANCHESTER, 3 : 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams : tliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars -4412. GLASGOW, C.I 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow Telephone : Central 48 5 7 SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year, £3 I 0. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. 6 months, £1 10 6. No. 1937. Vol. XIIX. February 7th, 1946. 'HFe Outlook Thursdays, One Shilling Shooting a Star Across AmericaB RITISH aviation circles will applaud in all sincerity the splendid feat by our American friends in send- ing a Shooting Star jet-propelled aircraft across the United States from coast to coast in the incredibly short time of 4 hours 13 minutes. In some ways the flight appears to have been even more remarkable than Group Captain Wilson's world's speed record of 606 m.p.h. on the Gloster Meteor. That flight was made over a short course, and it was only necessary to carry fuel for less than one hour's duration all told. Making every allowance for the fact that the American machine must obviously have had a very powerful ally- in the form of a tail wind, which made it possible to cover the coast-to-coast distance, there is no gainsaying the really significant feature that the Shooting Star re- mained in the air for nearly four and a quarter hours at what must have been very nearly full throttle. Whether or not the jet unit in the P-80 was a very special one has not been disclosed, but it appears that the other two machines which started landed en route to refuel, so it rather looks as if the one piloted by Col. Councill either had a power plant with lower specific fuel con- sumption, or else that he was more lucky than the others in choosing the right compromise between throttle open- ing and ground speed. Pictures of the Shooting Star show large long-range tanks on the wing tips, and doubtless the wings them- selves carried as much tank space as could be crammed into them, but, even so, the feat of obtaining more than four hours' duration is no mean one. Congratulations to all concerned. We in this country know enough about the difficulties to appreciate the merits of the flight. The announcement that America is going after Wil- son's record will be generally welcomed in this country. On both sides of the Atlantic we are faced with the problem of "getting through the compressibility wall," as Air Commodore Banks put it. Striving with- might and main to beat one another in pure speed will do much towards "improving the breed," just as did the series of Schneider Trophy Contests in years gone by. And here we might recall the interesting fact that it was America who, by putting some very fine aircraft up against us, compelled us to make a real effort, which ultimately resulted in our winning the Schneider Trophy outright. We cannot win the world's speed record out- right, but we can try to raise it so much that it becomes extremely difficult to beat. So, of course, can America. It should be interesting to watch the "scrap." Essential PrioritiesW HILE the Ministry of Civil Aviation is obviously treating airline development, under its new nationalised guise, as being of the utmost: im- portance, and while valuable management personalities have agreed to come in and do their best to make a suc- cess of the new set-up, air transport must continue to be at a disadvantage unless the highest all-round priorities can be obtained for all the work involved. At the moment, and particularly where the new European Division of B.O.A.C. is concerned, the out- standing shortages are those of accommodation and flying personnel. Even if, by a miracle, we could sud- denly find ourselves in possession of a fleet of several hundred new civil* aircraft it would still not be possible to make good use of them. There would be insufficient storage space for them, tow*few trained crews to fly them, and insufficient accommodation for the mainten- ance personnel. Obviously, if British air transport is considered by the Government and the electors to be of vital importance, then, one way or another and by influence at the highest levels, absolute priority must* be obtained for all work in connection with its development* At the new London terminal the European Division is working in the worst possible conditions, with neither proper accommodation nor adequate servicing facilities, while the need for full
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