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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 0673.PDF
APRIL 4TH, 1946 FLIGHT 345 BY AIR TO THE ISLES its stride. Normal loading of the aircraft permits five passengers to London, six to Southampton, or seven on the inter-island services. Many difficulties faced the company when it recom- menced operations. The occupation of the Channel Islands airfields and airport buildings throughout the war by the Germans did not improve them and, in fact, con- siderable effort has been put into rehabilitating both air- fields and buildings. In the case of Jersey and Guernsey the Germans had extended the airfield, and at Jersey they also installed a limited amount of airfield drainage in one ^corner of the airfield, although this airfield has an almost perfect grass surface, and the natural drainage leaves nothing to be desired. Drainage at Guernsey, however, appears to have deteriorated during the occupation and it is a big problem to keep the airfield serviceable, schedules having sometimes to be cancelled in bad weather when the airfield surface becomes unusable. The Alderney airfield fell into disuse throughout the war and much reconstruction has been necessary to make it operational. Radio and meteorological facilities at both Jersey and Guernsey are State-owned, and there are normal ground to air and point-to-point facilities. Jersey is responsible for Area Control up to a latitude of 50 deg north. Maintenance is undertaken at Jersey with a staff of 90 per cent Jerseymen and is under the control of the Chief Engineer, Arthur Rowe, another pre-war member of the company who has returned from the R.N.V.R. He also runs an apprentice scheme, taking boys at the age of 16 and training them to the standard necessary for them to obtain ground engineers' licences at the age of 21. All the Channel Islands' Airways pilots have been in the Services during the war, most of them with either the Naval Air Arm, or the R.A.F., and most of them have had long service with the company. The Flight Superin- tendant, W. B. Caldwell, was the first pilot to join the com- pany, and J. M. Keene-Miller, who is Staff Pilot, has been with the company since 1934. The company has ten crews and, at first sight, this may seem to be something of an over-insurance when only five aircraft are in daily operation, but there is little doubt that this is part of the plan for a bigger future with bigger aircraft. With the Bristol Wayfarers which are on order, Channel Islands Airways is no doubt planning even greater things. LONG-DISTANCE RACE OTANDARD airline passenger aircraft will be invited to com-v-5 pete for a 25,000-dollar prize in a London-Vancouver air race which is to form part of Vancouver's diamond jubilee cele-brations from July 1st to 4th. It was learned last week that a special committee had been authorised to go ahead withthe necessary arrangements, HALIFAX TRANSPORTS FOR B.O.A.C. SOME time ago it was stated that, among the various orderswhich have been placed for civil aircraft, was one for a number of Halifax C.VIII transports. Two of these aircrafthave recently been carrying out route tests on the West African service with good results, and these " interim " trans-ports will probably be put on the Cairo run. The C.VIII has been designed to carry ten passengers invery fair "interim" comfort, with a properly air-conditioned, lighted, and comfortably windowed cabin. On the Accra runthese aircraft consistently averaged 205 m.p.h. while cruising at approximately 50 per cent of take-off power, and the main-tenance man/hours worked at the good figure of 3.94 per flying hour. FIRST "COMMERCIAL" HELICOPTER "PROMISING delivery of the first production examples some-t\ time during this summer, the Bell Aircraft Corporation has recently been granted a C.A.A. Airworthiness Certificatefor its two-seater Model 47. This has a 175 h.p. air-cooled Franklin engine, and the all-up weight is 2,ioolb—a figurewhich includes a useful load of 6071b. Flight tests were conducted up to 10,oooft, and included" autorotation" landings with a dead engine. The 47 is credited with a maximum speed of 100 m.p.h., a cruising speedof 80 m.p.h. and a range of 250 miles. The Bell helicopter has, it will be remembered, a two-bladed rotor and gyroscopicstabilizer system. An initial production of 500 has been planned. f " He owes the pilot a fiver B.O.A.C. AND FOYNESB .O.A.C. is to cease its use of the Foynes (Shannon) flying-boat base indefinitely, the suspension becoming effective within the next few weeks. This has been announced to localemployees by the station manager. A skeleton staff will, however, be maintained for some time and the transport staffis to be retained. This base has been used, first by Imperial Airways and laterby B.O.A.C., since the North Atlantic route was first surveyed by LA. in 1937. At present B.O.A.C. is the only companyusing Foynes, operations of the American companies having been transferred to the Shannon Airport (Rineanna) lastautumn, when P.A.A. changed over to landplane operation. ... AND THE FIRST, LASTT HE length of time that it takes to travel between Hurn andLondon was the subject of a question in the House ol Commons recently by Air Comdre. Harvey, who said thatpassengers frequently took 4J hours for the journey by coach. We have constantly emphasised that the chief advantage ofair travel, namely speed, is completely lost when so much time is wasted on the ground between city and airport. We aretherefore pleased to note that Mr. Ivor Thomas's reply ad- mitted that this disadvantage of Hurn only emphasised all themore the need to operate as soon as possible from Heathrow. However, there will be similar criticism of London Airportunless adequate and fast travelling facilities are rapidly insti- tuted between that airfield and London. SAFEGUARDING AIRFIELD SITES AT last there are signs of the recognition by official circlesthat the overall planning of civil aviation in this country must affect the population as a whole. The Ministry of Townand Country Planning has issued a circular letter to all local planning authorities, requiring them to notify the Ministryof any applications made foi permission to carry out develop- ment "which is likely to involve obstructions to aircraft. Thepurpose of the letter is to ensure that, in the neighbourhood of an airfield, development does not take place which wouldimpede the future use of, or possible extension of, the airfield, or create dangers to flying, or expose the occupants of build-ings to avoidable risk and nuisance. Apparently, no notification will be required when buildingsunder 10ft in height are involved, nor will it be required foi small extensions or alterations to existing buildings, so longas the work proposed neither exceeds 25 per cent of the total area of the building, nor the height of the existing building.The letter also indicates that as a permanent measure it is only considered necessary to protect the sites and the flight-ways and other defined areas round airfields. The letter is the result of consultation between the AirCouncil, the Admiralty, and the Ministries of Civil Aviation. Aircraft Production, and Town and Country Planning. It isimpossible at this stage to assess the ultimate value or other- wise of this piece of officialese until more detailed plans aremade known. It does show, however, that someone is alive to the risks of uncontrolled development around our airportsand airfields.
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