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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0077.PDF
JANUARY I6TH, 1947 FLIGHT BRITAIN'S TEST PILOTS at Cranwell, and during that time he trained three winners of the R. M. Groves Memorial Prize. This was for the best all-round pilot in the senior term. The late F/O. H. R. D. Waghorn, wiriner of the 1929 Schneider Trophy race, was one of these and R. L. R. Atcherley—now an Air Commo- dore and Commandant of Cranwell College (affectionately known in the Service as "Batchy") was another. Robert Milne, in his younger days, was a great athlete. For Cranwell he played rugger, hockey, cricket and was in the College boxing team. In 1923 he won the welter- weight championship of the R.A.F. and, in the same year, was runner-up in the Inter-services championship. Whilst at Cranwell he had been granted a permanent commission, and in 1925 he left Lincolnshire and was posted to the Karachi depot in India as a test pilot. Pass- ing-out repaired Brisfits and D.H.gas was his chief occu- pation, but after four months of this work he found himself back with No. 28 Squadron at Quetta. It was then an army co-operation squadron equipped with Brisfits. Altogether he remained on service in India for five years, including a further period of test flying, this time at Lahore, before returning to England in March, 1930. After six months' leave he was posted for admin, duties to Inland Area at Bentley Priory. Central Flying School gave him another A.i certificate and applied for him to be posted to the School as a Flight Commander, but this was not granted and Milne left the R.A.F. in 1931. For a year or so Robert had his only break in many years' flying, but by 1933 he was back as an instructor with National Flying Services at their Reading Club. When this was taken over by Philips and Powis, Ltd. (now, of course, Miles Aircraft, Ltd.) he was appointed chief pilot for both testing and instructing. His first prototype was the Cirrus Hawk which, believe it or not, was a Cirrus-engined two-seater monoplane advertised for sale at ^375. Ah! Happy Days. Other Miles prototypes which he flew were the Hawk Major. Falcon, Merlin, Nighthawk and Sparrowhawk, and he also did most of the development flying on all these birds of prey. Leaving Philips and Powis in 1936 he became an instruc- tor with Aircraft Distributors, Ltd., until 1938, and the following year, joined No. 46 E.F.T.S. at Portsmouth as Deputy Chief Flying Instructor. -,, When war came in 1939 he was recalled to the Colours and posted to A.S.T. A year later he was released for special dlity and joined Airspeeds as a test pilot. The major part of his work with the company—he is senior test pilot at Airspeeds' airfield at Portsmouth—has been production testing of the Airspeed Oxford. He has tested no fewer than 1,853 OI these and, in addition, di 1 some of the development flying of the A.S.39, A.S.45, Oxford Mk. V, Horsa glider and the radio-controlled Wasp target aircraft. Milne's experience is unique in that— with the two exceptions recounted in this story—he has never had a bad crash. Forced landings Robert has had in plenty, and"one case of crossed ailerons. An occasion which might have had dire results was when he was taxy- ing to the end of a runway to take off—he had the joy- stick come off in his hand. Many years of instructing have built up Milne's flying hourage. At the moment he has 9,700 to his credit on 103 types of aircraft. He is one of the few pilots Still flying who has gone from 3 lb/sq ft to 50 lb/sq ft wins; loading. J. Y. THOM 0 S MEMORIAL SERVICE ,/ AT the Memorial Service for Tom Roberts Thomas, held atthe King's Chapel of the Savoy on January 8th, Sir Frederick Handley Page delivered the address in trie unavoid-able absence of Lord Brabazon of Tara and Sir Maurice Denny. Sir Frederick paid a warm tribute to the great work accom-plished by Mr. Thomas as secretary of the Air Registration Board from the time of its foundation until his prematuredeath. The Savoy Chapel "was filled to capacity by members of thecouncil of the Board, representatives of the Air Ministry, Ministry, of Civil Aviation, Ministry of Supply, British Euro-pean and South American Airways Corporations, British Over- seas Airways Corporation, the Royal Aeronautical Society, theRoyal Aero Club, the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, the Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers, the British GlidingAssociation, the British Air Line Pilots' Association, the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators, the Aircraft and Armament Ex-perimental Establishment, and most of the aircraft firms inter- ested in civil aircraft. The service was conducted by the Rev. C. L. Cresswell,C.V.O. H TWIN STARS : Group Captain D. R. S. Bader, D.S.O.,D.F.C., the well-known legless pilot, about to fly a Gemini during a recent visit to the Miles aircraft factory at Reading.On the right is S/L Nelson, who has also lost a leg, of Miles Aircraft sa'es and flying staff. AE?IAL SURVEY TALKS ^ UNTfNG AEROSURVEYS have convened a conference inLondon, between February 10th and 21st, of representa- tives of the four Dominion companies associated to the Hunt-ing Aviation Group. Discussion will principally be upon the survey of forests and mining areas from the air, and the map-ping of uncharted areas of the Dominions and Colonies. Items on the programme will also include visits to the OrdnanceSurvey at Chessington, the Directorate of Colonial Surveys, Kingston, and to an exhibition of aircraft and aerial surveyequipment, followed by a flying display at Luton Airport on February 15th. The company are at present working on contracts in many parts of the world, making surveys for pur- poses of land classification, the combating of soil erosion,forestry control, the location of crop diseases, mapping, town planning, and the planning of industrial layouts. T-W.A. FREIGHT SERVICE 1/ A NEW freight service, leaving the United States everyFriday night and making delivery on Monday mornings in Eurqpe and the Mediterranean area, will be started by Trans-World Airlines on January 17th. The service will be operated by Skymaster freighters, which have been modified for thepurpose and are capable of carrying a pa;yload of 12,000 lb. Definite space reservations on the aircraft, to stopping placeson the route, will be possible, thereby ensuring that shipments will not be off-loaded short of their destination or transferredunnecessarily from one aircraft to another. The service will be run from Washington to Lydda, in Pales-tine, calling at New York, Gander, Shannon, Paris, Geneva, Rome, Athens and Cairo. Carriage of freight for points offthe T -W.A. route, including the United Kingdom, will be pro- vided for by connecting airlines. The west-bound schedule,which starts on January 21st, will leave Lydda on Tuesdays, arriving in Washington on Thursdays.
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