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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0639.PDF
APRIL 24TH, I947 FLIGHT 375 CIVIL AVIATION NEWS in India, nt Calcutta and Karachi, andfrom there they will fly via Basra, Lydda and .Malta to the U.K. Dr. Humby is travelling as secondpilot to Capt. Thiele, D.S.O., D.F.C., and the company's senior navigator andthe chief ground engineer are travelling with an additional flight engineer and awireless operator. Some spares art- being carried. L.A.M.S. have already made severallong-distance charter flights this year. n March four flights were made ic'Bci-rade, with full loads. From then- the Haltons flew empty to Tunis, where loadsof vegetables were picked up and brought to London. On one occasion in JanuaryCapt. K. Thiele took off from Heathrow at 2 o'clock in the morning and landedat Vienna at 7.30 a.m. Part of the load was taken off and the aircraft flew on toBelgrade, where the remaining load was left, and the aircraft landed at Hen th-row by 8 o'clock the same evening. During March two charter flights weremade -to the Far East, one to Rangoon and the other to Bombay. The load onboth occasions was 6,790 kilos. SWEDISH TWIN : The\S.A.A.B.)company s Scandia, a 32-seater, flew for the firsttime last November. CruTsuog-apeed at 10,000ft is said to b* 220 m.p.h. and the range, with full load, 1,120 miles. A successful tour of some of the European cities has just been completed. • COLONIAL CONFERENCET HIRTY-EIGHT representatives from the Colpnies met atChurch House, Westminster, on April 14th, to discuss problems connected with the development of civil aviation inthe various colonial territories. Representatives' of various departments concerned in this country were also present. TheSecretary of State for the Colonies opened the conference, and he was accompanied by the Minister of Civil Aviation.Lord Nathan, in an introductory speech, emphasized that' it was for the conference to discuss the best way in which thetrunk routes could serve the British communities and to devise a pattern having regard to the layout of British territory acrossthe world. Officers of the British Corporations at the conference included Major McCrindle and Mr. Maxwell from B.O.A.C.,Mr. Brancker and Lord Amherst from B.E.A., and A.V-M. Bennett and Mr. Hough from B.S.A.A. B.O.A.C. SERVICE TO CANADAT HE first B.O.A.C. commercial passenger service betweenthe U.K. and Canada started on April 15th. The return ferry service, which has been in operation since the winter of1941, is to continue with Liberators for the carriage of mail and freight and Corporation staff. The new service will be flownonce weekly in each direction, through Prestwick and Gander, with Constellations. Departures from London will be in theevening on Tuesdays, arriving at Montreal on Wednesday after- noon. The total time for the journey will be 19^ hr. De-parture from Montreal will be on Monday evenings, arriving at London on Tuesday afternoon, making a total journey timeof 16 hr 45 min. Accommodation will be available for between ^•rrsty-eight and thirty passengers, depending upon the amount/of cargo and mail carried, and fares from London to Montreal will be £77 10s single and ^139 us return. Passages can, ofcourse, be booked to and from Prestwick. ANNUAL LANDING FEES LORD NATHAN took the opportunity at the AerodromeOwners' Association dinner on April 14th, at the Dor- chester, to announce the introduction of an annual landing feesystem for private and club aircraft. A landing card, which would be obtainable at a rate for light aircraft of £5 per year,is to be, in effect, a season ticket admitting holders to land at those State-operated civil airfields which are open to privateand club flying, free of further landing charges. Lord Nathan understood that the Aerodrome Owners' Association hadapproved a similar scheme for aircraft controlled by its members, and their season tickets would be known as bluecards as compared with the Air Ministry's red cards ; Thescheme has since been announced in Notice to Airmen b,o. 85. Before Lord Nathan spoke, Mr. Whitney Straight, the retir-ing chairman of the Association, paid a tribute to the interest that the Ministry of Civil Aviation was taking in all branches of flying. Although many pre-war owners had IRJU lust their airfields to the Ministry, he was sure thai then interest would be maintained, especially in the case <>t municipalities. 1 It- hoped that the military autlioi hies would again make use uf private airfields for training in the R.A.F.V.K.. and that charter flying would be given ample scope by the private owners. Private flying and model aircraft dubs urn . he said. two of the most important activities which went in make lu- nation air-minded and which was so essential to air power. He was pleased that the Aerodrome Owners' Association had a seat on the N.C.A.C.C. Lord Nathan said that there were (>,x civil airfields open for use in the British Isles. Of these 35 were under State control and the remainder were under either private or municipal control. In addition some 40 Service airfields were open to civil aircraft in varying degrees. He hoped that more airfieldswould become available as time went on, but the requirements of agriculture and the shortage of labour and building materialswere the limiting factors. A very important function remained to the municipality and private owners, however, for it wasupon them that a strong, healthy and independent flying busi- ness could be founded for the non-scheduled operator and theflying club. Private flying, he said, would demand small, well-organized,well-equipped air parks, and although he was not in a position to anticipate the report of Mr. Whitney Straight's Light Air-craft Committee, he felt that the need would not be for vast grass airfields but for air parks. These, he thought, mighttake the form of L-shaped grass runways with the clubhouse in the angle of the L, and the grass strips between 600 and750 yards long. He hoped that by October this year, the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of the Itford meeting of 1922, itmight be possible to launch some new plan for the rebirth of British light aircraft flying. The Minister concluded by sayingthat British civil aviation was more than just commercial air transport or just a manufacturing or operating industry. Theair was now our national opportunity. The new chairman, Alderman O. C. Purnell, proposed thetoast of the guests, which included names too numerous to mention. Sir Frederick Handley Page responded. He wasrelieved, he said, to find that the Minister of Civil Aviation realized that his responsibility was not confined to the statutoryCorporations, but to the entire field of civil aviation in this country. We must get away from the type of flying whichcould be compared with the motor racing track and develop flying which could be compared with country road motoring.He agreed with the idea of having aircraft which would require shorter runways. It was easier-to design and put on the.market a small aircraft than it was to design a small engine at a price at wHich it could be expected to be ordered. It mustbe appreciated, he said, that we must have cheap engines, and he made reference to the 43,000 private owners of aircraft inAmerica. He did not consider that criticism mattered to
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