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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0745.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director Editor Assistant Editor - Art Editor - G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.8.E. C. M. POULSEN MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C (WING CDR., R.A.F.V.R.) JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (60 lines.) COVENTRY: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. ttfegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry S2I0. BIRMINGHAM, 2: KING EDWARD HOUSE, NEW STREET. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Midland 7191 (7 lines). -MANCHESTER, 3 : 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW, C.2: 26B, R£NFIE LD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4857 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Home and Abroad Year, £3 I 0. 6 months, £1 10 6. No. 2057 Vol. Llll May 27th, 1948 Thursdays, One Shilling Outlook A Missing Link ?N EXT Tuesday will see the beginning of a new experiment. On that day "live" mails will be carried for the first time by helicopters to dif- ferent towns in East Angiia. The tests made with dummy mails in the West Country were very success- ful, and there is every reason to hope that there will be considerable saving of time in the delivery of mails to such towns as King's Lynn, Wells, Cromer, Sheringham, Thetford, Diss, and JIarleston. Even the other towns, Norwich, Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Beccles, which have a better rail connection with London, should benefit. The scheme is being started in a district which is par- ticularly suitable because of the flat nature of the coun- try. In time it should be extended to other parts of the British Isles, as there are many cross-country runs on which even such a relatively slow aircraft as the helicopter can save a good deal of time by its (almost %'iterally) door-to-door abilities. If, however, we are to make the fullest possible use of aircraft in speeding-up our mails, it appears to us that something more than helicopters will be required. So far as the technical development is concerned, there is already in existence means for using ordinary fixed- wing aircraft for such purpose. We refer, of course, to the picking-up of mails without landing. Much work has been done in America, and some very good results ( have been achieved. For some reason, the system hasnot been given much attention in this country. Yet the technical problems can be said to have been solved. Not merely mailbags but men have been picked off the ground in this way, and even gliders can be snatched °ff without the tug having to land to do so. , It would appear that, in order to cover greater areasm a shorter time than can be covered by helicopters, % ultimate system might be one in which fixed-wing aircraft dropped mails by parachute at certain large centres and picked up mails-from the ground. As we see it, helicopters would then run "feeder-line" ser- vices to surrounding smaller towns and villages, dis- tributing the mails dropped from aircraft and collecting mails to be picked up by aircraft. Both systems have been tried in America, and the helicopter mail scheme has been tried in both countries. The combination of the two systems would appear tt> have considerable possibilities. A.R.B. IndependenceL ^ST year, at the luncheon given by the Air Registra- tion Board to mark publication of its tenth annual report, the Minister of Civil Aviation made a refer- ence to the future status of the Board which could be interpreted as a veiled threat of nationalization. At this year's luncheon, last Thursday, Lord Nathan re- affirmed that the A.R.B. is still what he described it last year: his "life line," but he stressed the fact that it is a pre-condition that the Board must be independent of the Ministry of Supply, the manufacturers, "and even of me." Lord Nathan went even further. He said: "It will be a bad day for British civil aviation should you (the Board) ever become—or be thought to have become—the rubber stamp of authority. The moment there arises any suspicion that you are merely rubber-stamping someone else's opinion, your usefulness will disappear." That is definite enough, and good news so far as it goes. But the ways and means by which that inde- pendence can be maintained while at the same time ensuring a better financial position have not yet been announced, nor even decided. Lord Nathan explained that one reason for the delaj? in coming to a decision was that he was still waiting for the report of the Hel- more Committee (appointed to survey the licensing of air- craft material), among whose recommendations might be a change in the status of the A.R.B. A summary of the eleventh annual report of the
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