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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 1688.PDF
442 FLIGHT iBER 7TH, 1948 London— —Paris 46 mi 11 29 see (Top, right) £. A. Swiss (Bristol 171 pilot) hands over the message to " Bili " Waterton on the Gloster Meteor at Biggin Hill. (Bottom, right) the scene at Orly, near Paris, where the Meteor landed and the message was taken over by the Westland-Sikorsky, piloted by A, Bristow. (Left) the end of the journey. Bristow landing at the Place des Invalides in Paris. In the background is the Grand Palais, the scene of many aero shows. •~VDMBINING the fastest type of aircraft with the slowest,1 . a jet-propelled fighter trainer and two helicopters, pro- ^•^^ duced a "record" on September 30th, when a messagefrom the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Frederick Wells, was delivered in Paris to the representative of M. Pierre de Gaulle,President of the Municipality of Paris, in a lapsed time of 46 minutes 29 seconds, city centre to city centre. The demonstration had for its purpose to show how fulladvantage of very fast aircraft on the air routes could be achieved by speeding-up the airport-to-city part of the routeby the use of the helicopter. Three West-of-Englaud firms collaborated: The Bristol Aeroplane Co., Ltd., the Gloster Air-craft Co., Ltd.. and Westland Aircraft, Ltd., and the «vent was sponsored by The Aeroplane. A Bristol 171, piloted by Mr. E. A. Swiss, was used fortaking the message from the National Car Park behind St. Paul's to Biggin Hill, where the Gloster Meteor 7 two-seaterwas waiting. Piloted by Mr. W, A. Waterton it left'imme- diately for Orly, near Paris, where Mr. Alan Bristow was waiting with a Westland-Sikorsky S.51. He delivered themessage on the Place des Invalides to the Deputy President of the Pans Municipal Council, M. de Gaulle being away The demonstration was spoilt somewhat by the fact thatthe take-off from St. Paul's had to be postponed several times on account of poor visibility over France. The original inten-tion was that Mr. Swiss should have taken off at 8 30 a m but actually he did not get away until about 12.30 This was not, of course, the first flight between the centresof the two cities. In 1921 a number of flights were made with a Vickers Viking amphibian flying-boat piloted by Mr. StanleyCockerell. The first of thesfi was made on April 29th, and the experiment was continued for some time. On one occasionMr. Cockerell brought to London as a passenger in the Viking M. Laurent Eynac, who was French Air Minister at the time.The fastest trip during the series of tests took only a little over two hours, from the Seine in the centre of Paris to theThames at Westminster. And that was 27 years ago ! A modern amphibian could reduce this time considerably. STANDARD SCREW THREADS NOTHING but good can accrue from the decision to stan-dardize screw threads throughout Britain, the U.S.A. and Canada, the agreement to which is expected to be reached some time during this month. The unfortunate state of affairs whereby the Americans form their threads to one standard, whilst we in this country form ours to another, has been the cause of an immense amount of confusion and an enormous and fundamentally unnecessary amount of expense. Although the primary advantage to be derived from a thread form of common standard is applicable in the armament field, it has, of course, far wider and, in the scale* of human values, no less important advantages in the several fields of peaceful commerce. It is patent that, even when the agreement is signed, it will take some quite considerable time before its effects will begin to be felt. Nevertheless, although it is not expected that the basis of agreement will be so broad as to embrace all types of screw threads, even if a start is made only in.those fields which have a direct war basis, it will be a stepforward of immense strategic value and, we may hope, a pre- cursor of greater affinity to come. PASSING OF A PIONEER A S we go to press we learn with regret of the death of Sir•** Arthur Whitten-Brown who, with Captain J. Alcock, D.S.C., made aeronautical history in June, 1919, by completingthe first direct flight across the Atlantic in a modified Vickers Vimy biplane with two Rolls-Royce Eagle engines of 375 h.p.each. Paying tribute to Sir Arthur Whitten-Brown's pioneer long-distance flight, Major Sir Hew Kilner, M.C., deputy chafe?man of Vickers Armstrongs, Ltd., says: " It would be hard ttf' exaggerate the courage needed to undertake an Atlantic cross2>;ing as early as 1919. A measure of Alcock's and Brown's achieve- ment is that it wras not until eight years later than the seconddirect crossing by an aeroplane was accomplished." Lieutenant Whitten-Brown was Alcock's navigator onflight from Newfoundland to Ireland. E 24
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