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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 0892.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.6. Editor C. M. POULSEN Assistant Editor MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. (VV/NG CDR. R.A.F.V.R.) Art Editor JOHN YOXALL FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W6RLD •• FOUNDED 1909 Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Flightpres, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (60 lines). 8-10, COVENTRY: BIRMINGHAM, 2: MANCHESTER, 3: GLASGOW, C.2 CORPORATION ST. ^C EDWARD HOUSE, 260, D E A N S G AT E . 26B> RENF|ELD ST._, . ,_ NEW STREET. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester _ ,.„ _, Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams s Autopress, Birmingham. Te/ep/ione. Bljckfriars 4412 (3 lines). Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Coventry 5210. Telephone: Midland 7191 (7 lines). Deansgate 3595 (2 lines). Telephone : Central -4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home: Twelve months, £3 Is. Od. Six monchs, £1 10s. 6d. Overseas: Twelve months, £3 Is. Od. BY AIR : To any country in Europe (except Poland). Twelve months, £5 Is. Od. Six months, £2 10s. 6d. To Canada and U.S.A. Six months, $16. No. 2108. Vcl LV May 19th, 1949 Thursdays, One Shilling Outlook Only Thirty Years AgoI T was a happy thought on the part of the United States Navy authorities to send over the Lockheed P2V Neptune, The Turtle (commonly called the Truculent Turtle), with Rear-Admiral Read on board, for, almost to the day, it is thirty years since he made the first flight across the Atlantic. That flight was a long way from being a non-stop one. The honour of the first direct hop across fell to two Englishmen, Alcock and Whitten-Brown, some little time afterwards, when they crossed from Newfoundland to Ireland in just over 16 hours. The American attempt was a long drawn-out affair, with plenty of delays and mishaps. Four machines were concerned in the attempt, but only that piloted by Lt.-Cdr. Read, as he then was, got as far as England. The other three machines had engine trouble and aban- doned at various stages. So had Read, but ultimately he reached Plymouth. Vast preparations had been made for the crossing, and the U.S. Navy had destroyers, battleships and cruisers, as well as a couple of tankers, strewn along the route. The machines were of the N.C. (Navy- Curtiss) type. N.C.I, 2 and 3 had three Liberty engines; N.C.4 (piloted by Lt.-Cdr. Read) had four. They left Rockaway, N.Y., on May 8th, 1919, and N.C.4 had engine trouble and landed at Chatham, Mass. Not until May 14th did it get to Halifax; Trepassy, Newfoundland, was reached on May 15th. The start on the Atlantic flight was made on May 16th, and N.C.4 reached Horta in the Azores, on May 17th, having taken 15 hours 19 minutes to cover the 1,380 miles. It made Lisbon on May 27th, left again on May 30th, landed with engine trouble, got away again and alighted at Ferrol, where the night was spent. Leaving Ferrol at 6.27 a.m. on May 31st, the machine circled Drakes Island and landed at Plymouth at 1.26 p.m. * 3 When looking back to this crossing of the Atlantic, and bearing in mind that the Turtle brought Rear- Admiral Read over the same route in 20 hours' flying time, it is difficult to realize that only 30 years have elapsed, and the P2V is a slow aircraft according to modern standards, designed for long-range patrol (it holds the world's long-distance record with 11,236 miles) and not for speed. Transport aircraft cross the Atlantic direct every day in not much more than half the time.- Great improvements have been made in aircraft design, but first and foremost have we to thank the reliability of modern-power plants and the large reserve of power for the regularity with which aircraft cross the Atlantic thirty years after that first hazardous adventure. 1052 and All ThatS UPERSTITION has it that Friday the 13th is an unlucky day, and there are doubtless those who believe that this had something to do with the fact that Mr. Wade's flight from London to Paris, on May 13th, took just a little longer than had been expected. The fact is, of course, that the weather was very far from being ideal for such a fast aircraft. The air was turbulent and visibility none too good, factors which can cause delays that are small in themselves but impor- tant on a flight in which seconds count. As it was, Mr. Wade took the Hawker 1052 across from London Air- port to Villacoublay at approximately 618 m.p.h., a figure which can doubtless be increased in better condi- tions, since the 1052 should be a good deal faster than the Gloster Meteor 4 on which Waterton flew from Le Bourget to Croydon at 618.4 m.p.h. in 1947. At any rate a first official record has been set up (whatever the exact speed homologated by the F.A.I.) which will no doubt start a whole series of attempts. In this connection it is worth while recalling that the very first non-stop flight between London and Paris air-
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