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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1382.PDF
146 FLIGHT AUGUST 4TH, 1949 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers. not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. VIEW FOR ALL PASSENGERS Drawbacks of Three Abreast Arrangement IN the July 14th issue of Flight there is a drawing showing twosuggested arrangements of seating for the Vickers Viscount 700. I see that in one of these there are three seats abreast on one side of the centre gangway and two on the other. It is to be hoped that it is not found necessary to adopt this arrangement, as I cannot imagine anything more disappointing to a passenger who enjoys an air journey, than to find himself (or herself) in the inner of the three seats, from which there could be nothing to see but the interior of the cabin. It is difficult enough in any low-wing monoplane to find a seat with a view, but this would make it worse. I know that it is desirable to carry as many passengers as possible in order to give a good payload, but, if this seating layout is to be adopted it would be an advantage if particular seats could be reserved at the time of booking but, perhaps, there would be difficulties from the point of view of trim when the load was light. D. B. PARKINSON. Esher. DONKEY TO DAKOTA Confusion in State of Greek Airlines Denied AS one who is associated with one of the two major Greekairline companies, Hellenic Airlines, I was very pleased to see Flight taking an interest in the development of Greek civilaviation, as portrayed by Mr. Rumbelow's article in the issue of July 21st. It would seem, however, that Mr. Rumbelow must haveobtained his information from rather limited sources, which have not been altogether accurate and I should like to correctsome false impressions which the article might otherwise create. Hellenic Airlines is & Greek company in which ScottishAviation is a minor shareholder to the extent of 40 per cent of the capital, so it is quite incorrect, therefore, to describeHellenic Airlines as a subsidiary of Scottish Aviation. This error in Mr. Rumbelow's article is unfortunate bothfrom the point of view of the British interest in Hellenic Air- lines and even more so from the point of view of the majorGreek interest, which is that of the Pension Funds of the Greek Army, Navy, Air Force and Civil Service, in which the GreekGovernment is interested and also a large cross-section of the Greek people, who are pensioners or contributors to thesefunds. Mr. Rumbelow's reference to Hellenic Airlines having 70per cent British crews would also be misleading without the following explanation. Hellenic Airlines, very wisely I think,adopted British standards of air crew selection, training, fly- ing regulations and aircraft maintenance, and this has beenreflected in the -regularity and efficiency of their air services from the commencement. It necessitated, however, utilizing a fairly high percentageof British crews for the first few months of operation and this was rapidly reduced as selection was made from the excellentGreek material and Greek air and ground crews were trained and tested to British standards. As far as I am aware, there is no cut-throat competition orconfusion in the Greek network of air services as, when Hellenic Airlines entered the field, it did so with precisely the samenumber of Dakotas and the same fares as the only other com- pany in Greece at that time. Also it was within the powersof the Greek Government to control the size of the fleets of either company by the granting or otherwise of import licencesfor new aircraft, and, in fact, so far only one new Dakota has been added to the Hellenic Airlines' fleet. Nevertheless Hellenic Airlines has proved to be a successfulairline company and showed a profit in its first year of opera- tion, and is now operating a wide network of services through-out Greece in addition to operating twice weekly to Paris, London, Alexandria, Cyprus and Lydda. A considerable expan-sion of the company's internal air services is now under way, which should be of real advantage to the Greek people andtheir internal trading, and the foreign revenue being earned by the company's external air services and the present expan-sion of these is assisting the Greek balance of trade. I am sure you will agree with me that this informationrefutes the statement in Mr. Rumbelow's article to the effect that air transport in Greece would appear to be approaching astate of hopeless confusion. The British interest in Hellenic Airlines has every reason to believe that the Greek Governmentand its American aviation advisers are fully capable of regulat- ing competition in ways which will guarantee to the Greekpeople the benefits of genuine competition. Scottish Aviation, Ltd., Prestwick. D. F. MCINTYRE. DIM MEMORIES Was it the Piffard ? THE pioneer aircraft referred to by Mr. W. J. Smith in yourissue of July 14th. may have been the " Piffard." Its designer and builder was one of the many residents of theartistic colony living at Bedford Park at the turn of the cen- tury. The aircraft components were built in the studio andmost other rooms of the house, to the great detriment of Mr. Piffard's more usual occupation. The first efforts to fly were made in the locality referred to,but the results at no time caused the pilot any embarrassment by compelling him to attempt a landing. Mr. Piffard decidedthat an aerodrome of unlimited area was the pre-requisite of safely becoming airborne, so he transported his creation toShoreham and mounted it on pontoon floats. The small measure of success attained off the Sussex coast?did not encourage Mr. Piffard indefinitely to continue his", experiments, so that ultimately he abandoned the project andreturned to the less hazardous and certainly more profitable method of expressing his flights of fancy on canvas. Shorwell, Isle of Wight. FRANCIS. KAPPEY, A.F.R.Ae.S.' MORE DIM MEMORIES ...:'.':ii .'. • Yolks for Power Egg Lubrication ' • ,'•• • YOUR correspondent asks about an aircraft flown from**wooden runway at Hanger Hill, Ealing, 1908-1909. I'was living in Ealing at the time and the only aircraft I rememberwas flown from a stupid little airfield nearby on a sleeper run-.., way at the W. Ealing Flying School just off the present Wes-tern Avenue. The aircraft in question may have been the Graham White "Omnibus" at a much later date. AnotherEaling mystery aircraft was the Russian triplane supposed to be stationed at Northolt in 191(7. Its size, according to rumour,would have made the Brabazon look like a house-fly; its pur- pose was said to be the kidnapping of the Kaiser. Duringan egg shortage a rumour was spread that its engines were lubricated with yolks of thousands of new laid eggs, and oneoften met people whose "uncle's cousin" was in the R.F.C. beating up eggs day and night. CHARLES NICOLLAS. ". Uxbridge. .....:. ...: R.Ae.C. AVIATORS' CERTIFICATESR ECENTLY, reviving a pre-war practice, we published a list of Aviators' Certificates as issued from time to time byi the Royal Aero Club. A further list, covering Certificates issued between June 7th. and July 1st, is given below: — No. 26,023 26,024 26,025 26,026 26,027 26,023 26,029 26,030 26,031 26,032 26,033 26,034 26,035 26,036 26,037 26,038 26,039 26,040 26.041 26,042 26,043 26,044 26,045 26,046 Name Clive William Turner Malcolm Morrison Young Philip Frederick Gurdon Raja/Brajendra Singh Deo Arthur Elliott Lee Rex Shilton James William Haggas Dennis George Stafford David Frederick Ogilvy George Charles Ransom Morr Cecil Alan Tomlinson ... Frederick William Chapman Philip Francis Robinson John Norman Dennis William Joseph Stevens Geoffrey Warren Hall ... John Barter Davies Peter Roland Cope Jack Edmund Watts Alan Colin Maclachlan Har Dayal Singh John Ernest Bright ... - Frank Campbell Sturdy Edward Reed is Club or School No. 7. F.T.S Qualified Service pilot... London Aero Club Qualified Service pilot... ,, ,, ... ,, ... ,, Fair Oaks Flying Club ... Qualified Service pilot... Current " A " Licence Qualified Service pilot... • 1 ... Rochester Flying Club Lancashire Aero Club ... Cardiff Aero Club Qualified Service pilot... ,, ,, Air Service Training Ltd. Qualified Service pilot... ,, Newcastle Aero Club ... Date 7.6.49 7.6.49 9.6.49 13.6.49 13.6.49 13.6.49 13.6.49 13.6.49 13.6.49 13.6.49 15.6.49 13.6.49 15.6.49 15.6.49 17.6.49 23.6.49 23.6.49 28.6.49 28.6.49 29.6.49 29.6.49 29.6.49 29.6.49 1.7.49 A 2O
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