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Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1566.PDF
330 FLIGHT, 8 September 1949 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication; must in all cases accompany letters. The names and EARLY DAYS I FOUND the article in your last issue about the Rheimsmeeting of much interest, as it must have been about that time that I was taken to a similar meeting at Blackpool. On the day of my visit, Latham was not successful in getting his Antoinette monoplane into the air; he went along in a series of skips and jumps and finally gave up. I seem to remember hearing that he was having much engine trouble. The hero of my visit was Paulhan, who made circuit after circuit of the course in a biplane at quite low altitude and was much applauded by the crowd. When we got back to Liverpool, we found the evening news- papers had made the most of the occasion—"Great Flight by Paulhan," " Paulhan's Record Flight," and so forth. Looking back at it now, perhaps we had been seeing history. London, S.W.7. H. E. COX. LONDON MARINE AIRPORT? W[EN one takes off from London Airport towards the west,one passes over a cluster of large reservoirs. If these were all joined together into one, then a water airport big enough for the Saunders-Roe Dollar Princess, or bigger boats, would be available alongside the land airport, whose customs, radio, and other necessities would serve the two. No doubt there would be. an outcry, from the clueless, that flying-boats would pollute the water by discharging oil and sewage. There need be no oil discharged; and if very heavy penalties were to be imposed for discharge of sewage, it would not happen. In any case, the water supply of Johannesburg, Pretoria, Vereeniging, etc., at Vaaldam, has long been used as a flying-boat base with no noticeable ill effect on the population. Now is the time to start on this project, so as to have a marine airport ready for the Dollar Princess in 1952 or 1953, and to give a lead to the rest of the world—even though the Egyptians, with their King Fuad I Airport at Alexandria, have already made a combined land and sea airport. I am aware that the word '' marine'' is derived from "mare," so that an inland airport should not strictly be called "marine." : ' - GEOFFREY DORMAN. London, S.W.3. [Without pretension to any profound knowledge ot wate: supply services, we imagine that to unite individual reservoirs would unbalance distribution, as each is, we believe, designed to cater for a specific locality.—ED.] PARK ROYAL I WAS very interested to read in the Correspondence page ofFlight of June 9th, recently received, D. P.'s note on an old machine seen at Park Royal, near Ealing, around 1907-8. I was born about the same time as D. P. and in the same district and was also often taken around what was then delightful open country by my brother, ten years my senior, formerly R.F.C. and R.A.F. Whilst both he and I retain happy memories of those days and pioneer days at Hendon, too, although we are both 12,000 miles away, our recollections of the day in question are vivid. We remember the runway and a machine of "Long- horn" type mounted thereon, also the crowds and general excitement. To nail down the actual design and manufacturer, or pilot, we cannot, however, do. We recall Grahame White taking off from the same spot, but that was in 1911, of course. What I particularly remember is getting up at dawn and wandering around the Park Royal area, watching the many pupils trying to fly at the Ruffy-Beaumont School of Flying round about 1915 and on. The famous Captain Ball, V.C., and many other gallant men of the R.F.C. were there training on the queer-looking but safe Caudron school machines with their Anzani engines, but I didn't realize that at the time and wasn't an "autograph hunter." Whilst Hendon and Brooklands have always been rightly regarded as the "homes" of early flying, Park Royal in its day was very important and produced many hundreds of pilots. It was active from dawn till dark and the scenes enacted there, tragic and humorous, will remain with me for all time. I am still, after well over 30 years close contact with all sizes and shapes of aircraft, just as interested as always in aeronautics, and am actively connected with all its branches, being with the Department of Civil Aviation here. If any of my friends have mislaid my whereabouts I shall be only too pleased to exchange any knowledge on the subject of aircraft. Incidentally, I need hardly say I have learned much from Flight, which I have read from the 1910 days. 39, Monash Street, E. C. HOWES. Ascot Vale, W.2, Victoria, Australia. . LOAD FACTORS THE article on load factors (" Joy Through Strength,"p. 234, Flight, August 25th), by S/L. F. S. Bloomfield, leads me to reflect that in our office we have one or two hoary old stressmen who can remember the time-when aircraft were stressed for C.P. forward and C.P. aft. One of them can actually remember the time when there were only eleven cases to consider. On the main undercarriage of an airliner there are roughly thirty cases and, what with all this pre- and post- shock-stall stuff, the cases for the airframe run into dozens. For some time now we have been using things called Rationalized Stressing Cases, with gust cases becoming increas- ingly critical as the speeds go up; also, owing to greater accuracy of slide-rules and crystal balls, we now use a safety factor of 1.5 instead of 2. From the cases quoted it looks as if S/L. Bloomfield has had an interesting afternoon in the British Museum reading A.P.1208; nowadays our gospels are AP.970 and I.C.A.O. and Civil Airworthiness Requirements —at least, we start there and try and talk our way out of it later. With the coming of high-speed airlines the 50ft/sec up-gust rules the roost; it even manages to produce accelerations of the order of log on fighters without any help from the pilot. I think Darwin and his theory of evolution must have some- thing to do with the way pilots who used to be able to apply a maximum of $g now seem to be able to put log on fighters, bending them a bit in the process, but still walking away after- wards. Perhaps nobody ever told them. Another point that struck me was that an allowable diving speed of 450 m.p.h. seemed a wee bit low in view of the present craze for level speeds of the order of 600 m.p.h. Could we have another article on load factors, 1949 edition, to bring the story up to date? Hatfield. SUB-JUNIOR STRESSMAN. [The object of the author—who has lectured on this and kindred subjects for some years—was to reduce his explanation to one of easily understood basic essentials; space would not have permitted a review of the kind our correspondent suggests. Incidentally, in fairness to S/L. Bloomfield, it should be pointed out that an error in transcription caused misquotation of his calculation of the apparent weight-increase during the pull-out from the dive. The '' lift'' calculation should have commenced: — -.". Lift=w+- —ED.] FORTHCOMING EVENTS : Sept. 6th to 8th.—R.A.F. Golfing Society : Autumn Meeting and Ladies' Section Championship at Walton Heath Golf Club. Sept. 7th tollth.—S.B.A.C. Annual Flying Display and Exhibition, Farn- borough. Sept. 7th. —R.Ae.S. (Luton) : " Air Liner Operation." Sept. 12th to 18th.—Battle of Britain Weak. R.A.F. " At Home " day Sept. 17th. Sept. Mth.—Inter-Services Swimming Championships, Seymour Hall, Marylebone, London. Sept. 15th.—R.Ae.S. : Fifth British Commonwealth and Empire Lecture, " Inter-City Transport Development on the Common- wealth Routes," by E. H. Atkin, F.R.Ae.S. Sept. 20th.—Aero Golfing Society : Autumn Meeting, Richmond Golf Club, Sudbrooke Park. Oct. 5th. —R.Ae.S. (Luton) : Film Show. Nov. 2nd. —R.Ae.S. (Luton) : " Gas Turbine Development." Nov. 23rd.—R.Ae.S. (Luton) : " Brains Trust." Dec. 7th. —R.Ae.S. (Luton) : " Role of Aircraft in Future Warfare," Air Marshal Sir Robert Saundby, K.B.E., C.B., M.C.. D.F.C., A.F.C. L 4
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