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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0517.PDF
FLIGHT, 16 March 1951 321 WORLD-WIDE SERVICE Shell Aviation Highlights: Providing Aircraft- fuel for over Thirty Years IN almost every article on world flights or air tours that hasappeared in our pages over very many years, some mention hasbeen made of the services rendered by the ubiquitous "Mr. Shell," so the facts recorded in an historical review recently pre- pared by Shell-Mex and B.P., Ltd., came as no surprise. Neverthe- less, most of them are of more than passing interest, and deserve placing on record; and certainly they constitute a very fair claim to leadership in this particular field. The organization can claim to have provided fuel for aviators from the very earliest days of flying, and when officially instituted in 1919—long before any other oil company provided such facili- ties—the Shell Aviation Service quickly found custom among the world's pioneer airlines. One of the earliest was K.L.M., which soon expanded eastward to the Indies and found trained Shell staff already installed and ready to provide supplies at all the principal airports. In 1934, when Imperial Airways' through service began, the entire London-Australia route had been similarly staffed and equipped; by then an equally complete ground organization had been set up along the East Coast route to the Cape. These were also the favourite courses of the record-making pilotsof the 'twenties and 'thirties, and almost all of them made use of the service. From 1928, realizing that the time had come to improveupon the ad hoc delivery methods which hitherto had sufficed, the company embarked upon a general policy of laying down bulk"dumps" and providing service crews to carry out the entire fuel- ling operations. Many local problems of storage and staff traininghad to be overcome, and always there remained transport diffi- culties that even to-day, in parts of Africa, may mean long suc-cessive journeys by rail, steamer, motor and even human transport before the fuel is finally in position. Mobile fuelling vehicles soonbecame standard equipment, and the chain of service stations for air transport spread over the Continent of Europe as well as much ofAfrica and the East. Years before "briefing" became an accepted feature of flight- planning Shell Aviation Service prepared its own aviation maps and airfield data books. (The Battle of Norway was fought on such maps, which were the only air maps available to the R.A.F.). The Shell Garnet Card, for airline captains and private pilots alike, has proved, since its introduction in 1932, an almost universal "open sesame" for obtaining fuel and other supplies on credit. When war came, the whole organization, with such personnel as Yesterday: Shell facilities were well established in the East by 1924, when this photograph was taken at Calcutta, showing the Fokker CIV in which Maj-. Zanni, of the Argentine was attempting a global, flight. Today: Shell service for a Venezuelan Skymaster at Maiquetia Airport, Caracas. The Thompson-Leyland Tyne tanker holds 4,000 gallons; this type (largest in the world) is also used by Shell at London Airport. were not called up, was placed at the disposal of the two Allies. In important war theatres Shell handled the fuelling of all aircraft except at the forward operational airfields. Often, at remote stations, their staffs had an unrivalled local knowledge, and this was fully utilized by the planners of transport and ferry services. Surveyed and stocked by the company in pre-war days, the so- called African Reinforcement Route (from the West Coast towns to Khartoum) proved of outstanding strategic value when the Mediterranean was closed. Within a few months of the end of the war, which had disrupted much of its organization, particularly in the Far East, a full revival of the service paved the way for the resumption, on a much wider scale than before, of the international airline network. The sudden emergency of the Berlin Airlift in 1948-49, found Shell prepared to provide extra fuel and intensive service: over 14 million gallons of petroleum supplies were handled by the company at the Berlin terminus of Gatow alone. The largest of the company's fuellers now so familiar to almost every air traveller is of 4,000 Imperial gallons' capacity, with a maximum rate of delivery of 400 gal/min—a far cry from the small "man-handled" cans of 1919 and earlier. The first of these big fuellers is now in operation at London Airport; another is in Venezuela. With the advent of jet airliners such as the Comet, turbine fuel will be required instead of gasoline, and bulk stocks must be laid down along the Empire routes. In addition, the delivery crews must be trained in the use of special filtering systems and in the new technique of under-wing fuelling. When the first Comet flew from England to Cairo and East Africa in April-May last, over 71,000 gallons of a.t.f. and a considerable quantity of lubricants were made available for the one series of flights. FLEXIBLE-TANK MAINTENANCE TNSTALLATION and maintenance manuals issued by makersA of aircraft components are legion, and they vary from simple clipped-together sheets of duplicated matter to elaboratelyprinted and illustrated pages secured by patent fasteners between covers stout enough to outlast the equipment to which theyrefer. Quite one of the finest of these productions we have seen, judgedfrom any point of view, is the new "Flexelite" Flexible Tank Manual recently issued by Marston Excelsior, Ltd., Wolverhamp-ton. Illustrated by photographs and by large and clear cut-away drawings, and well indexed, it covers every aspect of its subject,starting with a brief historical review. This "basic" publication is identified as Vol. I; there is also aVol. II, applied to a series of manuals each referring to installations in specific aircraft.
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