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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0941.PDF
588 FLIGHT, 18 May 1951 EARLY GLIDING DAYS . . . expected it to fly, as it looked a mere freak. But it was bungee-launched, rose at once and remained airborne until sunset marked the end of the meeting. Maneyrol, unhappily, was killed the next year when his "motor-glider" broke in the air during the first light aircraft competition at Lympne. One of Raynham's helpers was a young man named Sydney Camm, who later became chief designer to Hawker Aircraft, Ltd. Soon after Maneyrol was launched a young R.A.F. officer, S/L. Alec Gray, brought out a glider made of a Bristol Fighter fuselage and a wing from a captured Fokker D. 7 fighter. He was launched from Firle Beacon slope and at the first attempt the glider fell back with a loud thud which, while it damaged neither the glider nor the hill, suggested that the craft was too heavy to fly. When it was launched a few minutes later, however, it soared on the wave and remained aloft for more than an hour; Gray descended only when he saw that, even if he remained aloft till sunset, he would have no chance of beating Maneyrol's time, and he was feeling both hungry and thirsty. He is now an air vice-marshal. When this meeting ended people began to think of fitting small motors and the pure-gliding movement died out until it was revived by the formation of the B.G.A. on December 4th, 1929. The late Robert Kronfeld, one of the most famous of the gliding pioneers, came to Itford Hill the following summer to give demonstrations. SOME RECENT BOOKS "Airways Abroad" by Henry Ladd Smith. University of Wisconsin Press, 811, State Street, Madison 5, Wisconsin, U.S.A. Illustrated. Price S4.00. TT would have been difficult to find anyone better qualified than A Henry Ladd Smith to write this history of the development of commercial flying in America, for he combines the practical experience of a U.S. Navy operations officer and commercial pilot with the journalistic ability of a newspaper reporter and the factual accuracy of a trained historian. The opening chapters tend to give the impression that Airways Abroad was written in the Pan American publicity office, but this is understandable, as P.A.A. pioneered U.S. international flying and played a leading part in its subsequent expansion throughout the world. Once Mr. Smith gets into his stride, the reader is left in little doubt that the overall picture is well balanced and fair. There is no conscious attempt to praise American achievement or policy at the expense of any other, and there are frequent refer- ences to British enterprise and exploits. In fact, our only obvious criticism concerns not Mr. Smith but the British Information Services—for supplying a truly repulsive picture of the graceful Short-Mayo Composite aircraft; it is quite out of place in a collec- tion of first-class illustrations. The section dealing with post-war international civil aviation agreements and disagreements will be of particular interest to readers who, like your reviewer, are too lazy to wade through official documents. Mr. Smith explains the important points of each in an easy-to-understand way, and provides a very extensive list of references at the end of each chapter for those who wish to delve more deeply into any particular aspect of his narrative. Finally, he provides a comprehensive chronology of world travel from 1604 to 1949, plus an index which really works. What we want now is a comparable history of British civil flying. "Global Mission," by General H. H. Arnold. Hutchinson and Co., Ltd., Stratford Place, London, W.I. Illustrated. Price 2is. 'T'HIS is an interesting addition to the aviation reference library, •*• but, unlike most autobiographies, it does not leave the reader with a feeling of unrestricted admiration for its author. General Arnold was courageous; the mere fact that he volunteered to fly on a stick-and-string Wright biplane in 1911 is proof enough of that, and his subsequent Service record confirms it over and over again. Unfortunately, courage is but one of the qualities needed by a military leader, and "Hap" Arnold, on the evidence of his own book, appears both to have lacked a balanced vision of overall three-Service strategy and to have been too prejudiced to acquire it through experience. The same criticism can, however, be levelled at most of the leading characters in the eternal U.S. Air Force v. Navy feud, and provided one takes this for granted before starting to read Global Mission, the rest of the book is good value. In it, for example, are stories both grim and humorous of the damp squib of U.S. aircraft production in World War I and of the mighty flood of warplanes that surged from American factories to engulf Germany and Japan in World War II. It is interesting to learn of a decision made in 194T to concentrate on production of Fortresses rather than flying bombs carrying 800 lb warheads. The history of these projected "secret weapons" is traced back to the little Bug pilotless missile of 1917, and that of the Fortress to what might be called America's 1923 "Brabazon" project— the six-engined Barling bomber which was designed to carry a five-ton payload 1,000 miles, and which cost, with its assembly hangar, some $ 1,200,000. General Arnold's description of the development of the U.S.A.A.F. between wars and, inevitably, of what he regards as BillyMitchell's martyrdom are full of useful background material. But it is for his record of top-level wartime conferences, which he attended as chief of the U.S.A.A.F., that this book is particu- larly valuable, and sometimes disturbing. He spotlights the greatness and humanity of some leaders, the stupidity and selfish- ness of others. The chapter describing operations in China, with its pithy, tragically funny extracts from one of General Stilwell's reports, reveals all the rottenness of Chiang Kai-shek's regime. Indeed, he indicates that it was often as difficult to deal with allies as with the enemy, and his concluding comments on the complete lack of co-ordination and co-operation between the U.S. Army and Navy in the final stages of the Pacific Campaign can only be regarded as profoundly disquieting. On the other hand, although he sometimes shows a surprising ignorance of its operations, General Arnold is lavish in his tribute to the Royal Air Force, which he acknowledges as the saviours of civilization in 1940. Most of the illustrations show the author with groups of Air Force or war leaders, but they are none the less interesting and completely in character with the book as a whole. "Flyvemaskiner over Danmark" ("Aircraft over Denmark"), by Lennart A. T. Ege andjorgen C. C. Elholm. August Bangs Forlag, EjvindChristensen,CopenhagenV,Denmark.Price6kr. (approx.6s).T HIS little book has been produced primarily for the benefit of Danish aircraft spotters and enthusiasts, as a guide to the aircraft that can be seen regularly in the skies over their own coun- try. There is, however, little doubt that it will interest their counterparts in Britain, for among the 44 aircraft dealt with are the little-known Danish KZ family of light aircraft; while even such machines as the Mosquito and Norseman look new and especially attractive in Scandinavian markings. Each type is described in detail—in Danish, of course—and illustrated with a three-view silhouette and postcard-size photo- graph, in most cases of excellent quality. Data, naturally, are in metric figures. "Industrial Polishing of Metals," by Gerald F. Weill. Published for "Metal Industry" by Iliffe and Sons, Ltd., Dorset House, Stamford Street, S.E.x. Price £1 is. Illustrated.T HOUGH metal-polishing as encountered in the airframe and engine industries is not altogether comparable in scope with that involved in the large-scale production of, say, decorative domestic articles, many of the basic principles are similar. In this new work the whole field is surveyed. A "theoretical" chapter explains the physical aspects of polished surfaces and sets out methods of measuring the degree of polish on any given surface. The various procedures required in polishing many different kinds of articles are given in detail, and there is a full description of tools and materials needed in the polishing shop. The techniques of automatic and barrel' polishing are treated at length, as also is that of electrolytic polishing. Many of the defects that commonly arise in polishing are dis- cussed, and methods of avoiding or overcoming them put forward. Other chapters contain practical information on the extraction of metal dust and on other health and safety precautions; on the costing of polishing work carried out commercially; and on many problems likely to arise in the average polishing shop. OTHER BOOKS RECEIVED The Army Air Forces in World War II, edited by W. F. Craven and J. L. Cate. University of Chicago Press (Agents: Cambridge University Press, Bentley House, 200, Euston Road, London, N.W.I. Price 45s. The Principles of Air Navigation, by E. W. Anderson. Methuen and Co., Ltd., 36, Essex Street, London, W.C.2. Price 25s. Displacement Pumps and Motors, by R. Hadekel. Sir Isaac Pit- man and Sons, Ltd., Pitman House, Parker Street, Kingsway. London, W.C.2. Price 25s. "The Aeroplane" Directory of British Aviation. Temple Press, Ltd., Bowling Green Lane, London, E.C.I. Price 15s.
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