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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1301.PDF
28 FLIGHT, 6 July 195; CORRESPONDENCE TTte Editor of "Flight" does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents in these columns; the names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. to clearing a 50-foot obstacle from a standing start 600 feet awa yThe new version is similar in appearance to the one shown, but has the 190 h.p. Lycoming engine instead of the present 125 h.p.model. The road performance of the military car is quite com- parable to that of a jeep and its rough-country capacity is equal tothe jeep when the wings are not being towed—although even that unit is quite rugged and capable of rough treatment. Current civil production of the Aerocar is being delayed due tothe national situation. Our own efforts are continuing by modifi- cations to the original machine for better performance andimproved durability. The prototype machine has been in service as an automobile over two years and has been flying about a yearand a half. Flight performance is quite a bit in excess of the specifications, and our main effort is now directed toward improveddurability and service life. We believe we can obtain these fea- tures in a mobile aircraft to almost present auto quality. Longview, Washington. MOULTON B. TAYLOR. PARIS FLASHBACK: One of the postcard views of the first (1909) Paris Show, referred to ij letter op**tf\ispg M iss Jean Hatfield "Failure"?I N view of the weather at Hatfield (and elsewhere) on June 23rd,the organizers were wise to cancel the racing, but with all those machines available they should have been able to dreamup some sort of alternative programme. Most of the aircraft could have flown from far smaller fields than Hatfield, and inworse weather. Here are some of the simple items which could have beenarranged to take the place of the racing:- (1) A fly-past of some of the aircraft (even the Meteor man-aged to orbit well inside the boundary). (2) A static display could have been laid on by placing theaircraft in front of the enclosures. (3) Some well-known pilots, from the many there, could havebeen interviewed and given some of their reminiscences over the public-address system. I doubt if there have been many worse examples of failure oforganization than we saw on that Saturday. Birmingham 24. FREDERICK H. COATES. Winged Automobile A RECENT issue of your fine magazine has been read fromcover to cover by our little group. Your slant on aviation publication is most interesting, though we note that not very muchof your space is given over to personal flying. It is this kind of flying that our Aerocar was designed for. The present vehicle is inreality a complete automobile which is just as practical for a trip to the cinema, as you call it in Britain, as it is for a flight to Paris.We are, however, now proposing a military version of the car which has four-wheel auto drive and a flight performance equal The "roaMBTe" aircrl above, (fe>m Mr. Moulton B. Taylor. towing (o hHW airscrew abaft the "Y" tailplane. erocar, Inc., subject of the letter, Vings and tail are detachable, for the fuselage. There is a pusher Flying Through the Grand Canyon T HARDLY ever write to the papers; this is one of the excep--*• tions. Your photograph of a Balliol flying in the Grand Canyon (in Flight of June 15th) is the excuse. I hazard the opinion thatthe caption is incorrect. The Balliol is not flying at 7,000 ft. just , below the lip of the Canyon, but at or about the level of the lip ofthe Gorge, which is 1,400ft. above the river. The sloping shelf shown in the photograph is the Tonto Shelf, of green shale. Thepeaks shown in the background are all within the Canyon and rise 3,500ft. above the Tonto Shelf. The top of the Canyon itself isa level tableland at 8,000ft. a.s.l. and has no hills of any kind in the immediate vicinity. All this is true of El Tovar, the chiefcentre for visitors, and it is more or less true of the whole length of the Canyon. Having ridden down to the river at the bottom on a mule in1918 (an unofficial interlude in an aviation mission) and having flown all the way along it from Boulder Dam to El Tovar in 1940,I still think it is the most majestic sight in the world. Incidentally, it is the Colorado River and it is in Arizona, and not Colorado. Montreal. F. TYMMS.[Sir Frederick Tymms, K.C.I.E., M.C., F ;R.Ae.S., who hasconducted numerous important airline surveys and missions since 1918, has been the United Kingdom representative on the councilof I.C.A.O. since 1947.—Ed.] The First Paris Show WHEN showing the enclosed postcards [one of which is re-produced above—Ed.] to friends at the Paris Air Exhibition last week it was suggested to me that you might be interested tosee them. My mother sent them to her family after she had visited the original exhibition in 1909, and the words on the back ofone include: "You would have liked to see the aeroplanes of Bleriot, Bayard, Wilbur Wright and ... the first balloon that crossed theChannel, in 1785." White Waltham, Berks. TEAN SOMERVILLE,Secretary to Chief Test Pilot, Fairey Aviation Co., Ltd. JulyJuly July July July July July July July July July July July July July July July July JulyAug. Aug. 4-11.6-9. 7. 7. 7-8. 7-8. 14. 14 15-18. 15-22. 14-20. 16-21. 18. 18-22. 19-21. 22. 22-29. 27-29. 28.4-5. 6. FORTHCOMING EVENTS F.A.I. Committee Meetings, Brussels. Bienne Aviation Club: "Swiss Watch" Rally. Redhill Flying Club: At Home AeYo-Club de Savoie: Aix-les-Bains Rally. R.Ae.C: Members' La Baule Rally. International Wakefield Cup Model Contests, Finland. Bristol Corporation: Air Race Meeting. S.M.A.E. Festival of Britain Model Championships, Wembley Royal Danish Aero Club: Rally. Aero Club of Italy: International Air Week. Aeronautical Union of Jugoslavia: International Parachute- Jumping Competitions. Conference on Automatic Control, College of Aeronautics, Cranfield. R.Ae.C. : International Rally Ball. R.Ae.C. and Yorkshire Aeroplane Club: International Rally. Dally Express and R.Ae.C.: International Rally and "Fifty Years of Flying" Display and Exhibition, Hendon. Luton Flying Club: "At Home" (sponsored by A.B.A.C.). National Gliding Championships, Camphill Gt. Hueklow, Derbyshire. Royal Netherlands Aero Club: Ypenburg Rally. Royal Engineers* Flying Club: Air Day, Rochester. Aero-Club de Touraine: International Rally, Tours, Franc*. Daily Express Challenge Trophy International Air Raca, Shoreham Airport, Sussex.
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