FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1393.PDF
8o FLIGHT In tribute to the naval airmen who have served their country with honour since 1911, we reproduce this superb study of the aircraft carrier H.M.S. "Victorious" in heavy weather. The aircraft are Fairey Albacore torpedo spotter reconnaissance biplanes and a Fulmar eight-gun fighter monoplane. FIFTY YEARS OF FLYING i 30^ hours, and Amy Johnson flew her Puss Moth to Tokyo and back. In doing so, they paved the way for Jean Batten, Beryl Markham, Alex Henshaw and all the other pilots, in other types of aircraft, who helped to prove that the light aircraft was no local-airfield toy. Year after year, these pilots and scores of other enthusiasts matched their skill in the King's Cup Race. Then,, in 1934, came the great MacRobertson Race to Australia, with prizes totalling £15,000. Entries ranged from Melrose's little Puss Moth to K.L.M.'s DC-2 transport flown by Parmentier and Moll; but the dark horses were three specially-built de Havilland Comet two-scat racing monoplanes, of incredibly clean lines and each powered by two 200 h.p. Gipsy Six engines. They were flown by Amy and Jim Mollison, C. W. A. Scott and Tom Campbell Black, and Ken Waller and O. Cathcart-Jones, and from the start of the race at Mildenhall they left little doubt of their qualities. Scott and Black reached Sydney only 71 hours after take-off in Britain; Waller and Cathcart-Jones completed the round trip in 13^ days. Meanwhile, Edward Hillman, who had been operating since 1932 a local airline between Romford and Clacton with Puss Moths and Fox Moths, suggested to de Havillands that it might be an idea to produce a sort of twin-engined Moth, combining the latter's sturdiness and ease of maintenance with accommodation for six to ten passengers. The result was the Dragon, from which developed the Dragon Rapide, the airliner which made possible economical short-range passenger services. By 1935, Hillman's Airways were operating Dragons and Rapides from Essex Airport at Abridge to Paris, Brussels, Ostend, Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, Hull and Thanet. Several other airlines, mostly operating Dragons, Rapides and three-engined Spartan Cruisers, had entered the market by then; and in 1935 three of them, British Con- tinental Airways, United Airways and Spartan Air Lines, combined with Hillmans to form British Airways, which operated highly successful services throughout Britain and Europe until amalgamated with Imperials to form the State- controlled British Overseas Airways Corporation in April, 1940. Military flying, too, progressed steadily in the years between the two World Wars. The Royal Air Force had been cut to the bone after the Armistice in 1918, but the skeleton was a pretty lively one, as visitors to the annual R.A.F. Display soon discovered. What the Service lacked in numbers, it more than made up in quality, which it maintained by rigorous training, continuous active service in India, Iraq and anywhere else that trouble threatened, and by a series of outstanding development flights. One of the earliest of the latter was the*- first two-way crossing of the North Atlantic by the Airship R.34 in July, 1919. It was one of the last great exploits of British airships, for there was little development until 1930, when the R.ioo and R.101 were completed; and con- struction was finally abandoned when the R.101 crashed with the loss of 47 of her personnel. Most of the other great flights were made by flying-boats, including a 28,000-mile journey by four Southamptons from Britain to Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong and back to Singapore in 1927-8. But there was also a fine 14,000-mile flight by four Fairey IIIDs from Cairo to the Cape and back to England in 1926, followed by long-distance records set up in R.A.F. Hawker Horsley and Fairey Long Range aircraft and, of course, the magnificent victories of the R.A.F. High Speed Flight in a succession of Supermarine racing sea- planes, which won the Schneider Trophy outright for Britain. Fortunately, the aircraft industry did not halt the process
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
