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Aviation History
1952
1952 - 1301.PDF
9 May 1952 569 CIVIL AVIATION COMET PASSENGERS board their coach—appropriately de corated for the occasion—at the outset of B.O.A.C.'s first jet service to Johannesburg. THE SILVER WING AGAIN UOW many people today, we wonder, realize that the first A A "named" air service in the world was the famous Silver Wing of Imperial Airways? This great British institution was inaugurated on Friday, April 29th, 1927, and the "spotters" of the day will remember that the Armstrong Whitworth Argosies employed were specially repainted and picked out with very dark blue lining and lettering. (Formerly the colour scheme had been silver wings and tail units and dark blue fuselages.) The service established a literally world-wide reputation for comfort, con venience and courtesy, and it is fitting that not only its name but its spirit should now be revived by British European Airways. The proving flight for the new service, which is, of course, to be operated by Elizabethans, was on April 30th—almost exactly a quarter of a century after Capt. Gordon P. Olley set out on the inaugural flight from Croydon in the Argosy City of Glasgow. In those days the service was timed to leave Croydon and Le Bourget simultaneously at 12 noon, and the fare was 6 gn single and 11 gn return, as compared with the normal rates of 5 gn single and 10 gn return. Stewards were not then carried on normal Imperial Airways services, but with the Silver Wing a bar was introduced, with a steward who really knew his job. The revived B.E.A. service will leave London and Paris simul taneously at lunch time every day after June 9th and will.be timed to take 1 hr 30 min. This is by no means the fastest possible by Elizabethan, but has been so arranged to give the stewards an opportunity of providing their best attention. The aircraft will be standard 47-seaters, but only 40 passengers will be booked for each trip. There will be no supplementary charge, though a special hot luncheon, with champagne, will be offered, and two stewards and one stewardess will be in attendance. FERRY NEWS BRISTOL Freighters of Silver City Airways will operate a Blackpool-Isle of Man ferry service to carry cars, motor cycles and cycles during the two or three days immediately before and after the T.T. motor-cycle races. Passengers will be carried only if they accompany vehicles and the service will thus not compete with operations by the Lancashire Aircraft Corporation. (L.A.C., incidentally, will be responsible for ground-handling the Freighters at Squires Gate, Blackpool). Single fares will be: Large cars, £21; small cars, £13; motor-cycles, £4 10s; bicycles, £1. Passengers accompanying vehicles will pay £453 return. Silver City recently inaugurated its third regular ferry service —between Southend and Ostend. The company has also been undertaking an increasing number of charter flights, typical cargoes being lettuce, furniture and export cars (over 300 have already been ferried this year.) Charter flights will form a greater proportion of Silver City's work in 1952; the reduced travel- allowance will retard expansion of the private-car ferry service, which .carried over 8,500 vehicles across the channel last year and was originally hoped to transport over 13,000 in 1952. Silver City's plans for next year include the introduction of their "long- nosed" Bristol Freighters built to carry three cars and 20 pas sengers (the normal capacity of their present aircraft is two cars and 12 passengers). The first of six on order from the Bristol Aeroplane Company will, it is hoped, be ready for display at September's S.B.A.C. Show. TWO IMPORTANT DISCUSSIONS ALL aspects of (i) final approach and landing and (ii) airborne radio equipment are being discussed at the latest I.A.T.A. traffic conference by some 200 representatives of airlines and other interested organizations. The conference, which is being held at Copenhagen, began on May 5th and will end on May 17th. The approach-and-landing discussions, which are being held in close session, will try to analyze " not only the individual phases and specific aids used in this critical stage of flight but also the complex relationships and links between them." I.A.T.A. hopes that the final report will point out ways of increasing the chances for successful landings under marginal conditions, to suggest " missing links " between phases of approach and landing and to develop new operational requirements. Airborne radio is the subject of a three-day symposium, from May I5th-i7th, on the same pattern as the 1950 jet-transport discussion. The special problems raised by the use of jet airliners are, of course, being considered in both discussions. RAMSGATE TO RE-OPEN OPERATED in pre-war days by Whitney Straight Aviation, Ltd., but closed since 1939, Ramsgate Airport is to be re-opened in June by Air Kruise, Ltd. In association with B.E.A., Air Kruise are extending their Lympne/Le Touquet services to Ramsgate in order to serve a large population in the Thanet area. The company is taking a long lease on the airfield from the Ramsgate Corporation and the hangars and terminal buildings, damaged during the war, are being re-built. There are grass runways of nearly 1,000 yd which are considered suitable for aircraft of up to Rapide, Anson and Heron weight. At first, Air Kruise will be the sole operator, but the airport will later be open to charter and private operations, and there will be fuel and maintenance and—eventually—restaurant and club facilities. There are no Customs arrangements yet, but Air Kruise hope that a permanent officer will shortly be stationed at Ramsgate. FOR AULD LANG SYNE: Two men look to the past, another to the future: a sentimental moment at London Airport on April 30th, on the occasion of B.E.A.'s Silver Wing proving flight, subject of a news item on this page. Upholder of the Argosy (left) is, of course. Captain Gordon P. Olley, pilot on the very first Silver Wing flight by Imperial Airways; centre is Mr. H. Dawson, a steward on the original service, and still— at 78—in B.E.A.'s service (bravo Mr. Dawson!); and, right, B.E.A.'s youthful chief executive, Peter Masefield.
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