FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0804.PDF
802 FLIGHT, 10 June 1955 l'AVIATION LEGERE et SPORTIVE . . . flight. In another sphere, the Service has assisted doctors infinding new remedies, particularly for such illnesses as whooping cough. Finally, the clubs help in detecting and fighting forestfires and attempting to avert hailstorm damage and, more gener- ally, to assist in the protection of a variety of crops.In the eight years since the Service was attached to the Ministry, the following results have been obtained: —Elementary flying licences, 20,000; 5,000 aero-modelling centres established; 878,000 hours of powered flight; 12,000 poweredpiloting licences, first grade; 4,500 powered flying licences, second grade; 567,115 glider flying hours; 11,000 B certificates; 7,800 Ccertificates; 1,850 D certificates; 160 E certificates; 12 F certificates (out of the total of 31 in the world); 25,200 parachute jumps since1948; 725 first-class parachute licences; 319 second-class parachute licences; 26 qualified parachute instructors; 4,031 air force pilots; More recent activities sponsored by SJA.L.S. are parachuting, for which a practice tower is seen at left, and ultra-light flying. The pilot of the Jodel Bebe (above) is manipulating his own chocks. 38,667 military non-flying specialists; 350 army air-observation pilots since 1953; 60 new airfields have been set up. Organization, running and development of light and sportingaviation faces two principal difficulties; firstly, shortage of govern- ment-supplied funds and, secondly, growing restrictions on generalflying. Financial difficulties have a marked effect on policy. For instance, they have caused aircraft to be handed over to the clubs,since the Service could no longer cover the costs of overhaul and repair. Because of this, despite maintenance grants, a largenumber of aircraft are grounded because the clubs themselves have not the money to keep them flying. Charges per flying hour willtherefore have to be raised in order to meet new costs, and this again will reduce activity. Future financial allocations will beeven smaller than hitherto and this process can only be countered by freeing petrol from taxation or by increasing subsidies. Itseems that the first solution would be less costly to the state. By the same token, the maintenance and renewal of gliders can-not be kept up to assure continuance of the present scale of utilization. In another sphere, general flying in light aircraftand, above all, in gliders, is becoming increasingly hemmed in by the strictness of air traffic rules now being instituted because ofthe increase in general commercial traffic—and, particularly in northern and eastern France, by the appearance of new militaryair bases. C.B. [Tailpiece: It may be recalled that the scheme operated by theService de l'Aviation Legere et Sportive for the testing and air- worthiness certification of amateur-built ultra-light aircraft hasformed the basis for that recently adopted by the Popular Flying Association in this country. The French influence on the presentre-birth of British ultra-light flying is even more clearly indicated in the aircraft types chosen by the P.F.A. to inaugurate this newera—the single-seat Druine Turbulent and the two-seat Turbi. The Air Registration Board representative on the technical com-mittee of the P.F.A. has expressed enthusiastic approval for the high standard of design and workmanship and sense of respon-sibility shown in the French light-aircraft movement: based on the tried S.A.L.S. procedure, the new British system should nowbe able to produce a heartening increase in ultra-light activity in the United Kingdom—Ed.] WINGED FRENCHMAN "Bird Man," by Leo Valentin. Hutchinson, Stratford Place,London, W.I. Illustrated. Price 12s. 6d. THIS book will make exciting reading for those who like theiraviation literature on the gory side. Valentin, who made his first parachute descent in 1938 at the French Military ParachuteSchool at Baraki, Algeria, is now one of his country's leading parachutists. He had already completed almost a hundred dropswhen, after the fall of France, he found himself under training as a "novice" at a British parachute school; and in June 1944he was dropped with a unit of the Special Air Service at Mor- bihan, with instructions to blow up the railway lines betweenVannes and Rennes. Valentin describes how he worked to find a way of remainingin a stable position during long free falls, and finally succeeded in discovering what he calls the "Valentin Position." Starting fromand returning to this position, he was able_ to carry out various aerobatic manoeuvres while falling freely with the parachute un-opened. Finally, tiring of these variations on a theme, he set out to try to fly with ca.ivas wings attached to his body.His attempts were unsuccessful, and several times they placed him in extremely awkward situations. Finally, deciding that withcanvas wings he could only achieve "braked fall" and not true flight, he turned his attention to wings made of wood. With thesehe made a number of practice flights, culminating in a successful glide in which he covered a distance of three miles for a loss ofheight of six thousand feet. Looking into the future, Valentin says, "One day I shall prob-ably be able to land [without a parachute] but I am in no hurry. I don't want to go too fast." His decision not to hurry willprobably come as a relief to the reader whose appetite may have been impaired by his graphic descriptions of fatal accidents.In 1949, feeling the urge to make longer delayed drops, he decided to establish a record for a free-fall descent without oxygen.Leaving the aircraft at 22,000ft, he dropped to 1,800ft before opening his parachute. This was a dangerous but successfulexperiment. One jarring note in this book is the way in which Valentinmanages to leave in the mind of the reader doubts about the courage of some of the people of whom he writes—notably ahelicopter pilot who died in an accident, and a champion para- chutiste of France. Those who know Monique Laroche (as does this reviewer)will smile at the author's description of the double jump, from an Auster, that did not quite come off. The inference is that she wasafraid; but a cool and reasoning brain works inside the pretty head of that French doctor's wife. If Monique decided that thejump was about to prove fatale to that particular femme, then she was probably right. *This is an interesting book written by a man of undoubted courage. It is therefore worth reading. Having read it, one findsthe author's warning to others not to emulate him a little superfluous. T.W.W.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
