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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 0829.PDF
FLIGHT, 17 June 1955 827 NEWSPAPER RUN From Fleet Street's Presses to Germany's Breakfast Tables: a Nightly Operation VISIT before lunch any British Serviceman or CivilServant stationed in Germany, and the chances arehe can discuss the news he has already read in that morning's English newspaper. In the Rhineland he can prob- ably do so at breakfast! That is more than can be said for a good many places in Britain,and, up to about 15 months ago, more than could be said for Germany. Newspapers then depended on the time schedulesof national airlines, which did not "fit" perfectly, and on the absence of more "urgent" cargo. Now they have their ownspecial air service timed to get them to all parts of the British Zone (and Berlin) at the earliest possible moment, and in theright order of priority. Credit for the present delivery system belongs to a formerofficial of the Foreign Office (German Section), Bernard Drom- goole, who a little over two years ago began to supply the firstBritish aircraft to be chartered by German users. Two Austers carried out sky advertising for German goods and creeds, and anAnson was available for business and pleasure flights. On the ground he was assisted by a former German fighter colonel (with"Oak Leaves"); flying and servicing staff were, of course, British, and the aircraft belonged to B.K.S. Air Transport, Ltd. Theirbase of operations was Diisseldorf Airport. Dromgoole became European manager of this British indepen-dent company when his plans for an expedited and rationalized newspaper delivery to and within Germany were accepted in theform of a contract by the Newspaper Proprietors' Association. The service started in January 1954, and during the year thatfollowed not a day passed, whatever the weather, when between two-and-a-half and three tons of newspapers were not deliveredon the day of publication. On average, four hours were lopped off the previous delivery time all over the British Zone. More-over, readership among German civilians doubled. This is how the system was worked until January of thisyear:— 0200 hours: Duty aircrew (one of ten employed by B.K.S.)awakened. Customs officer collected on way to Southend airport.0320: Arrival of three-ton lorry from London with day's con- signment of newspapers. Inspected by Customs. 0345 (English time): Take-off of Dakota (one of five) forHanover. E.T.A. Hanover: 0630/0730 hours (German time) summer/winter. At Hanover an Anson and five lorries were waiting, and withinhalf an hour the Anson took off with the newspaper consignment for Hamburg, Kiel, Liibeck, etc., reaching Hamburg airport,at most, an hour later. The lorries—Army for officially sponsored papers, Y.M.C.A. and Salvation Army for papers orderedprivately—set off for Hanover town and such military centres as Bad Oeynhausen, Bad Salzuffien and Bad Harzburg. Papers forBerlin proceeded by B.E.A. Meanwhile the Dakota was also off again, bound for Diisseldorf,where it was scheduled to arrive at 0815/0915, but usually did so earlier, the record (summer) being 0728. Sunday papers arrivedeven sooner—at 0500/0600. Diisseldorf was a most important destination. In or near itastride the Rhine at Wahnheide, Bonn and Cologne were the headquarters not only of the British High Commission but ofGerman Government commerce and culture, all of which took British newspapers. At Diisseldorf, beside the normal string of Army, Church Armyand Y.M.C.A. vehicles, B.K.S. ran its own special vehicle on the nodal route. Within twenty minutes of the Dakota's landing itsdriver (a German who served as a British parachutist during the war) had passed the consignment for German nationals throughthe Customs (there is a duty to be paid, by weight, on imported journals), returned to the aircraft for the British, non-dutiable con-signment, and was an the road with the lot. This took him through Diisseldorf city (off-loading at the Church Army Book-shop) to the Autobahn, along which he raced at 60 to 70 m.p.h. till he made rendezvous with another vehicle from the British H.Q.centre of Wahnheide. A swift transfer of relative consignments, and die driver hastened on to Cologne, there to deliver to theR.T.O. all die papers for the large British residential colony known as the Volkspark. THOUGH delivery of newspapers by air is not in itself a novelty—regular carriage to Paris and other Continental centres started in the 1920s—the services described in this article are on rather differentlues. The ultimate readership may have changed to a slight extent since the granting of sovereignty to Germany, but the nightly runand delivery operation continues. Drumgoole's pioneering work has since January been inheritedby another British charter company, namely Trans-Air, which has its German H.Q. at Hamburg. The major change in schedulethat this company has introduced is to land its aircraft first at Diisseldorf, instead of Hanover. Many military and R.A.F. centres are, of course, situated rela-tively far away from the air delivery points. Those within about 1^ hours of Diisseldorf, like Dortmund and Wuppertal, are takencare of by A.P.O. road service; newspapers come with the mail, but the latter is a day or two old. Remoter centres depend onthe whims of German Federal Railways, only some of whose trains are Post Ziige. However, such growing pains as the discovery thatpapers destined for Flensburg on die Danish border were being flown from Hanover to Diisseldorf, and dience being sent all theway back by train, are largely things of the past. The pilot of an aircraft on the newspaper run is more thandie chauffeur of an unknown cargo: his goods are "hot" and must be delivered somehow. Whereas the independent airlines' weatherminima correspond approximately to those of B.E.A. it was necessary from the start to make elaborate provision for usingalternative airfields should the regular terminals be weather- bound. At Hanover there is a special arrangement with theR.A.F. to use its neighbouring airfield of Wunsdorf, which has G.C.A. facilities, and Wahn R.A.F. station is an emergencyalternative to Diisseldorf. The pilot therefore must not only establish as soon as possible where he is going to land, but—ifthis is contrary to normal—at once alert the rest of the organiza- tion, namely handlers, ramp operators, Customs and drivers. If, for instance, he is going to land at Wahn (near Cologne) thevehicle which normally delivers to diat area must leave Diissel- dorf about an hour earlier, and then do its delivery run in reverse. When B.K.S. had the monopoly of the newspaper run, itsDakota flew on to Frankfurt (American H.Q. in Germany) where it connected with the American newspaper service to Americantroops in Europe. With a return consignment it proceeded to Paris (off-loading for troops stationed there and as far away asCasablanca) and finally back to England. This American service it still fulfils. It means that B.K.S.and Trans-Air have now to find alternative cargoes for their out- ward and inward runs respectively. F.Z. THE ANGLO-AMERICAN CONFERENCE TVTEARLY 130 delegates, announces the Royal Aeronautical-L^ Society, are likely to attend the fifth Anglo-American Con- ference which opens in Los Angeles on Monday next, June 20th.Most of the British visitors will, in addition to hearing the lecture programme, visit a number of factories and research establish-ments; and mere will, of course, be die customary round of social functions. The last I.A.S.-R.Ae.S. Conference held in die UnitedStates was in 1949, when 47 United Kingdom delegates attended. The R.Ae.S. has issued die following lists of papers to beread: — American.—Airline Use of Elementary Statistical Methods in Air-craft Performance Measurement, by W. C. Mentzer; Design of High Speed Aircraft, by E. H. Heinemann; Design of Large Helicopters,by Bartram Kelley; Shock Tubes, by G. N. Patterson; Hypersonic Flow, by Lester Lees; Some Results of the Princeton University SmokeFlow Tunnels, by David C. Hazen; Power Control Systems for Air- craft, by John W. Ludwig; Combustion for Aircraft Engines, byWalter T. Olson; The Variable Stator Jet Engine, by C. J. Walker. British.—Operation of Turboprop Aircraft, by P. G. Masefield;Stress Analysis of Multi-Web Boxes, by W. S. Hemp; The Interaction Between Shock Waves and Boundary Layers, by D. W. Holder; TheBehaviour of Boundary Layers in Supersonic Flow, by R. J. Monaghan; Fatigue of Aircraft Pressure Cabins, by P. B. Walker; Some Influencesof Equipment Installations and Systems on Aircraft Design, by C. F. Joy; Jet Noise, by F. B. Greatrex; Low Consumption Turbine Engines,by A. A. Lombard; Powerplants for Supersonic Flight, by E. S. Moult.
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