FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1403.PDF
23 September 1955 515 IN MEMORY OF DR. PLESMAN Tributes at first Memorial Lecture AT Delft in the Netherlands last week, Mr. J. D. Pearson T P/\ Wh.Sc, B.Sc, M.I.Mech.E., A.F.R.Ae.S., M.I.P.E., man' J- •»- aging director of the aero engine division of Rolls-Royce,delivered the first Dr. Albert Plesman Memorial Lecture. Entitled The Development and Future of Turbine Engines for Civil Air-craft, Mr. Pearson's paper was summarized in Flight last week. The attendance at the wind-tunnel building of the AeronauticsSection of the Technological University of Delft appeared to us to be a little disappointing in numbers. Nevertheless, severalcountries were well represented on this important occasion, par- ticularly Great Britain and America. The presence of PrinceBernhard of the Netherlands, whose keen practical interest in aviation is known to everyone, added much to the occasion. The Memorial Lectures are sponsored by the InternationalAir Transport Association, whose director-general, Sir William Hildred, C.B., O.B.E., prefaced the lecture with some personalrecollections of Dr. Plesman and his work. The proceedings opened with an address of welcome by Dr.C. H. van der Leeuw, president of the Technological University, who spoke of the honour of having Prince Bernhard present, andreferred also to the guest of honour, Mrs. Plesman—"to whom we pay tribute for the important share she has had in Dr. Plesman'sactivities and for the personal sacrifices she has made for aviation." Dr. van der Leeuw then asked Sir William Hildred to introducethe lecture series. Sir William said that it had been remarked that whilst therewere over two thousand million people in the world at any given time, there were not more than fifty thousand who really ran it.It would probably remain true that the world would continue to be run by a handful of creative thinkers and the inert masswould follow. In this sense, all the really influential people were essentially imaginative, intelligent and creative. It had also been said—and history to some extent confirmed it—that the best breeding-ground for great men was a small and compact community. Holland was a case in point. It was asmall country with an imperishable record in the arts and sciences, in maritime tradition, in its roster of great thinkers, in the courageof its people, and in its way of life, which was admirable and deeply satisfying. In the new art of flying, it was not surprisingthat Holland produced her great man—great in the hearts of his own people, great in thought and action, great in the memoriesof many hundreds of his international friends. Albert Plesman was born not far from Delft on September 7th,1889, without a silver spoon in his mouth—or without advantages. He joined the Fifth Infantry Regiment of his country in 1911—44 years ago—and at that point he made his first acquaintance with flying. From then until the night he died [New Year's eve,1953] flying was in his blood, and he enriched it with every thought and action. He obtained his wings in November 1918, at the time of theArmistice. He had seen something of aviation as a destructive mechanism; now he said "this flying, which was a hell, can becomea heaven"; and then he made his real start by organizing, in August 1919, the first aviation exhibition in Holland, whicharoused tremendous interest. That exposition converted his country to be as thoroughly air-minded as over the centuries it hadbeen sea-minded, and the interest it aroused helped to facilitate the formation of K.L.M. Royal Dutch Airlines on October 7th,1919. From the very start his ability, insight, energy, common sense and personal strength took K.L.M. into a leading position inthe world of international aviation. It did not trouble Plesman that Holland, with her small popu-lation and domestic preoccupa- tions, could not in the nature ofthings be a great traffic-gene- rating country. But he knew hispeople; he knew their mettle; he knew they could be goodfliers. He followed his star, and he made K.L.M. great. Today K.L.M., whichstarted with 12 people in 1919, had over 13,000 employees,operated routes all over the word totalling 150,000 miles,penetrated into 67 countries, and linked a hundred cities with a modern fleet of about a hundred first-class aircraft. Plesmanalways had a roving eye for a good aeroplane and his judgment in seeing ahead was never at fault. Coming nearer to the question of his contacts with and influenceupon the International Air Transport Association, one remem- bered that he was one of the 12 men who met at The Hague underthe chairmanship of Sir Sefton Brancker on August 25th, 1919, and who formed the Association. An agreement was signed thatafternoon by five of them, with K.L.M. signing up almost imme- diately. The Dutch company was actually in process of beingformed at the very moment when the old I.A.T.A. was being formed. The latter was established—if, said Sir William, hemight quote from the signed agreement—"with a view to co- operate to mutual advantage in preparing and organizing inter-national aerial traffic." From that day to the date of his death, Plesman was active in every phase of the Association's work,both as K.L.M.'s main spokesman and as president in 1929 and 1934. Though saturated in his job and dedicated to the world of airtransport, Plesman had another fountain of inspiration and com- fort; that was his church and his religion. He had time forcontemplation during the Second World War, and during that period he worked out a plan for international co-operation basedon his theory and practice that the ocean of the air united all people and that every man could benefit from the goodwill andhelp of every other man. As a practical idealist, his project of international co-operation with the objective of executing greattechnical projects for the benefit of mankind, was perhaps as significant a facet of the man as his indomitable energy and visionin creating his international airline. Sir William knew no one who did not regard him with deep respect and close affection.Another endearing characteristic was the simplicity of his family life. He lived quietly, loving his family, bearing with Christianfortitude the tragic loss of two fine sons in the cause of aviation. Sir William Hildred concluded his introduction by relating howI.A.T.A.'s executive committee came to decide upon the lecture series as the most fitting form of memorial. After Mr. Pearson had delivered his paper, a vote of thankswas proposed by Dr. H. J. van der Maas, chairman of the Aero- nautics Section of the University, who said that the lecturerhad established beyond doubt that the propeller turbine would be the main source of power of most categories of civil aircraftfor a number of years to come, and that it would contribute towards faster and more economic air transportation on a basis of increasingsafety, the ideal which Dr. Plesman always advocated. COMMONWEALTH SURVEY OFFICERS' CONFERENCE THE 1955 Commonwealth Survey Officers' Conference tookplace recently at the Department of Geography, Cambridge University, under the presidency of Brigadier M. Hotine, C.M.G.,C.B.E., Director of Colonial Surveys. Some 240 delegates and observers attended (the latter includingrepresentatives of U.S.A., the Netherlands, France, Belgium and Eire) from Government survey and technical establishments andfrom commercial survey organizations and instrument manu- facturers. An exhibition of survey equipment included photo-graphic and photogrammetric instruments used in air survey. The principal business of the Conference entailed the discus-sion of a number of technical papers previously distributed and covering a wide range of subjects in the fields of land, air andhydrographic surveying. Among the papers concerned with air survey were the following:— The Thompson-Watts Plotting Machine, by Professor E. H. Thomp-son, O.B.E., University College, London. The Williamson Plotter Type L.S.P., by Mr. J. E. Odle, Williamson Manufacturing Co., Ltd. RadioAids to Surveying, by Mr. C. Powell, Decca Navigator Co., Ltd. Modern Survey Methods as Adapted to Canadian Conditions, by Mr. W. H.Miller, Director of Surveys and Mapping Branch, Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Ottawa, Canada. An Aerial Survey OperationOverseas, by Mr. W. P. Smith, M.B.E., Air Survey Co., Ltd. Aerial Photography in Nigeria, by Mr. H. A. Stamers Smith, Director of FederalSurveys, Nigeria. Mapping with Multiplex Equipment from High Alti- tude Photography, by Maj. I. E. Sleep, R.E., No. 1 Survey ProductionCentre, R.E. The Provision of Photogrammetric Control for Large Scale Surveys of Great Britain, by Lt.-Col. B. St.G. Irwin, R.E., OrdnanceSurvey. The Use of Plotting Machines for 1:1250 Air Survev, by Maj. D. V. Hutchinson, M.B.E., R.E., Ordnance Survey. Aerial Photo-graphy and Resources Surveys, by Mr. T. D. Weatherhead, O.B.E., and Mr. V. C. Robertson, Hunting Aerosurveys, Ltd.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
