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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1483.PDF
FLIGHT, 7 October 1955 593 THE AERONAUTICAL BOOKSHELF "Grmt Airmen," by Wf C.Norman Macmillan, M.C., A.F.C.Iel!£SZ Hl^"^ ^^ S L RANGING from the Wright brothers flying at 30 m.p.h toAmerican test pilots reaching speeds of over 1,000 m DJI this book gives some informative details about well-knownaviation pioneers, fighter pilots and test pilots of various nationali- ties. W/C. Macmillan has taken trouble to treat his subjectthoroughly, balancing particulars of heights and speeds achieved by aircraft with personal details and anecdotes of the menidentified with them. Simply written, it should appeal to readers of all ages. "Collected Papers on Aviation Medicine," Agardograph No. 6.Published on behalf of the Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development, NATO, by Butterworths ScientificPublications, 88 Kingsway, London, W.C.2. Illustrated. Price 37s 6d. "THIS is a collection of the papers presented at Aeromedicalx Panel meetings of A.G.A.R.D., the NATO aeronautical re- search body. Eighteen papers are reproduced, four of them inFrench, the rest in English, dealing with a variety of aviation medicine topics, from methods of selecting suitable aircrew recruitsto factors governing the resistance of the human body to various acute stresses. Particular attention has been paid to cockpit layouts, and tothe relationship which must exist in this connection between the medical research worker and the technical design engineer. Theeffects of cold and extreme climatic conditions and their effect on survival of aircrew are the subject of several papers. The collective publication of these treatises offers an excellentwork of reference for those concerned with, or interested in, aviation medicine. "Civil Defence" (History of the Second World War), by T. H.O'Brien. H.M. Stationery Office, Atlantic House, Holbom Viaduct, London, E.C.I. Price 37s 6d. IN the Stationery Office series dealing with the history of theSecond World War, this volume presents a most detailed and instructive picture of all the aspects of Civil Defence—"a newform of national defence" evolved slowly between the two World Wars to counter heavy air attacks. It shows how air raid pre-cautions were based on the two principles of harnessing this defence to the machinery of local authorities and of inviting allsections of the community to play their part in sharing the burden. The early, small-scale air raids of the war were followed by thebuilding-up of further defences in the months of respite from late 1939 until the spring of 1940. Regional organization, training,equipment, the National Fire Service, and types of shelter, are all discussed in great detail, and the final chapter traces the plansand efforts made to meet the challenge of the V-weapons used in the last year of the war. A pleasing point about this very compre-hensive book is the lucid prose employed throughout; official jargon is very largely avoided. "British Civil Aviation," by D. G. T. Harvey. Adlard Coles Ltd., Southampton, in association with George G. Harrap and Co., Ltd., 182 High Holborn, London, W.C.I. Illustrated. Price 15 s. PART 1 of this pocket-sized handbook contains photographs,general arrangement drawings, specifications and other data of all aircraft flown by British airlines, together with notes on futureprojects. Part 2 presents directory-style particulars of the history, executives, routes, fleet and some statistics of British operatingcompanies. The whole thing is printed on art paper and, within its limita-tions, is quite attractive and informative. Chief criticism is that the standard of the G.A. drawings ranges from adequate to deplorable.There is no consistency. In some cases the plan drawing shows an underneath view; in other cases a top view. Airscrews areshown variously as discs, blades, dotted lines or not at all. Scales are not always the same in all three views of a single type.Nor has the data been cross-checked satisfactorily. Silver City are credited with 16 Bristol 170s on page 59 and only 15 on page157 The Princess has up to 200 seats on page 103 and 220 on page 126. Reference is made to the closing of Lympne in column 2on page 157, yet services from Lympne are listed m column 3. Other errors include the persistent mis-spelling Sikorski, andreference to the Leonides Major as the standard engine of the Such faults should not exist in so small a book priced at fifteen shillings. "Squadron Airborne," by Elleston Trevor. William HeinemannLtd., 99 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Price 13s bd. "fcJO book that we have read in recent years has brought back•L ^ such vivid, tragically-proud memories of the Battle of Britain as this novel by Elleston Trevor. The story itself is superb: butit is the almost uncanny accuracy of detail that makes it live for those who had half-forgotten such sights as a row of human'mobile sandbags" lying on the tailplane of a Spitfire while its engine was run up, or sounds like the "ticking" of the Merlin as itcooled and contracted. That such a book has come from an author who claims no closeassociation with Fighter Command in 1940 reflects the vast amount of care and research that must have gone into it. Thetheme is no different from that of dozens of lesser novels—just an account of life, and death, in a single squadron at a fictitious air-field in Southern England over a period of a single week in that grim summer.There are the usual calm, capable squadron leader; the worn- out veteran of Dunkirk breaking up under the strain of endlesscombat against odds; the new boy who must, inevitably, make good; an over-amorous Waaf. But these characters are different.They are real, just as all the things that happen to them are real; and the reader understands every facet of their many-sidedcharacters because for 254 pages he lives with them, sharing their thoughts, fears and desires. Perhaps, more than anything else, Squadron Airborne ringstrue because it underlines the great contribution to victory made by the ground crews—men like L.A/C. Cornelius, for whom anenemy raid on the airfield was nothing like so worrying as the fact that one of the squadron's all-too-few Spitfires needed a new air-compressor to make it serviceable. In every way, this book is worthy of "The Few" to whom it is dedicated. "Canada's Flying Heritage," by Frank H. Ellis. University ofToronto Press. Obtainable from Oxford University Press, Amen House, Warwick Square, London, E.C.4. Illustrated. Price 63s. Yl^RITTEN by one of Canada's best-known "early birds," this"' is a superb record of that country's contribution to the history of aviation, in 388 pages and hundreds of illustrations.It begins with the story of the Aerial Experiment Association, founded in 1907 by the great Canadian inventor, Dr. AlexanderGraham Bell, and which first gave scope to the design genius of the American Glenn Curtiss. The June Bug, built by the A.E.A. toCurtiss's design, made the first official one-kilometre flight recorded in the Western Hemisphere and so won the Scientific AmericanTrophy in 1908. More important, it led to the whole series of later successful Curtiss designs. It was followed by the Silver Dart, credited to Canadian JohnMcCurdy who, on February 23, 1909, made in it the first official controlled aeroplane flight by a British subject anywhere in theEmpire, by flying more than half a mile over the frozen surface of Bras d'Or Lake, Baddeck, Nova Scotia. Six months later it wasdemonstrated to the Canadian Army at Petawawa military camp, near Ottawa, without convincing them of its usefulness. But the growing reliability and promise of aviation could not beoverlooked for long in a country such as Canada, where surface travel is difficult or even impossible for much of the year in remotenorthern districts. The 1914-18 War led to the start of the country's aircraftindustry; and, soon after the Armistice, airmen (among them Frank Ellis himself) began making survey flights into the farnorth. Before long the term "bush flying" had been added to the language of flight. More than that, its peculiar demands had atremendous influence on aviation progress in the Dominion, calling for successive generations of tough, highly skilled pilots and rugged,reliable aircraft, from the Fokkers and Fairchilds of the twenties and thirties to the Beaver and Otter of today. Inevitably, there is much about bush flying in this book, and itmakes first-class reading. The illustrations leave little doubt of either its hazards or its value, and the variety of jobs undertakenwill surprise most readers. One picture, dating from the days before specialized freight-planes existed, shows how horses wereflown on bush services—doped, on large wooden stretchers! Many of the great names of aviation appear in the pages ofCanada's Flying Heritage. In the early days, pioneers like Glenn Martin and Bill Boeing, and stunt men like Lincoln Beachey, flewover the border to cash in on growing Canadian air-mindedness. Later, the Dominion (and Newfoundland) became stepping stonesfor great flights by Alcock and Brown, Wiley Post, Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Hinkler, Mollison and a host of others. But the real value of this book is that it records the work ofhundreds of lesser-known men and women, who would probably
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