FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1537.PDF
, 18 October 1957 625 THE AERONAUTICAL BOOKSHELF "The Millionth Chance" by James Leasor. Hamish Hamilton, Ltd., 90 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Illustrated. Price 18s. N O other tragedy in British aviation has ever aroused quite thesame widespread poignance as the loss of the R.101. Like the Titanic disaster, the event was of epic proportions; and onboth occasions there was national grief. It seerns surprising that only now—nearly 27 years after the event—has a book appearedwhich gives a complete account of the great airship from her conception in 1924 to her demise, six years later, on a Frenchhillside with the loss of all but six of the 54 persons on board. Since those days a generation has grown up which has never seena British airship, for work on them was stopped abruptly follow- ing the R.101 tragedy. Her successful rival the R.100—which,built by private enterprise, had flown safely to Canada and back —was broken up. The R.101 story is now, therefore, matter for history; and Mr.Leasor has told it with a nice blend of detachment and vividness. His method is admirable: a description of the airship's departureon that stormy Saturday night in October, 1930; an account of her design and building; then a recounting—based on survivors'and witnesses' stories and contemporary reports—of her end and the melancholy obsequies. Only in one respect does his judgmentseem at fault, when he dismisses in three paragraphs die Court of Inquiry report, which is surely of more interest to posteritythan a description of the mass funeral that occupies three pages. What reasons were given by the Court for the disaster? Itconcluded that the immediate cause was a sudden loss of gas in a forward gas-bag at a time when the nose of the airship was beingdepressed by a downward current of air. Another possible con- tributory factor was considered to be the changing of the watchat 2 a.m.—five minutes before the crash occurred—so that the new men had not had time to get the "feel" of the ship. Further,R.101 had started for India "before she could be regarded as having emerged successfully from all the exhaustive tests properto an experimental stage." Mr. Leasor also mentions a letter written by an A.I.D. inspec-tor, warning of gas-bag chafing. This warning went officially unheeded because of further delays which would have beeninvolved by modifications. He notes, too, that a C. of A. was issued before a report being prepared by two independent expertshad been received. He further records in an appendix two extremely interesting seances at which the voices of Irwin, SirSefton Brancker and others were apparently heard describing what occurred.Who was to blame for the disaster? Lord Thomson, the Air Minister, who wanted to make the trip for prestige purposesand was determined to be back in London for the Imperial Con- ference on October 20? F/L. Irwin, the captain, who started theflight in highly adverse weather conditions? No blame was ever apportioned for the accident, and quite rightly so; for those respon-sible for designing, building and flying the great airship all perished in her. Their story has the awful inevitability of aGreek tragedy. Conscientious, dedicated and skilful, they never- theless seem to have been pursued by some Nemesis which doggedtheir endeavours and finally marked them for destruction. H. W. "Air Dates," by A. Cdre. L. G. S. Payne, C.B.E., M.C., A.F.C.William Heinemann, Ltd., 99 Great Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Price 42s. ""THERE has long been room on the aviatiop bookshelf for aA reference work listing concisely and accurately all the important "air dates" since Pilatre de Rozier left the ground in a Montgolfierhot-air balloon on October 15, 1783. Sadly, this painstaking work by the respected air correspondent of the Daily Telegraphdoes not altogether fill the gap. A note on the cover states that Air Dates is "A chronologicalsurvey of the principal events in the fields of military and civil aviation in Great Britain and abroad, beginning in 1783 . . . andending on 31 December 1956." Yet the enquiring reader would search in vain for any reference to the work of Ader, Maxim,Penaud or Curtiss, for Santos-Dumont's officially-recognized first flight in Europe on October 23,1906, for the first helicopter flightsby Breguet and Cornu in 1907, the first flying meeting at Rheims in 1909, the first seaplane flight in 1910, the first official air mailservice in 1911, or the first take-off and landing on a ship, by Eugene Ely.There is a reference to the first German air raid on this country <>n December 21, 1914, but no mention of the first British raidon Germany three months earlier. Even more strange, a glance at the index reveals not a single reference to the work of SirAlliott Verdon Roe, whereas the enemy army commander Rommel gets 22 entries, which seems incongruous in a book of "air" dates. In this lies the clue to the entire worth of A. Cdre. Payne's book:in fact, as is stated inside the dust jacket, the major part concerns itself with the years 1939 to 1956. As a result, on pages 262-3, forexample, we can read that R.A.F. Mosquitoes bombed unspecified targets in the Ruhr on July 12-13 and 13-14, 1944, attachedHanover on July 14-15, Berlin on July 15-16, a synthetic oil plant at Hamburg on July 16-17, and so on. Sixty pages later, there aredates for the entry of the Soviet Army into Bratislava, Konigsberg and Vienna. In short, the author covers the first 155 years of flight (up to1938) in 81 pages and devotes 267 pages to the next seven years, so that one questions whether his book can really claim to liveup to its stated contents. Nevertheless, the information he pro- vides, usually difficult to track down, is of a kind which can beuseful, especially to journalists. They may even have to confirm the dreary fact that Adolf Hitler was born on April 19, 1889. J.T. "Flynn's Flying Doctors" by Harry Hudson. WilliamHeinemann, 99 Gt. Russell Street, London, W.C.I. Illustrated. Price 25s. Ti/f OST of us know of the Royal Australian Flying Doctor1TA Service. We know that it is one of the amenities which make life in the Outback more tolerable—and give the inhabitants abetter chance of survival—than before it was started in 1928. The subject is an obvious one for a book, and Mr. Hudson haswritten it as an entertaining diary of a 20,000-mile journey which he made "discovering" his own country for himself. The trekbrought him into close contact with the flying doctors, and his story relates the details of their life. It shows, too, how theiraeroplanes have done more than act as ambulances—how they have really helped in opening up the hinterland. It is a compre-hensive story and introduces two of the Service's pioneers—the late Very Rev. John Flynn, who had as his parish the whole of theAustralian Inland and who founded the Flying Doctors, and Dr. Allan Vickers, the best known of the doctors, who has beenin the service for more than 20 years. A. C. B. "Aircraft Annual 1958," edited by John W. R. Taylor. Ian Allan,Ltd., Craven House, Hampton Court, Surrey. Illustrated. Price 10s 6d. ANOTHER edifying and entertaining half-guinea's-worth of•**• miscellaneous aeronautical literature and pictures is here assembled under Mr. Taylor's editorship. Contributors includeAir Marshal Sir Robert Saundby, Kenneth W. Gatland, Maurice F. Allward, Patricia and John Stroud, "Apex," Cyril Peckham andJames Hay Stevens; and topics range from "Flying Without a Motor," to "Atlas and Titan." For oneself, "Collectors' Corner"is always a big attraction, and this time we have a gallery of twelve rarities, including a Snipe of 17 Squadron in one of the earliestknown photographs showing the current series of fighter markings; a Virginia with gunners' nacelles outrigged from die upper wing;the crimson D.H.9A used by Sir Robert Brooke-Popham when A.O.C. Iraq; and the first photograph ever published of the"one-off" Typhoon night fighter with A.I. radar installation. (The receiver, modulator and transmitter were housed in theport-wing fuel-tank bay.) H. F. K. "I'll Climb Mount Everest Alone," by Dennis Roberts. RobertHale, Ltd., 63 Old Brompton Road, London, S.W.7. Illustrated. Price 15s. IN this book Dennis Roberts has written-up the diary of MauriceWilson which was found on the mountaineer's body at 21,000ft on the icy slopes of Everest in 1935. This is not essentiallv anaviation story. Wilson embarked on an adventure: flying to India in a D.H. Moth and then planning to land the aircraft as close aspossible to the summit of Everest, preparatory to continuing the ascent on foot. A refusal to allow him to fly over Nepal to themountain ended the flying side of the story—except that the indomitable spirit which was his in the cockpit stayed with himduring his three attempts to conquer Everest on foot. A. C. B. "SelVs British Aviation 1957." Business Dictionaries, Ltd., St. Dunstan's House, 133-137 Fetter Lane, London, E.C.4. Price 15s. NOW in its tenth year, this useful directory provides a compre-hensive guide to the British aircraft and associated industries and organizations. Features include a section on current Britishcivil aircraft specifications, and this year a brief international aviation list has been added. The main body of the directory isdivided into classified products and names-and-addresses sections. It should be emphasized that the price is as quoted above, and notas given in our "other books received" column a fortnight ago.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
