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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1858.PDF
972 FLIGHT, 21 December 1961 Correspondence The Editor of "Flight" is not necessarily in agreement with the viewsexpressed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Britain's First SeaplaneI WOULD like to comment on the photograph and caption ad-joining my recent letter (November 30) concerning the fiftieth anniversary of the first flight by a British seaplane. Your predecessors were perfectly correct in describing themachine illustrated as Water Hen. This was the second aeroplane built for the Lakes Flying Co and followed Water Bird in April 1912.The latter was constructed by A. V. Roe & Co and the former at Borwicks, Bowness-on-Windermere. Water Hen flew from April 30, 1912, until early 1916, whenAsheton Sutton taxied it full tilt into a yacht; and during this time many RNAS pupil pilots gained their first flying experience on themachine. 1 enclose some papers [a page from a brochure is reproduced above—Ed], one of which substantiates in part the statements made in my previous letter. Perhaps Roger Bacon would like to peruse them sothat he can get his facts 'straight and level." Hounslow, Middx H. F. COWLEY Pilots and Money I WAS sorry to see (December 7 issue, page 893) that there is such adiscrepancy between the Independents' and the Corporations' rates of pay. But it occurs to me that the situation might be better if there were no negotiated agreements whatsoever in relation to the Independents—having regard to Section 15 of the Civil Aviation Act 1949, two paragraphs of which are quoted below:— "15 (1) The provisions of this section shall have effect for the purposeof securing that the terms and conditions of employment of persons employed by any independent undertaking constituted for the purposeof providing air transport services or of carrying out other forms of aerial work shall, except in so far as those terms and conditions(a) are regulated by or under any enactment other than this section; (b) are in accordance with an agreement for the time being in forcebetween the undertaking and organizations representative of the persons employed; or (c) are in accordance with any decision for the time beingin force of a joint industrial council representing the undertaking and organizations representative of the persons employed; comply with thefollowing requirement, that is to say, that they shall not be less favourable than the terms and conditions observed by the Airways Corporationsin the case of persons engaged in comparable work [my italics), or, where the Airways Corporations do not observe the same terms and conditionsfor persons engaged in comparable work, are not less favourable than the terms and conditions observed for such persons by at least one ofthose Corporations. "(2) If any dispute arises as to whether the terms and conditionsof any person's employment ought to comply with the requirement aforesaid, or as to what terms and conditions ought to be observed forthe purpose of complying therewith, the dispute shall, if not otherwise disposed of, be referred by the Minister to the Industrial Court forsettlement." Richmond, Surrey H. CAPLAN Air Bus Makes Money THERE seems to be some understandable confusion (Flight,November 9, p 747) between Eastern Air Lines' "Air Bus"and "Air Shuttle" operations. This no doubt stems from the fact that both services are provided generally by identical and inter-changeable equipment—Super and Super-C Constellations, which until recently bore the legend ''Fly Eastern Air Bus" on their sides.(They now say simply "Fly Eastern Air Lines.") To explain the differences, in summary: "Air Bus" requiresadvance payment and ticketing; has restrictions on refunds; operates on relatively infrequent schedules; has fixed capacity,and is primarily designed to attract vacationists. "Air Shuttle," on the other hand, has no advance reservations, although ticketsmay be purchased before flight as well as paid for on board; operates on very frequent weekday schedules (hourly 7 a.m. to10 p.m.); has unlimited capacity (we carried over 7,500 passengers on 103 flights on Sunday, November 26, operating our 10 p.m.New York-Boston flight in seven sections in order to carry students and others returning from the Thanksgiving Holiday weekend);and is normally patronized chiefly by business commuters. "Air Shuttle," by the way, has, now carried more than 400,000passengers since it began operations on'April 30 this year, and has maintained an exactly-on-time departure record of 96.6 per cent—unheard of in the industry. We were amused by your reference to the "publicity boys." May "WAWR MKN" OVER WINDERMERE. Tills machine was entirely designed a»d constructed focaHy by the Lakes Flying Co., on Winderraer«, except only liie engine, which is a French 50h,y>. G»c*«e, It flew satisfactorily on the first trial witlioat any adjust- ment, ant! itas repaired no adjustments, and very few repairs since. !t is easy al control, both an and off the water, comfortable «»n<J jwpubur with passengers, and well-adapted few learners. One of the pages from a brochure, "Waterplanes or Hydro- aeroplanes" published by The Lakes Flying Co, Cockshott. Windermere, and sent by Mr Cowley with his letter in col I 1 reassure you, as the one who was on hand when we operated thefamous first "Air Shuttle" flight for one passenger, that this was not a contrivance! It happened in the normal course, and we took whatadvantage of it we could. As it happened, we did not even have our photographer on hand, having just sent him back to his studio todevelop other pictures he had been making at the airport. New York 20. NY EUGENE DU BOIS, Eastern Air Lines Inc Supersonic Rat-race? I WOULD like to point out to Phugoid (Correspondence,November 23) that we are not all sissies. 1 rather enjoy supersonicbangs and 1 see no reason why progress should be halted for the sake of a few nerve cases. For Heaven's sake let us have somepioneer spirit in aviation; it should not all be submerged in economics. Also remember, a plane that can cut turn-around time in halfcan cut its payload in half, doubling the safety factor for any given passenger. Don't publish the letters of grey-minded miseries. British avia-tion has been let down by too much dead wood at the top. Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire G. TAYLOR Bringing Back BoomerangsD UE, one can only assume, to the current popularity of one ofthe top pops in which Mr Charlie Drake bemoans his in- ability to make his boomerang come back, the writer has had anunusual number recently of requests for references to the theory of boomerangs. Even Australia House was in the queue. By a happy chance the famous File of Abstruse References whichhas been collected over the years contains an item or two which may be of interest to the Flight reader. The earliest reference is in the Philosophical Transactions (A) ofthe Royal Society for 1890 (Volume CXC, pages 23-41). This is by G. T. Walker. The omniscient Lanchester has a considerable articlein his Volume II (Aerodonetics). Appendix VIIIB deals at length with the weapons. A book entitled Treatise on Gyrostatics andRotational Motion by Gray was originally published in 1918 but was re-published as a paperback by Dover Publications of New Yorkin 1959 and this contains some good stuff on the subject. Con- stables are Dover agents in this country. The French journal VAeronautique for September 1933 containsDu Boomerang a FAutogire, which sounds an interesting develop- ment. Finally, a reference which I seem to have acquired withoutactually seeing the relevant book is Theorie, fabrication et lancement de boomerangs by Turck, published in Paris by Chieron. Thissounds as though it might be the best of the lot. London Wl FRANK SMITH R/T Phraseology AmendmentsI SHOULD like to point out to "Co-pilot" (Correspondence, November 30) that "Roger Dodger" may also be construed as / watch Huckleberry Hound (sorry, Ho-o-o-o-ound). Newbury, Berks YOGI BEAR
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