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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 1474.PDF
290 Letters The Editor of" Flight International" is not necessarily in agreement with the views expressed by correspondents in these columns. Names and addresses of writers, not for publication in detail, must in all cases accompany letters. Brief letters will have a better chance of early publication. United Kingdom FAA SIR,—May I say how much I agree with the leading article in your issue of August 8? You suggest that the MoA's functions should be divided, one part of the Ministry dealing with military procurement and the other with civil aviation. I would go further and suggest that the latter part should be hived-off completely and called the Ministry of Civil Avia tion, thus reviving (as you say) an old name but giving the organization a new purpose. The importance of this change would be that the MCA would have a clearly defined field of activity—commercial, executive and private aviation. These three types of flying overlap, and it would be helpful to have an administrative authority which could deal with their problems within an overall context. The MCA would also handle orders for airliners. Military procurement—fighters, bombers, missiles, etc—would be the responsibility of the new Ministry of Defence. Woking, Surrey PAUL HUMPHREYS Groundborne Executives SIR,—How pleasant it has been to see a light aircraft flying over London during the rush hours in recent weeks! One imagined (in a few light-headed moments, while walking from station to office in a tide of commuters) that here was someone wealthy and enterprising enough to have solved the getting-to-town problem: someone who had climbed aboard his executive twin at a private airfield in Surrey, Hampshire, Essex or Berkshire, then after a pleasant 20min flight landed at a London airport within a tube or bus ride of his office. But this lone executive twin scudding along happily through the London Control Zone was of course the Auto mobile Association's Piper Apache, surveying the choked mass of private cars squeezing daily into and out of London. Is it not ironic that in these aviation-minded days we simply do not use the air for domestic commuting, but crawl ant-like over the ground ? Tring, Herts JACK STRAW Brazil's Ponte Aerea SIR,—Having been browsing through some of your earlier 1963 issues I feel I must drop you a few lines regarding the excellent report entitled "Walk-on to Rio" (April 18). It is articles of this kind that in my opinion make your journal all the more appreciated by its readers especially those of us who are continually striving to increase our knowledge of the vast business we call international air transport. Unquestionably our Brazilian friends have shown us all just what can be achieved in the field of inter-city (domestic) air transport: truly a uniquely efficient "air-bridge" between the great cities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, with re sulting benefits to Brazil's prosperity as well as that country's astonishing industrial growth, especially in the past decade. Your article states that the air-bridge started in August 1960. This is correct so far as the pooling between Varig (60 per cent), VASP (30 per cent) and Cruzeiro (10 per cent) is concerned. But even as long ago as 1952 some 600,000 passengers were annually flown between Rio and Sao Paulo, no less than nine carriers being involved. Eight operators (including the three airlines now pooling) carried passengers and cargo, whilst the ninth, Cia Itau de Transportes Aereos, carried cargo only. From 1952 to about 1958, VASP was the operator with the greatest frequency of flights between FLIGHT International, 22 August 196$\ the two cities, followed by Cruzeiro, next RAL, and then Panair do Brasil, whilst the now dominant Varig was in those days one of the smaller carriers, operating some 26 flights weekly. It is interesting to recall that the original Rio - Sao Paulo air service was inaugurated on August 5, 1936, by the then German-dominated VASP. Equipment was just two Junker Ju 52/3m, flying two return trips daily on weekdays and one on Saturdays, whilst there were no Sunday flights. Flying time between the two cities was then lhr 50min. However, even by 1940 the service became so popular that the Ju 52s, being 17-seaters, were by then operating at an amazingly high load factor, averaging 90 per cent on these flights. Despite an unfortunate number of fatal airline accidents in Brazil in the past five years, for example, the exceptional safety record of the Ponte Aerea deserves honourable mention, since the percentage of accidents (both fatal and non-fatal) is comparatively infinitesimal considering the huge number of daily flights on this route. I certainly envied the brief visit of your Air Transport Editor to both Rio and Sao Paulo, and he certainly has given us a most enlightening and entertaining report of his impres sions of the Ponte Aerea. Nairobi, Kenya DENNIS M. POWELL Nesterov Anniversary SIR,—Fifty years ago—on August 27, 1913, at 6 p.m.— a hitherto unknown pilot of the Imperial Russian Air Service, Peter N. Nesterov, aged 26, performed a loop over Syretzk aerodrome at Kiev. His aircraft was a brand new Nieuport 4, built by the Dux Factories, Moscow, and powered by a 70 h.p. Gnome engine. Nesterov was born on February 15, 1887, at Nishni- Novgorod (now Gorki), a son of Capt N. F. Nesterov, tutor of the Count Arakcheyev Cadet Corps. In 1904 he graduated from this corps and in 1906 from the Michael Artillery School, then served with the 9th East Siberian Artillery Brigade at Vladivostock. Four years later he was transferred to the Aeronautics Battalion. In the summer of 1911 he built and flew a glider at Nishni-Novgorod. In October he was transferred to the Officers' Aeronautics School and in August 1912 to Gatchina Flying School. A month later he received his pilot's certificate and seven days later a military pilot's certificate. In the spring of 1913 he was appointed CO of the XI Corps Air Squadron at Kiev. On August 10-11 he made a Kiev-Ostyor-Neshin-Kiev group flight. Fifteen days later he performed his loop and five days later was promoted captain. During March 1-5, 1914, he carried out a Kiev - Odessa - Sebastopol flight, on May 11 one between Kiev and Gatchina in 8 hours, and on July 11 a Moscow-St Petersburgh flight. On May 14, 1914, Adolphe Pegoud said in Moscow that Capt Nesterov was the originator of the loop. On July 28, 1914, in a Morane-Saulnier, Nesterov made his first air reconnaissance over the Austrian lines. On August 20, with Staff Capt Lazarev as observer, he was compelled to land behind the Austrian lines near Lvov. They burnt their Morane and returned on foot through the front line, where they took prisoner an Austrian sentry. Six days later, at 1030hr, an Austrian Albatros biplane was flying over the Russian XI Corps Air Sqn aerodrome at 1,500m. Nesterov took off in his Morane and deliberately rammed the upper wing of the enemy aircraft from above and behind, with the Morane's undercarriage. Both planes crashed near the village of Volya Vysotzka, in the vicinity of the town of Sholkva. In the ramming, Nesterov broke his spine and fell out of the cockpit. The Albatros crew (pilot, observer and air mechanic) were killed. Five days later Nesterov was buried with full military honours in the tomb of the ancient legendary Russian Prince Askold, the highest honour Czarist Russia could bestow. After the Civil War his ashes were re-buried in the Lukyanov Cemetery at Kiev. In January 1915 he was posthumously awarded the coveted Order of St George Class IV for valour. Nesterov is the Russian national hero-airman. The town of Sholkva and district of Sholkva were renamed after him. Farmers of the collective farm in the village of Volya
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