THE CHINA MAIL, THURSDAY, MAY 38, 1935.
AIR PILOTS NOW IN DEMAND: COMMERCIAL FLYING AS A CAREER
Felix Waitkus, native Chicagoan, hopes to gy his plane. Lituanica IL from New York to Kaunas.. Lithuania Stephen Darius and Stanley Girenas, also crashed to their death 120 from their goal in 'a similar tempt
Chicago.
miles
at-
MRS. MOLLISON IN MISHAP
New American Plane Crashes
A NARROW ESCAPE-
SOVIET AIR PLANS
FOR FUTURE
THREE GIANT PLANES TO BE BUILT
HOW "MAXIM GORKY” WAS LOST
Moscow.
THE
THE Government of the Soviet Union decreed on May 20 that three more giant "planes are to be built of the same size and type as the ill-fated aerial giant, the Maxim Gorky, which was the, world's largest 'plane.
>
The new aeroplanes, will be named the Vladimir Lenin. Joseph Stalin and Maxim Gorky.
fell
*S
The Maxim Gorky catastrophe the benzine tanks and saved the caused the greatest consternation village in which the plane, I throughout Soviet Russia, where it from a disastrous fire. was described as the most serious? Newspapers published an expres-
sion of condolence made by MM Jair accident that had ever ocStalin. Kalinin and Molatov.
carred.
follows.
-We wish toTM The press published
express our deep sorrow on the occasion of the loss telegrams of sympathy, and many of our comrades in the disaster members of the 'Diplomatic Corps: called on the Deputy Commissary which befell the Maxim Gorký and
numerouS
"Pravda" Comment
we offer our sincere-condolence to for Foreign Affairs, M. Kreatinsktheir families and friends."> to express their condolences,
Commenting on the disaster, the commander of the squadron." to
In an editorial, Prazda wrote. Mrs. Amy Mollison had a narrow which the 3-fated aeroplane be
"Every detail of the gigantic ; that the aviation escape
at Croydon last month, longed, stated
would not let them-aeroplane was solid and reliable, when landing after a test in her authorities new American machine. A mishap selves be overwhelmed by the loss Prolonged tests had manifested the ance begin work on perfect quality of its constry on.. occurred to the under-carriage, and but would at the machine crashed violently to a new plane larger than the Maxim Nothwithstanding its gigantic se, it flew splendidly, was easily con- the ground.
trolled and Was exceptionally stable.
Mrs. Mollison was mach shaken. but the machine was not badly damaged. Interviewed, after the accident, she said:
Gorky.
Pilots Presence Of Mind
During the catastrophe, in jwhich elever members of the crew!
"I am very upset at this occur-land 36 passengers, including six **rence. 1 have only down the children, were killed, exceptional machine, for the first time to-day self-possession.
and courage WAS
It is a new American Beech Craft shown by the crew of the which has a retractable under-car plane. investigations revealed. riage. I am not used to these un- der-carriages, and found some, "difi- culty in operating it..
чего-
MM. Jurov and Mikees, who were piloting the plane, turned off the "The plane suddenly fopped on motors at the moment the colli- touching the ground, and the un- sion occurred and the machine was der-carriage absolutely crumpled. falling to pieces. This cool-head- It was lucky that the machine did ed action averted an explosion of
not overturn and that we are not burt I shall now have to wait for new spares to be brought across from America.”
DEAD MAN DÓWN BY PARACHUTE
Strange Incident In France
An extraordinary air accident,
RECORD FLIGHT TO MADAGASCAR
(Continued on Page 11)...
DUTCH AIR
LINES TO BE
SPEED
".
UP
"Flying Hotels” On Eastern Route
PRESENT TIME CUT BY
THREE DAYS
Capt. Orville Anderson, left, and Capt. Randolph Williams, right,
·made a substratosphere fight in this army balloon at East St Louis, Illinois, to test the instru- ments which will be used in the `gendola on their next stratosphere
fight.
ATLANTIC SERVICE "PICKABACK”
MAIL PLANE
TO BE BUILT -IMPERIAL AIRWAYS
ORDER
COMPOSITE CRAFT OF
NEW DESIGN
SERIOUS SHORTAGE
A
NEXT YEAR?
PAYING EMPLOYMENT
FOR YOUNG MEN
PHYSICAL FITNESS ESSENTIAL
(By William Courtenay)
NO RESPONSE
TO OFFER OF
£25,000 PRIZE
REJECTED BY AIR INDUSTRY
INSUFFICIENT RETURN ON OUTLAY
The offer by the Air Ministry of
ja £25,000 prize for a medium-sized commercial zeroplane has been, in
sideration
IR pilots are in demand. There are about 500 pilots in Eng-effect referred back for recon-
land who hold the commercial "B" licence and very few of these are unemployed.
In its present for the offer has
An official of the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators, said been rejected by the aircraft in- to me to-days
dustry, and there have been no en-
"There is going to be a serious shortage of commercial pilotsies. The prize will have to be by next year. Young men who are physically fit, and who care much bigger and the plans altered to take up flying as a career, can now come in on a flood-tide.or there will be no competition. They can look forward to lucrative employment once they have the necessary qualifications and e xperience.”
The prize was announced by Sir Philip Sassoon, Under-Secretary for Air, in the House of Commons, on March 19. was only that ma-morning that the Air Ministry
There bad beba no di cussion with representatives at the Jaircraft industry or with air line
There are about $150 short-ser-jaghters. They do not have Ivice commissioned officers who re-perience of multi-engined
tire from the Royal Air Force each chines. They must to-day have came to a sudden decision to offer year at the age of about 25 to 2-certificates for "blind flying" and it Of these, about half take their a second class navigator's ticket. gratuity and buy partnerships or
go into business on their own ac2
COUEL.
Their Own School
Rough Specification After a long interval a rough
Imperial" Alsways have tried to joperators. solve their problem by establish- The other half seek careers as ing their own school at Croydon pilots in civil aviation. There are Aerodrome. There are about 24 Specification was drawn up. It two occupations open to them--air pupils in the school already.
was that of an air finer hisser liner pilot or instructor at a flying By 1957, when there is a daily school.
RAF. Reserve
than the American Douglas, with
service to India and a twice week greater speed. It was immediate- Instructors Neededly service to Australia with night objected that it would be toa Officers put in flying on the routes. Imperial Small for the Empire trunk routes their annual training at the Air Airways will need a large number and too large for inland air lines University at Hamble; Hatfield, (of pilots.
for feeder services on Empire Bristol, and Erough, Yorks Four The Air University at Hamble;
[xputes. more places are now being appoint has made arrangements whereby led by the Air Ministry in view of plots leaving the RAF may ex well known that about £80,000 was
six
A still more vital objection con cerned the value of the prize. It is
the RAF expansion. Qualified (pend their gratuity OD a jinstructors will be needed months' course to fit them for jobs spent on preliminary research and Officers leaving the RAF. who las civil pilots. They are proficient experiments and trials in the de Ivelopment of the Douglas, and that the mere designing and building of & machine for the Air Ministry competition would cost at least 1.250,000.
have the coveted A1 or 32 extegory in navigation, engines, wireless, from the Central Flying School and bliad flying. and with the Wittering, Northants, are quickly latest types of machines, at the. jabsorbed. They are the men wholend of it.
train the EA.Fcadets at Cranwell] Pilots can earn £500 a year and and who give refresher courses of more, and the fact that there is now a shortage of them will tend
instruction.
י
[Continued on Page 11)
to keep up their status and their ROBOT PLANE SETS
emoluments.
Training Of Civilians their services to train civilians for The firing schools like to secure
Apart from entry into an air, the amateur licence and for RAF.lline after service in the RAF, it reserve training.n
fis possible for young men to learn Filots with up to 1,000 hours ex-to Ay at the Air University or at {perience in the RAF. and the Alfone of our flying schools and later and A2 categories, can obtain imetaking the "B" licence and the jmediate - employment. Pilots necessary certificates in navigation Imperial always have placed straight from the Service other-and "blind fiying," they can secure The KLM. Dutch Air Line's with Short Bros of Rochesterwise need further instruction be berths Easter services, which are being an order for the first composite fore they can become pilots of air about 300 to 500 hours of flying in when they have put in duplicated on June 12, will be sup seaplane" to carry mails across liners. Iplemented in addition by 12 aero- the Atlantic to New York
Douglas "Flying This composite craft consists of planes of the Hotels" type, which won the Mel-wo
four-engined monoplanes-3 bourne Race Handicap.
flying-boat with a seaplane on its- This statement was made by Ma
back. M. Moes, the line & chief inspector, who is now visiting India in con-work according to plans designedį
And this is how it will do te Three French aviators, MI Mnection with these developments.
by Major R. H. Mayo. The new fleet will crit three days Laurent and Robert accompaniedį
Previous Time Bettered By More Than Day
MARSEILLES TO ANTANARIVO
in which the body of a pilot was by. M: Genin, an Air France pilot off the present time, doing the jour- brought gently to the ground by a parachute, occurred last month left Marseilles at 03.10 hours enney from Amsterdam to Batavia în
At the take-off at the start of
.near Chateauroux. 150 miles south January 20 to beat the record from five and a half days-each 28 AIR DEFENCES OF HONG KONG.
of Paris.
France to Madagascar. They ar- day being a full eight hours at Antananarivo at 10.05 an average of over 190 miles an Sergt. Herve, piloting a light rived at
hours European time on January 23, hour. Karachi is reached in three military plane, collided 4,000ft up with a two-seater occupied by Cpl days, 6 hours, and 55 minutes days, Calcutta in three and a half
and Rangoon in four.
¡later.
3
Hennique and Lt. Quenebaud, cut- ting it in two. All three men. The previous record was held by were thrown out.
the late M. 3. Goulette and Salel
BRITISH MAIL RATES LESS At the present moment Imperial Peasants saw two parachutes who made the journey in 4 days 7Airways run their London-Singa- -open and rushed to meet them. Sgt hours and 30 minutes in November pore service in less time, by a few
Herve, who came to land first, was 1931
hours, than the Royal Dutch Air only suffering slightly from shock. The aircraft used for the new Line takes from Amsterdam to The second parachute brought record was a Farman 199, (300-hp. Batavia. Each service takes about the body of Cpl Hennique, who Lorraine Algol), F-ALEG. Aero-five days to Calentia: had been killed in the collision. Shell Heavy lubricating oil and The flat rate for Empire air Lt. Queneband's parachute was Shell aviation gasoline were taken mails adopted by the British Post "probably impaired by the crash along the following route: Mar-Office, however, is much cheaper
and failed to open. He fell like a seilles, Syrte, Cairo, Khartoum, Juba, than the Dutch surcharges. stone and was killed outright.
MANY RECORDS
BROKEN
Fine Aviation In
French Race
All records for 100 as well as
1,000 kilometres went by the board during the aeroplane race for the
Dar-es-Salaam, to Mozambique, re- A licence has been acquired for turning via Dar-es-Salaam. Moga-the construction of the Douglas discio, Djibuti, Port Sudan. Cairo,j type: In Great Britain; but it will Benghasi, Tunis and Marseilles (ar-probably take about two years be rived February 1).
fore the first are produced.
Passenger Flung From R.A.F.
Plane Owing To Air Pocket
Work Scheduled To Be Accelerated
As a result of the recent visit of Air Commodore W`L Welsh, Director of Organisation - at the Air Ministry, to the Fer East, work on the air defences in Singapore and Hong Kong is to be accelerated.
Within a year Singapore will haze fize air squadrons. There are at present three, one of flying boats and two of torpedo bombers A fourth squadron will be there in October. A fifth will be sent as soon as work on the second service cerodrome is completed.
The fourth squadron will be of flying boats of the Singapore. III. type, with which the pre- sent fying boat squadron is being re-equipped. The fifth is
Many of them are accustomed to
Great Britain.
flying only single-seater high speed LONDON'S NEED
FOR IMPROVED
AIR DEFENCES
HOME FROM PERSIA
Air Baby's 4,000-Mile Trip
£200,000 OFFER RENEWED
TO COMMEMORATE KING'S JUBILEE
Lady Houston has sent the follow
the Air Minister:
RECORD
Flight Across U.S. Continent
part of
AUTOMATIC CONTROL
Controlled during the greater-
the distance by a robot gyropilot, a two-engined Douglas monoplane established two new trans-Continental records recently by tying non-stop from Los An-
geles to New York (2,400 miles) in
5m
This was nearly 29 min. faster than the crossing made with a (single halt last February, the new records being the fastest crossing in a transport plane and the fastest non-stop flight
The 'plane used was the latest passenger model on, the Trans- Continental and Western Airline (Lindbergh Line) and the primary
Seven-months-old Forbes Alex- ander Hepburn arrived with his mother and father at Croydon re-i cently on the first regular passen- ger air liner from Australia. He had tavelled over 4,000 miles bying message to Lord Londonderry, purpose of the fight was to fest air from Persia.
the robot pilot ad radiobeam ap Smiling happily he was lifed out To commemorate the Jubilee of paratus. of the air liner in the tiny cot in the King, and in view of the dire which he made the journey, and necessity of the present moment, able to devote themselves almost The three men on board Fere waved a golden fountain pen as Lady Houston begs to renew her entirely to scientific studies on the [cameras clicked before him, offer of £200,000 for the air de journey, and they all dined together "My boy must be one of the Hence of London, the capital of the while the machine was speeding on greatest travellers' in the world for King's Empire, which she believes its way at an average his age," Mr. Alexander Hepburn is now utterly unprotecte
theo 218 tại ph Isaid. "He was born at our home When a similar offer was made at Milligan Park, Renfrewshire, two year ago, Mr. Neville Chamber and went out with us by sea to lain. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Persia, where I work with an oil replied: "It appears to me impos company.
sible to accept gifts for er- "We boarded the air liner at penditure on *particular essential Basra. Forbes has travelled over services over and above the expen- 18,000 miles, and was as happy as a ditore....approved by
sandbody in the air liner.”
ment"
almost certain to be of fighting-Parachute "Sport" Explained
bombers.
Two sites for aerodromes have been chosen at Hong Kong,
Parlia
of more
PLANE BUILDING BY SHIPYARDS?.
Possibilities At Belfast
Herland and Wolff, Limited, whose shipyards at Belfast have tarned out some of the world's largest liners. may soon begin building aeroplanes
man, Mr F. Rebbeck, at the an-
To Budding Soviet Pilots This was revealed by the chair- Deutsch de la Meurthe Cup, spon- It was officially admitted at jactive service conditions
LeadingAirerafiman Wilfred The aeroplane from which Green anal meeting of the company sored by Mme. Deutsch de la Moscow recently for the first time
Willoughby Green, attached to the was fung, although only 150 feet cently "It is one thing" he said, "to Meurthe-and held at. Etampes re- that the new sport of parachuting make a parachute descent in one's the journey the seaplane, locked to drome, fell from an aeroplane near
Royal Air Force at Catterick Aero-up, landed immediately. cently. Five Caudron-Renault ma-
During the war we built Green, who came to Catterick a thousand aeroplanes," said Mr. Peo chines with 350 horse-power com- in the Soviet Union is intended to thrilled spectators, but quite an- loaded with mails.
owr country to the ovations of its "porter plane," will be heavily Catterick recently, and was killed few months before, was married beck, "we still have the factory pressor motors and flown by the serve for the training of troops in other to make a landing in strange All eight engines will run full serodrame left the ground in for one of them a baby a few months we have an aerodrome at the back The machines attached to the and left a wife and two children, and the operatives. In addition best pilots in France entered for making landings on enemy terry enemy country. Under such circum-out to get the flying boat of the mation When about 150 feet up old the race, which covers a distance tory in case of war, when stances, it is necessary to have a the water.
door of the factory." of 2,000 kilometres over a 100-lo Kalinin spoke with unprecedented sense of direction and to make The "porter" carrying a very pocket It dropped immediately, E.AF accidents this year. In there had been articles
one of them ́esic tered an zir
This was the 21st death in Mr Rebbeck pointed out that metze triangular course.
frankness on the military signi- quick decisions, and these facilities srrall amount of fuel, will use all and Green, who was a passenger, March a flying officer fell to death papers dealing with the The 100 kilometre record for fierce of this sport at the distribu- must be developed The thought lits power to support the seaplane was ODL landmachines was broken no fewer tion of medals to young para-of-defeat simply must not arise in Then, when sumcient height and arrived.
He was dead when help through the bombing platform of of having an air centre than 35 times, while that for 1,000 chutists.
amachine while taking camera-north-west of a line the heads of our soldiers and com-speed have been attained the sea- Klometres was exceeded twice.
The President of the Central manders, for such a thought could plane
ographs near Eastchurch, Newcastle to The winner of the race was the Committee stated that
destroy the work of years and the across
eppey Int January anHaving regard to pilot, Delmotte, who covered the progress had been made in this vic of Communism would be bost will glide
disappeared from over Europe it w Course at an average speed of 443, branch, but that the decisive test
swäle on maNOCUVI Sincakul 965 kilometres an hour.
of ability would be made under
For
its
Continued on Page 11).
Offcers and men
but
ards
ble if we didn
was reported miss-someth
we are fully qualit