Page
WINTER ON THE AIRWAYS
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS TUESDAY - DECEMBER 15, 1936.
AVIATION
Wireless Progress In METEOROLOGY IN AIR Writing Messages On AIR HALTS IN
South Africa
More Facilities Than Improved Equipment At Cape
Ever Before ·
Town And Elsewhere,
Improved types of radio equip- ment which have been installed at the Cape Town alt-port are soori to be made available at all main aerodromes throughout the Union Detalls of this of South Africa. new equipment, which, Includes the Lorenz apparatus for landing under conditions of bad viability. were described and discussed re- of the
Winter time tables on the air routes are now in full swing. They provide more facilities for winter flying than has ever been the case before. Not only are more services available this winter, but the amenities at modern air-porte and in the well-heated saloons of multi-engined alr-ners, now ep- able passengers to take advantage } cently at a conference of the speed of air travel during the winter period and, at the same lime, to make their journey, "n conditions of complete comfort
'Old-timers' at London's air port' do not need to be reminded Low different conditions are day as compared with that planeer post-war phase when commercial
مرینا
aviation was not a business but an adventure an adventure not only for those operating services, but $130 for those passengers, who made journeys in hastily-convert- ed wur-type aircraft.
South African Radio League.
Members were old how, after a plot has been guided to within a few miles of an air-port by the direction-finding me- usual radio thods, he would then switch on his ultra short-wave receiver, and lis- ten for the beacon signals of the Lorenz apparatus.
Once these
were picked up, the pllat would fy down the beam to the landing- ground,
receiving other signals while descending which would tell him his height from moment to moment above the ground.
Air-ports in Europe how have bad weather equipmen of this nature, enabling landings to be made in mist or fog, and the Lon- don sir-port at Croydon is being similarly installed. "
Air transport in its infancy was little more than a Ane-weather proposition. Plenty of passengers came forward to make trips during the summer, but there were only a tew hardy souls who braved the primitive conditions of winter fly- ing as they existed in immediate-
In ly post-war years. Air-ports then equipped air-port which is Tanslated of a few scattered sheds. striking contrast to the bleak. and presented a primitive Wild draughty sheds of the earlier aero- West' sort of appearance. Airway dromes. And that same contrast is catering was non-existent. And in emphasised when passengers enter- the cramped and noisy aircraft one of the big luxury air-ners of which were then in use there were Imperiul Airways. Large and lofty practically none of the amenities air-saloons in some cases larger to be found in the air-liners of to- than those of a railway Pullman- day. Except, in fact, for their mail car-are scientifically heated for and freight traffic, the majority of winter-fying. Special winter pioneer air-lines almost ceased to menus, containing a variety of at- function when winter came.
tractive hot. dishes, figure in the What a constrast between then
service of the at-liner: catering and now! To-day passengers en
while the experienced air captains ter luxurious motor-coaches to erdeavouring always to ensure drive from the West End "to Croy-pleasant conditions for their pas~. don, and, on arriving there, and sengers-fly at heights where the themselves in a spacious and tally air conditions are least disturbed.
"
MOTOR
THINGS THAT
MATTER
· "Vision"
THE HUMBER "VOGUE"
BY JOHN PRIOLEAU It may have been my trial of the new Humber "Vogue," or it may, have been a good many hundreds of miles driven in about a dozen sorts of best British autumn wen- ther in my own car that made me realise fully and for the hundredth time how far we have to go yet be- fore we can see properly out of. our cars.
to
not necessary
TRANSPORT
Work On Empire And
Atlantic Routes
Tails Of Mail-Planes
How Trick In Alašku Is Being Nipped In Bud
Air-mail operators in Alaska, ac-
THE PACIFIC
New Era For Islands Of Romance
cording to reports which have Ons of the romanes of modern been received have had to cope i aviation, is to be found in the re- with an ingenious method, devised † moze island air-hilts of the great by certain of those living near trans-Pacific air-mail. On Mid- lonely landing-grounds. "in" com municating with each other by air without paying in the nature of air-mall fees.
ย
way Island, lying half-way be- tween America and Asia, tech- 'nicians have now established fully-equipped ocean air-station. Yet until the Pacific Cable Com- pany placed one of its lonely posts
Repert dealing with the deve- lopment of British meteorology from a civil aviation point of view show that during last year active progress was being made in many directions. There were important. Empire and international confer ences in London in August and in Warsaw in September. At the lat- ter conference agreement was reached as to many questions af-
The method has been as follows. recting uniformity In weather
An individual would stroll on to a maps, and in the transmission of aying-ground and, on learning on Midway, this coral Island, with weather reports by radio,
thai an air-mall plane was about sifs Ideal climate, was uninhabited to leave for some specified; town or.) save by sea-birds. settlement not far off, would busy himself scribbling a brief surrepeti- tious note on the ship's tail-plane or fuselage.
;
†
During the year special atten- tion was paid to meteorology on the Empire routes and to the ques- tion the weather aspects of pro- posed trans-Atlantic air-mail. Conferences as to meteorology on the Atlantic route were held at Ottawa and Washington, and pro- posals considered for the estab- Ishment of a network of observing stations in Newfoundland, and for the forecasting organisations that would be required at terminal bases. Investigations were also, de- cided upon with a view to study- ing the varying strength of head- | venue of the air-mail is being winds on east-to-west crossings of the Atlantic.
On another remote spóc in the
the vastness. of
Pacific. Wake Island, the engineers have not only provided wireless and re-fuelling The friend or friend who were facilitisa, but also a luxurious In the know' would then go to the guest-house for ocean air pasten- aerodrome where the aeroplane gers Wake Island boasts a lovely was due to alight and, when it had laguon, which acts as an ideal landed, they would stroll over and alighting-point for the big flying- read the message which their cor- boats of the trans-Pacific air- respondent had penned hurriedly i maila. on tail or fuselage. But this me- thod of communication, without Į contributing anything to the re-
THE AIRWAYS OF
JAPAN'
Four new Japanese alr-ires. totalling just on 1.000 miles in length, are about to be opened up | by the Japan Air Transport Com-1 pany. One is a route from Tokio to Niigata; another from Osaka to Nagano: a third from Osake to Matave: and a fourth between Osaka and Kocht. In addition to these, several other air-lines are due to be inaugurated next spring, including a Tokio-Sappora service, and one from Osaka to North Korea.
JOTTINGS
of a
celebrated
ruler-straight I understand, on roads as it is on our winding, up- dressmaker, is an intelligent effort and-down, open-closed byways.
Not being a ·coachbuilder, but having driven large numbers of cars many miles in a large variety of circumstances, 1 nave only knowledge of the disease, none of the remedy. Like you, I know that if the screen of a closed car, of course) is high as well as wide and well raked, which means that the front edge of the roof is, so to speak. set back, the driver can sec far better than in normal condi- tions. I know that thick front pillars can make a deadly blind spot on both sides, that cars have been built with thin ones without. so far as I know, imperiiling the structure.
to admit vision to its occupants. It is cursed,' inevitably, with the ¦ usual front pillers, but it has none between the screen and the back panel. A single window, in two sections, gives light to front and back seats. The sideways view of driver and back-seat passengers is uninterrupted between those front pillars and the point where the upper part becomes solid again-a few inches in front of the back passengers' shoulders.
į frowned upon heavily by the au-
thorities, and wily person who | approaches an air-mail machine with a view to pencilling a hurried. note on its tall to be read by some friend at a neighbouring settle- ment is now gently but firmly re- moved from the vicinity.
PROGRESS OF AIR
A
TRAVEL IN RUSSIA
The Soviet authoritie, have 15-
sued figures as to air transport developments in Russia during a period covering the first eight months of 1936. It is stated that during this period-Shvit commer-
cial Bircraft carried 19,130 tons of freight, 3,885 tons of malls, and 112,853 passengers. Among the freight consignments dealt with were sulphur, copper, various con centrates, and trult. Among the livestock carried by air were a number of silver foxes as breeding" stock for the fox-farms being or- ganised in Yakutia. The foxes were brought nearly 2,000 miles from Bisk, making most of their Journey by air.
The Russian Soviet authorities have decided
to operate regular alr services to the Arctid this win- ter. In December flights will be made to. Omək, "Lena, and other places in the far North. Regular passenger and mail services are to be operated in the Yenise). The Yenisei routes will extend over a
Yet another of these romantic Pacinc ocean air-halts is on the island of Guam, with its heavily- wooded mountains and coral reefs, lying in picturesque splendour beneath a brilliant sun, Linked with the outer world by powerful wireless, stations, and used as the regular ocean halts of
the great air-linera, these lovely lalands of the Pacific are now destined to play their part in the forging of a great alr-chain which will soon- stage by stage-be extending com- pletely round the globe.
THE AIR-MAIL ACROSS CANADA
The Minister of Transport in the Canadian Government has an nounced that air-mail services on the prairie sections of the trans- Canada route will be in operation next spring: while later in the spring it is intended to inaugurate the sections across the Rockies to: Vancouver. and to have the entire trans-Canada air-mail In re- gular operation during the. summer. The air-mail ECIGAS Canada will provide & vital link in the system of Empire air- ways. Loads flown across the At- lantic from England will continue over the trunk Canada route to the Pacific. Then a further vital link will be provided byfying- boat services across the Pacific to Hong Kong, and the big seaports of Australia; while from these Pa- cific services connections will be provided with the main routes fly- ing from China and Australia to India, Egypt, Africa, and England. total distance of approximately In 4,000 miles, and there will be transport will be able to operate in this way long-distance, air, 'feeder' lines from Krasnoyarsk relaye completely round the world.
and Dudinka.
sents a total distance of just over 8,000 miles. Another suggested experts. One route mapped out route proceeds on the same line aa would take the following course the first as far as Negayevo Bay, Moscow, Krasnoyarsk Yakutsk and then goes on via Ust Kam- Kresti Khollai. Ofmakan. Nogayevo chatsk, the Commodore. Islands, Bay, Tret, Gizhiga, Anadyr, Cape the Aleutian Islands, Cape Har- Lawrence, Noma, Fairbanks, White bour, Seward, and White Horse to Horse, Seattle. This route repre- Battle.
The question of operating a re It is not, strictly speaking, a new gular air service between Russia Ides, but in its latest form its árd the United States continues new enough to call for appreciato occupy the attention of Soviel tion and criticism. You see com- fortably out of it but I can't help thinking you might do better if it were not so smart. That single window is dropped slightly at the rear and its bottom edge is curved. to give the effect of a backward- sloping roof. Its top edge is not parallel with the top of the car and by the degree of that angle it curtails the vision of sengers behind,
I know that in the "best", and: most expensive cars by the most notable makers you can see quite It is an open question. The new as badly as in the cheapest stand- Humber has an unusual design for ard stuff and vice versa. I know what one must now call vision; my that the sliding roof does not help very old car has, in certain definite much. And it is all useless. be- circumstances, the only sort that cause the same old faults are is real. As you will have guessed, shown again and again. It is a the latter is a plain tourer, open chestnut of such age as to be un- coachbuilders the sky and its winds. with quotable-but do nothing between its driver's eye drive cars? If they do, do they and the world before, him except care? two modest screen-pillars in front. Bo long as you are sitting in the front and are suitably dressed. all If It becomes necessary to is well. spread the hoot. button on my own patent side-curtains (easily the best ever seen) and sit behind, things are not the same at all Vision is restricted.
A VITAL MATTER
'
Why can we not see out of our clever modern cars? We can, of course, comparatively speaking, but not as we ought. Every now and then an ingenious coachbullder tackles this or that part of the pro- biem boldly and sometimes suc- ceeds in getting it across some car- maker, but usually he is a voice
the pas-37 YEARS OF
MOTORCYCLE
I don't suppose the restriction is serious, but the design of the whole car la so promising that the be holder is at once more critical than he would be over an orthodox car. would like to see the "Vogue" idea applied, suitably-modified, to
|man of their manufacturers, the
Triumph Engineering Co.
Of the eight types in the new range, three are "Tigers," a "70," "80" and "90." The "80,", a 3.5 h.p.
MANUFACTURE overhead valve machine selling at
home, fully equipped, at £57, is capable a genuine 80 m.ph, in With the introduction of its 1937 full touring trim and under, favour big car. Would four doors range or machines, consisting orable conditions will attain 85
types. the phe instead of two make it impossible? eight entirely new
Triumph company completes 37 They have reduced the price of years of motorcycle production. No this Humber by £37, making it
other British manufacturer-and 223, but in most other respects it probably no other in the world unheard. In a wilderness. There is the same as it was last year can claim continuous manufacture
was a snow of 1937 cars at a tele- All four gears in the box are since the year 1900, and it is in vision broadcast last month
at synchromeshed, the Humber con- teresting to note that Mr. 8
Vision is, strictly speaking, re- stricted in nearly every ordinary closed car, and I count it among the major backslidings of motor coachbuilders that It should be, Nor is it any use protesting that many American and other foreign cars are worse. They are, and be cause they are also very serious rivals to our own they should also be a warning. Gertain things they do and are at certain prices that for the moment are difficult for us to imitate, but in this vital matter R THE VOGUE.”
In view of their high speeds particular attention has been paid to brakes in the new models; these are of large diameter and have extra wide shoes. The rubber mounted handlebar now employed damps out vibration and prevents
which I assisted and among men trolled springing ("Vaciload") 15 Bettmann, founder of the original wrist strain and tiredness after was a car with not only an almost used, and the hand-brake is put Triumph Cycle Co. over 50 years long runk ideal all-weather body, but a high up under the dash. The four- screen which demonstrated beyond cylinder engine is claimed to 20, is still connected with these The new type of foot operated
motorcycles, and is. Indeed, chair-4-speed gearbox atted is interna question how the stubborn draw develop 42 h.p. at 3,800 revolutions, part backs of a screen should be dealt the cubic content being 1,689 Le with. You could see through as if and the tax £9. Well over sixty it were not there. You cannot miles an hour was registered on from a standing start on patent that sort of thing. It must the gauge, and I thought, the ac-speed, was forty-two. be common property, I have seen celeration, for the weight of the car runs more smooth
car, decidedly good. Box Hill was immediate predecess no others.
of vision some of them, are well be- The "Vogue" body on the 12-h.p. find. Perhaps wide, high vision is Humber chassis, the partial child,
ing in that it is silent on all ratios and is lubricated by ordinary engine off instead of gear grease. second By careful design and workman-
The ship this concern has acceded its in producing a gear box which will frun for an indefinite period with- out oil leakage and which is tree from all drag, with consequent emciency at all temperatureA.
›¡' taken on third speed all the way, struck me, more quietly,
including the three hairpin bends, springing is good and the road- while the time up Pebblecombe, holding and steering excellent.
SANDEMAN
SHERRY & PORT
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