1958-06-03 — Page 4

THE CHINA MAIL; TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 1958.

FIFTY YEARS

LONDON: centre of

the Empire. But where in London is the precise focus?

Is it Whitehall? Officially,

yen, But there is today a far finer centre than that: London Airport.

In the departure lounges gather the Australian woul merchant, the trader Te- turning to Nigeria, The businessman bound for Singapore,

They climb aboard the waiting Britannias, Con- stellations #

cruisers,

Strato

The engines roar to full power. The runway blurs,

then drops away.

And each time it happens the ties linking London and the Empire are

anew.

But these

links extend further than

the capitais

forged

of far-distant places that every Londoner knows. The Air time-table contains strange names. They are the smallest of spots in the atlas-but they are also communities, every one of them, within the empire.

Linked

of FLIGHT

Only fifty years ago man made his first rickety flight over distances

Yot today he is

on the threshold of space measured in yards.

travel. This special China Mail survey outlines these fabulous fifty years-from S. F. Cody's first powered flight over-Britain to the ballistic missilo.

became a naturalised Briton And on a tree, or what is in 1909. He was a flam- loft of it, in front of the figure, like his old Farnborough sheds is an

the

famous inseription:

Prosperpine, Jubilee and boyant Christmas Creek-in Aus- namesake. trall! Mangrove Bay and "Buffaks Bill," hero of boys' Governors Harbour in the stories of the time. Cody Bahamas! Mzuzu. Ndola, galloped on a white horse.

Zomba-in Africa! Aitukuki Texas-fashion. He wore

EL

Britain's Comet jet airliner—symbol of a nation that is a major power l the skin.

stopped his trials because they said £2,500 was too high a cost. Watchers used to laugh at A. V. Roe and shout, "What time you going up, 'guv ?''

Lessor men would have

given up the fight. But their burning seat was the start of a triumphant and in- credibly swift progress,

Achievement

(

HE DESIGNED THE NEW SWALLOW PLANE

Dr Wallis

Shows His

DR

Masterpiece

BARNES WALLIS, the acronautical genius, thrust aside his porridge plate and began to sketch rapidly on the back of an envelope picked from his still unopened mail.

"You see," he said, "any alteration of the scale alters the relative proportions of the surface to the lineary dimension."

The diagram had nothing to do with his revolutionary folding-wing aircraft, the Swallow, of the jet-age cricket ball he has just designed. He was explaining why the wooden chandelier in the hall of his Tudor-style house at Ellingham, Surrey, has an empty niche.

"I tried to carve

in only 50 years the aero- plane has gone from birth to an early maturity: from frail, rickety contraptions of wires and struts to stream- lined, high-flying machines built of heat-resisting alloy.

a figure of the In an era virgin and Child," when technical sald the inventor of the Dam develop

Busters bouncing ment goes bomb And the armour piercing bomb that sank the Tintz.

ahend more rapidly than in any previous period of Bri- tish history the achievement of these men is supreme.

"But

I just haven't the skill to work in tiny dimensions in wood carving."

But the benefits that have come with the air age are even greater. The com-1 merce of this cou ry husbreakfast ( been revolutionised.

Dr Walls had invited me to

con

ventive

дл in-

spare you half un Cody had made short hops first pilot's licence in Bri-

hour before going So too has the life of to the offee") to off the ground; painful, tain-was doing short hops.

about his the countries of the Empire. talk fledgling attempts. Others were doing the same.

Years after, the flying The bonds between Britain hobby wood - carving. I had world was split over who and her partners in this already noted "S. F. Cody measured the

In June, 1908, at Brook- actually was the first to great community have beenges of rust of his first airplane in lands, A. V. Roc left the take to the air in Britain. reinvigorated, forged anew, 190834 by tying it to this tree. Near by he made his first tests with his pinerred airplane on Kaveuni in the Fijis!

May 16, 1908, and

his first Not long ago, certainly

flight of 1390, on October within the lifetime of most His fame never matched 16, 1908, was the first sustain of us, a journey to most of that of "Buffalo Bill," Yet ed airplane flight in Great these remote places took his exploits were far more Britain." months of weary trekking. stirring. S.P, Cody was the

-----

the Cook Islands! bromil-brimmed stetson, and and

waxed beard.

moustache

first man to make

But now, they are alight in Britain,

matter of hours away from London.

or days

Forerunner

A real

ground for a distance of The controversy is now for- and strengthened. More than 7011. At the gotten. Cody was the man.

sane

Of all the achievements His machine was time Lieut.-colonel

pick of the great air age this is Moore-Brabazon--later Lord named "the flying cathe the most glorious. Brabazon, and holder of the drat." The Army eventually

-(London Express Service).

The Fastest Skipper

ET

He had begun his experi- ments-with-man-lifting. kites. Then he became pilot in the Army Balloon

James of Factory forerunner

Captain This is the harvest reaped

Linton out of the cock- Farnborough. His trials in from the faith of the air

Comet jet- Pirty years ago today he a flimsy aircraft with apit of BOAC'S whose pioneers, the men

the world's Vision, resolution and skill gan his flying tests on 50-.p. motor were for the liners Laffan's Plain. Aldershot Army.

fastest airline pilot becomes began the air age in Britain.

Farnborough where

nir-

¡just Mr Next-door. First was Samuel Frank- field, present cradle of Bri- lin Cody, an American who fish aviation, is now.

But before he made his momentous first real flight,

Rolex chronometers retained their leadership in 1956

World's Largest Producer Of Officially Certified Chronometers

arad

Captain Linton, who made most airline crossing of the Atlane in a BOAC Coinet IIE in four hours 33 minutes at an Average speed of 530 m.p.k., is very much a family man.

And

his Ing

Way across the Atlantic agla

on another Comel trip.

Takes

To Law

mind. Carping is a satisfpino relaxation," says Dr. Although Barnes Wallis, showing a mask he had carved the front door of

of his wife. White Hill House

lacked a knocker AND a belt It

was flanked by a very ingenious and workman-like booi-scraper and-brusher. In the spacious bock garden stood an imposing ornamental foundiain of his de- sign and on the wall above it n clock whose wooden case and metal hands he designed last Easter,

Time filler

an

"Carving is a very catisfying I bave about forty relaxation.

Instruments and carving invention-just a bit of leather

them round a stick-to keep sharp. Five days in air and they're blunt, you knew."

An he made his way to the kitchen to wash up the break- fast things Dr Wallis poured

again under the pinewood chandeller. "Fd meant it for the sitting-room." ke sald. little sadly. "But all my child ren thought it was only good enough for the hall. It's really, I think, my only fallure,"

Before pulling on his coat to

to the drive himself

Vickers works at Weybridge where he is For the past two months 70- Chlef of Research, Dr Wallis year-old Dr Wallis has been u insisted on showing me how the

worked- grass widower. His wife is on a ornamental founinin visil to the West Indies and, and on presenting me with two four-mornings-a- jars of honey labelled 1955 from

"It's nice to know the time when you're gardening. Tea in half an hour I say to myself, But it was also because I thought that gap between the windows needed alling with something."

Don't go by appearances when you meet a jet age hero. They're apt to be deceptive. Come to think of it - he might be just plain Mister Next Door

He is also studying company apart from and most mechanical things.

Aying" of qualifying as a hwyer. But himself.

really he readily cdmlts that flying

The porridge was excellent, comes first.

His log-book records that he the tea, made economically from has down 10,000 hours 1,500 an Infuser, just right. hours on Cometa.

ne will be wing "He doesn't bother me too much law, and is toying with the idea week help, he is fending for a lacked cupboard on the stairs.

Flying 'Type'

At his home in West Drav

unassuming on the shy,

with questions about says father. "He's -Itnowledgeable."

Father should know for

one 42. Linton, was

of the first pilols in BOAC to By Comets, ord for several months he bes been carrying fights.

year-old pilot likes to change from his plot's uniform

and Ronnels spurts coat rapidly as possible and around the garden.

Into DA

patter

Linton, who learned to fly be- lore the war with an RAF reserve squadron, was formerly a Lloyd's stockbroker.

Ile still thinks of Lloyd's nostalgically.

to get me to go "They try back," he says. "They don't like losing people."

Jet ace Linton lives in a large, Gidish cort of house where he can hear the roar of airplane engines from Londes Airport is his garden.

out

proving

A Record

Ling the

wur,

L

whillo

We went to the book-lined thousand sitting-room ("eight

the books, even overflow into bathroom") to view his "master-

a

He entered civil flying direct fight-lieutenant in the RAF, he plece." Not a model of the R.100 or the Swallow or I bomb. from the RAF at the end of the kicked five hours 27 minutes Exquisitely carved out of deal a war. Then, Lloyd's seemed

off the record for a flight from life-size mask of his wife hurg trife Ont.

England to Karachi. Flying u Mosquito the overall time for 10 hours the journey

Textbooks

He started civil lying with British South American Airways and continued with BOAC offer the merger.

him

was

on the wal.

Nearby was another portrait 46 minutes. Acioni flying time bust of her, "Three-quarter scale was 14 hours 37 minutes.

and not nearly so silve-remem- Captein Linton. who has ber what 1 sait about the ratio instructed on Conets, is very of aren to perimeter? fond of the Jet, He Bads it easier to dy than a Stratocruiser.

the

"Did you make this?" I ask- ed. "Certainly not," he replied briskly. "My bees did. We have six hives at the ballon of the garden."

lawn.

To America

A blackbird was singing in the beech tres above the rich, green Across the back 'gardin there was a spacious view of the Surrey hilly where he and his so often wife and family have walked,

Was really true, I asked, the new that the Goverment hed shelved the Swallow, he was considering going to Amerien to complete the project.

ally.

In between flying Comets he

"No, I don't know how many studying TE chartered When left him this jet uue hours I spent on the mask-a la

You don't the job's worth doing cerbiary's course, and tokes his

"Certainly," he sold energetis- der 1803

stumping Into finals this month. He also takes kitchen ... to help cook

"If the Government is so count the time. You'll see that textbooks with

on long

both sides of the face are quite bankrupt that But that's on- lunch,

different. I think it was Tenny- other story. Let me know how flights.

Says skipper Litton: "It's a

son who sold how dull to be you like the honey." perfect-but I'm paraphrasing. worthwhite way of spending the type. He is interested in Aying long periods away from home."

man, he has two A married children--Simon, aged five, and

Louise, aged twn.

Already Simon

aying

-FRANK DRAPER

London Express Service

of course.

LISA MOYNIHAN

The Tormented Mediterranean

by CUMMINGS

Cummings

To be truly waterproof

a watch must have a screw-down crowny

ROLEXare the world's only manufacturer of drew-down double aulety Twlalock crown.

Facts & Figures —

The Rolex Red Seal attached to a watch shows that it has obatned an Official Toning Certif tare from Swiss Government Testing Siaston, with the proud sisle of chronometr

ROLEX ALONE (Gents' and Ladies'), DURING THE YEARS 1927-1956 INCLUSIVE, OBTAINED 312,220 OFFICIAL TIMING CERTIFICATES, WHEREAS THE REST OF THE SWISS PRODUCTION TOTALLED 175,417 SINCE 1927,

In other words, over the previous 30 years, Rolex alone produced roughly

2 out of 3 wrist-chronometers officially cortified in Switzerland!

VIVE LE GENERAL

ENERAL

BANQUE DE

CORSICA

VIVE LE

ROLEX

A landmark in the history of Time measurement

“Are you sure, Monsieur le Préfet, they've got the right general?”,