AVIATION The National Air Magazine of Ireland December 1937 FINAL ISSUE An extract from the magazine. Front cover: Pick-a-Back Plane - The Short-Mayo Composite Aircraft. "Mercury" (the Upper Component), a four-engined Float Seaplane in position above the "MAIA" (Lower Component), a four-engined Flying Boat on the Mercury at Rochester.
	AIR ACHIEVEMENT IN 1937 By C. D. PALMER WHAT THE PAST YEAR HAS BROUGHT FORTH IN THE FORWARD MARCH OF CIVIL AVIATION Remarkable yet logical progress has been made in aviation during 1937 both within the British Commonwealth and abroad. The chief features of this progress have been within the sphere of civil aviation and, as far as the British Commonwealth is concerned, these have been the start of the Empire Air Mail Programme and the successful experimental flights across the North Atlantic. Though both of these features have been but the beginnings of greater projects, the initial successes gained have indicated that their full realisation will prove of immense importance to the British Common wealth and the world in general. The Empire Air Mail Programme envisaged the carriage of all first-class Empire mail by air, with no surcharge above the normal rate for surface transport, and frequent accelerated services to South Africa and Australia. That programme is now being progressively realised with the Short Empire flying-boats which were ordered by Imperial Airways specially to meet its requirements. The majority of the 30 boats ordered have now been delivered. This year the change-over from land machines to flying-boats for the operation of the whole of the main Empire routes, including the overland sections, was begun. The change has already been completed on the South African route and there are now two flying-boat services from England to Durban each week and a third service which goes as far as Kisumu, in Kenya. Oil the Australian route the change-over is complete as far as Egypt, and at the time of writing the boats have taken over one of the two services as far as Karachi. They will take over the Karachi-Singapore section early in 1938, and the first boat left Karachi to survey this section on November 14th. It is expected that the full through service to Sydney will be taken over by the boats some time next year. The completely successful trials across the North Atlantic have been so much publicised that no comment is needed here. They will be continued next year. The South Atlantic route will also be tackled soon and its development has been entrusted to British Air ways, Ltd. A survey party has already left to investigate possible bases on the West African coast. Of course, both German and French air mail services have been operating across the South Atlantic for some years, but this year Germany made successful test flights across the North Atlantic with big sea-planes, using catapult ships as intermediate bases. In spite of the re-equipment and re-organisation necessitated by the start of the Empire Air Mail Programme and the introduction into service of the Empire flying-boats, the total volume of traffic carried by Imperial Airways during the financial year ended March 31st, 1937, increased by about 7½ per cent. Over 60,000 passengers were carried and the total traffic ton miles (ten miles are arrived at by multiplying each ton of payload, i.e., passengers, freight and mails, by the number of miles flown) increased from 4,803,427 for 1935-36 to 5,171,504 ton miles for 1936-37. Miles flown increased from 4,560,718 to 5,231,655 miles. In Canada the outstanding events have been the formation of a national air transport company, Trans Canada Air Lines, by the Government to operate the Trans-Canada Airway and to take up Canada's 1¼ million dollars share in the joint operating company for the North Atlantic air service, and pioneering flight over the airway across Canada, which it is hoped will begin to be operated regularly about the middle of next year. Little is heard of Canadian air trans port on this side of the Atlantic, but the last official figures available, those for 1936, are most impressive, 7,100,401 miles were flown; 97,888 passengers, 494 tons of mail, and 10,244 tons of goods were carried. The opening of the Trans-Canada Airway and the further development of air lines serving the remote mining districts in the north will undoubtedly produce substantially increased traffic. The figures for air transport in the U.S.A. make those already given seem insignificant. In the six months only from January to June, 1937, U.S. domestic air lines flew 31,266,908 miles, and U.S. foreign lines flew 5,373,244 miles, making a total of 36,640,152 miles. Passengers carried on domestic air lines numbered 464,068; and on foreign lines 89,246, making a total of 553,314. Over 4,550 tons of mail were carried on all lines and 1,902 tons of goods. Considering the huge mileage flown the latter figure is surprisingly small.
	Permissible Clearances. This picture shows how the hull of the "Maia" differs from that of a standard Empire Boat. It also shows how the motors have been moved out to make room for the floats of "Mercury". It is certain that the establishment of regular and frequent transatlantic air services will do a great deal towards increasing passenger and mail loads carried by air lines on both sides of the Atlantic. For these services three special flying-boats, with an all-up weight of about 32 tons, are being built by Short Brothers, Rochester. High wing monoplanes like the Empire boats, they will be powered by four Bristol Hercules sleeve-valve engines giving 1,380 h.p., as against the four Pegasus engines of 920 h.p. in the Empire boats. They will cruise at about 180 m.p.h. and have a fuel range of about 3,500 miles and be able to carry a considerably increased payload. The new boats are expected to be ready about the middle of next year. In thin connection the report of the United States Maritime Commission, which has recently been published, is of great interest. In decrying " super-liners" as being unsuitable for American requirements, the report points out that aircraft manufacturers have designs for flying-boats weighing 120,000 lbs., with an average speed of 175 m.p.h., a range of 5,000 miles, and capable of carrying 40 to 50 passengers from New York to Europe in 20 hours. Seasonal weather conditions may make it necessary to maintain separate winter and summer bases in America, but this is perfectly practicable. Fog need not hinder these great aircraft, as they could climb quickly to clear air, taking-off from a specially patrolled stretch of water. Their speed would enable them to ride out a stiff gale and cross the Atlantic, if necessary, against continuous headwinds of 40 m.p.h. Any two of the four engines with which each machine would be equipped would be able to keep it in the air. The Pacific Clippers have now covered 70,000,000 miles without accident. A fleet of 18 flying-boats on a daily Atlantic service of three aeroplanes a day would offer the same total passenger capacity a year as a "super-liner." Such, then, is the prospect envisaged by the Commission, and it is clear that it regards the advent of the big flying-boat as sounding the death-knell of the super-liner," though it suggests in the report that the simpler type of ship would not he injured to any appreciable extent. In the sphere of record breaking 1937 has seen a number of records broken which have tended towards the advancement of aviation. The long-distance record for a flight in a straight line without refuelling was gained by Russia with the flight of the ANT 25 monoplane from Moscow to San Jacinto, California, U.S.A., a distance of 6,305.7 miles in a straight line, which has been officially homologated by the Fédération Aéronantique Internationale. France has gained the long distance record for seaplanes with her big commercial Latécoère flying-boat, "Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris" (six 890 h.p. Hispano Suiza engines), which flew from Kenitra (Morocco) to Maceio (Brazil), a distance of 3,612 miles, in 36 hours. England took the world's height record with the Bristol monoplane (Bristol Pegasus engine) which, piloted by F/Lt. Adam, reached an officially homologated height of 53,937 feet. Germany gained the landplane speed record in November with a Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter (Mercedes Benz DB 600. 950 h.p. engine), which put up a speed of 379 m.p.h. This speed, of course, still falls far short of the world's speed record for seaplanes, which still stands to the credit of Italy with 440.67 m.p.h., put up by the Macchi-Castoldi seaplane. There have, of course, been a number of long-distance flights, the most outstanding of which have been Miss Jean Batten's fine solo flight from Australia (Port Darwin) to London (Croydon) in 5 days, 18 hours and 15 minutes, in a Percival Gull (200 h.p. Gipsy Six I), and more recently Flying Officer Clouston's and Mrs. Kirby-Green's astounding flight from London to Capetown and back in 5 days, 17 hours, in the four-year-old De Havilland Comet, the actual machine which won the England-Australia race in 1934. Many have been the arguments that long-distance record flights are useless and do nothing to further the cause of aviation, but it has been noticeable through out the history of commercial flying that air transport has followed the record breakers and that the record times of to-day are the normal air line schedules of to-morrow. Thus the record breakers of 1937 will have added their mite to the conquest of the air.