The New Channel Islands Service T HE commencement by Jersey Airways,
Page 42
Page 43
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
Ltd., of an air service between Portsmouth and the Channel Islands affords an opportunity to consider the prospects of such a line ; also it draws attention to the .interest which road-transport people are showing in aviation, for Mr. W. L. Thurgood, the moving spirit of the new company, is well known to our industry as the coachbuilder of Ware, Hertfordshire, and the pioneer, chairman and secretary of the People's Motor Services, Ltd., Ware.
Anyone who has visited the Channel Islands will realize that there is scope for a reliable air service to the mainland. There is a heavy traffic of holiday makers in the summer time and sufficient all the year traffic to justify nightly steamship services outward (alternately from Southampton and Weymouth) and daily services B28 .
homeward. The sea crossing is, however, slow, . occupying about seven hours on the Weymouth and nine hours on the Southampton route —practically all night outward or all day homeward. . The outward sailings are at 11.45 pm. from Southampton and at 2.20 a.m:fromWeymoutli (suiting departures froin London at about 9 P.m.), so that the traveller has a rather broken night. Also, if the weather be rough, as it often is, the prolonged illness to which so many are subjected is very trying. It certainly deters people from choosing an island holiday. Fog, again, sometimes slows up the crossing by several hours, fitful sleep during the night being then punctuated by the periodical moan of the ship's fog horn. ..
No doubt fog is the factor most likely to rob an air service of the regularity which must be its best recommenda tion, and as weather conditions change so suddenly, wireless reports and forecasts would appear necessary to the pilot. The facilities at prestint available are not good, but Mr. Thurgood is having his De Havilland Dragons bonded for wireless and hopes for assistance from the authorities when he has been running for some time. Also he is considering fitting a homing device to each aeroplane, and installing a transmitter on the island.
To face such problems in their most difficult form, Mr. Thurgood has started the service in mid-winter, and he will be guided by his pilots' experiences on the route. His policy is to get the best pilots he can, and Mr. tV. B. Caldwell has left Scottish Motor Traction Co., Ltd., to take charge of the flying.
Operation has not been delayed until an aerodrome could be prepared in Jersey, and for the present the Dragons are using the sands of St. Aubin's Bay, a few hundred yards from the centre of the town of St. Helier. Customs facilities—which are required for this service—are available here. The sands are firm, smooth and extensive, but departures must be made before full high tide, and this may not always be convenient having regard to wind conditions, fog reports, etc. A proper customs airport on Jersey certainly is needed.
Our, small map indicates how the Coast of France juts out to reduce the open-sea crossing, making it about 64 miles. With an air speed of, say, 105 m.p.h. this takes, in still air, about 37 minutes. A tail wind of 30 M.p.h. reduces the crossing to 28 minutes, whilst a 30-m.p.h. head wind makes it 51 minutes. This corner of France actually comes within the Cherbourg prohibited area. Between the French
coast and Jersey only about 16 miles of sea have to be crossed. The Dragon will fly with full load with one engine out of action, and, as a final safeguard, lifebelts are carried.
The schetlule is based on 14 hour for the single journey. Passengers by the 8.50 a.m. train from Waterloo reach Portsmouth at 10.57 a.m., leave Portsmouth at 11.40 a.m. and reach Jersey at 12.55 p.m. Homeward passengers leave Jersey at 2 p.m., disembark at Portsmouth at 3.15 p.m., and can catch the 3.50 p.m. train, which delivers them at Waterloo at 6 p.m. Obviously such a service offers a great attraction—even In bumpy weather—compared with the steamship crossing, if only reliability can be proved. : The single fare is 32s. 6d. and the return 55s., compared with first-class steamer fares of respectively 33s. 6d. and 53s. 6d., and second-class steamer fares of 21s. and 34s. 6d. Arrangements have been made with Portsmouth Corporation to run a connecting bus service between the airport and the town centre.
Mr. Thurgood's attivities have frequently been dealt with in this paper in recent years, and his Easiway folding-panel roof has been fitted to many public-service vehicles. The bus services were taken over by the London Passenger Transport Board on November 20 of the past year, and Mr. Thurgood registered Jersey Airways, Ltd., at the court in Jersey on December 9. He lost no time, therefore, in reinvesting his capital in the passenger-carry lug business, thus giving effect to a scheme which he has been contemplating for several months.
The coachbuilding business, carried on in the name of Mr. W. L. Thurgood, is continuing as before, and will receive his personal attention, as it always has done. It remains under the management of Mr. A. C. Ledger, who has been connected with Mr. Thurgood since he first commenced business on his own account ; that was in 1926. The Easiway roof, by the way, is now being marketed by Quicktho (1928), Ltd., London, S.W.18.
The map on the opposite page has been reproduced on a small scale so as to include the major portion of the South of England and a part of France reaching eastward to Paris. The object is to show how well the Channel Islands are situated for air-route connections to .industrial centres in
England and on the Continent. If a connection at Portsmouth or Cowes could be made with the Heston-Cowes service operated all last summer by Spartan Air Lines Ltd., Jersey might be reached from central London in 24 hours. A crossing via Alderney, Weymouth and Yeovil could be arranged to link up at Bristol with the BristolCardiff ferry run by Norman Edgar Western Airways, Ltd., and with a service to theMidlands, such as the
G.W.R. ran last year. B29