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AIR TRANSPORT NEWS
Page 119
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BIG PLANS FOR RECORD EMPIRE AIR DAY,
'THIS year, Empire Air Day will be I celebrated on Saturday, May 25. This institution has been Organized by the Air League of the British Empire. Last year it was a great success, for over 100,000'neople visited the R.A.F. aerodromes that were thrown open to the public, but this year the League expects the number to be doubled, The charge for admission to R.A.F. aero
dromes is Is. for adults. Nearly all the civil aerodromes in the country will also be open, and to them admission is free.
Several enterprising ceach operators applied for short-period road-service licences last year, scr that they could cater for the Empire Air DaY traffic to and from the more popular aerodromes. This year the scope for them should be considerably increased. According to the latest list, 44 R.A.F. and 34 civil aerodromes will be open.
FURTHER CRILLY SERVICES.
THE twice daily service each way I between Bristol, Leicester and Norwich, started by Crilly Airways, Ltd., on April 2, is being run regularly and the company plans a new service from Doncaster to Nottingham, LeiceSter and Northampton, with an extension on demand to any London airport.
This summer, there will also be services between Nottingham and Skegness and between Leicester and Skegness. Schedules have not yet been arranged.
A NEW CHARTER PROGRAMME.
ANEW company has been started at Heston Airport by Mr. D. S. Gibbs, a wealthy American, in Conjunction with A. J. Edmunds, R.A.F.O., Major M. Peto and Mr. D. C. Tewson. The intention is to run charter services and the fleet will consist of a Leopard Moth, a Dragon D.H.84 and a Dragon Rapide D.H.89. Mr. Edmunds is the chief pilot. In additicin to specializing in freight transport, the company will make a point of meeting transatlantic liners, and Mr. Gibbs is now visiting New York ,to complete the arrangements. Meanwhile, the company has -prepared a list of special engagements, such as those in connection with the Jubilee, also sporting and social functions, for which services are being run.
NEW ENTERPRISE AT CROYDON.
IVE understand that Mr. G. P. VV McGiveney, the manager, and Mr. J. NV, Duggan, a pilot of the firm of Messrs. Wrightson and Pearse, who, until a few months ago, operated charter services from Ceoyclen and Heston, have formed a new company, Wrightways, Ltd., which has bought over the assets of the old firm and started up promisingly at Croydon: The Hon. John D. ,Kemp, son of Lord Rochdale, is the third director.
On April 29 an early-morning freight service to Paris was started, most of the bead comprising newspapers for William Dawson and Sons, Ltd. There are two Dragons in service at present.
Private charters for passengers or freight are undertaken, whilSt the third branch of the business is aeroplane maintenance and repairs. , A wellequipped workshop and a bonded store of approved spare parts are now installed and working, and the hangar is already quite full of work.
WESTERN AIRWAYS DEVELOPMENTS.
A S already announced, the Cardiff. tABristol air ferry of Norman Edgar. Western Airways, Ltd., started regular operation again on April 1. In addition to the Bristol-Le Touquet service during Easter, the -.company ran a special service to Bournemouth.
It is now announced that, from May 3, there will be a week-end service from Cardiff and Bristol to Le Touquet and Paris. The return fares from Cardiff will be £7 10s. single to Le Touquet and £8 5s. to Paris, with slightly lower fares from Bristol. The company also informs us that it is purchasing two further de Havilland Dragons._
FORECAST FOR THE SUMMER.
SO far as can be calculated at the end of April from all the known plans of the score of companies that will be running regular air services, this summer, in Great Britain, the route mileage of services running at least once daily will be about 5,900—or 6,500 if one reckons twice where two companies -operate over the same route. This is just about double the route mileageof the 1934 summer, which was 3,167, and it compares with 1,181 route miles in the summer of 1933.
In the two winter periods, 1933-34 and 1934-35, route mileage and daily operation dropped to respectively 377 and 1,605, the latter figure including both of the 455-mile services between London and Glasgow.
A CHANCE TO !VIEW THE DE HAVILLAND WORKS.
THE de Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd., is opening its works and -aerodrome to the public on Empire Air Day and applications are welcomed from those who would like to be shown over the works in parties, both on the Friday, May 24, and the following day. They should be sent to the Air League of the British Empire, 19,. Berkeley Street, London, -W.I. This is the newest and biggest works in England producing commercial and other civil aeroplanes and engines. UNPRECEDENTED SCENES Al" CROYDON ON JUBILEE NIGHT.
THE Jubilee brought welcome busi
ness to air-transport operators, and a more striking scene than that at Croydon Airport, during Jubilee night, can scarcely be imagined. Aeroplanes, large and small, were arriving and leaving every minute or two from 10 p.m.
until the early hours, for besides the regular night traffic—which, in any case, resembles the day-time traffic of a few years ago—numbers of parties, from Lord Londonderry's down to the
general run Of sightseers, took the air to fly around London (and over it, after midnight) to see the -beacons, floodlighting, fireworks, traffic queues and illuminatioaa.
A four-ensined D.H.86 and the big Heracles of Imperial Airways, Ltd., made two or three trips, 011ey Air S,er.
vice, Ltd., was busy half. the night with two Machines, Air Taxis, Ltd:, arid
Commercial Air Hire, Ltd., had atit
planes aloft, to mention only a few— for it was impossible to identify all the machines coming in and going out along the beam of the landing searchlight. At 12.20 a.m. Capt. 011ey took up the Prime Minister and Lord Londonderry and their party.
The Heracles arrived from Switzerland at 10 p.m., just as the big German freighterleft for Cologne and Berlin.
Half an hour later the four-engined Fokker, F.22, of the Netherlands com pany, was unloading a dozen pas sengers from Rotterdam, and truckloads of freight and baggage were being removed from; holds in the wings and tail. The midnight freighter from Paris came in about 2 a.m., then the
freight and mail-carrier from Berlin:
After the big party at the Aerodrome Hotel began to die down, and pleasure flying to lose its hold, the early freighters and newspaper machines left for Paris and the Continent.
Heston also was busy and eight machines of Birkett Air Service, Ltd., flew 4,500 aircraft-miles on Jubilee Day, including 590 miles at night.
MAGNANIMITY OF THE S.B.A.C.
FOR some while and, in particular, at the Air Transport Conference held from January 10-12, there has been detected among municipal-airport authorities a feeling that their organization should not be a branch of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors; which is a manufacturers' society.
The S.B.A.C. promptly suggested that they should make themselves independent and assume a separate title, and this they have done, calling themselves the Aerodrome Owners Association. When they found, however, that their 10 subscriptions would not pay for more than the salary of a typist, the S.B.A.C. magnanimously. offered to continue to do all the real work until the new body is sufficiently Strong.