AIR TRANSPORT NEWS
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GOVERNMENT GRANT FOR INTERNAL AIRWAYS?
WE have several times referred to the vV suggestion that acentral authority, with statutory powers, should be entrusted with developing Britain's internal airways. The scheme, which was put forward to the Government by the London Chamber of Commerce, last August, has been discussed by the Newcastle-on-Tyne and Liverpool Chambers and was considered at length at the Society of British Aircraft Constructors Air Transport Conference, from January 10-12.
The new Miles Merlin aeroplane (Gipsy Six WO h.p. engine), which is to be'run by Birkett Air Service, Ltd. The machine is expected to cruise at about 145 m.p.h., but its landing speed is only 45 m.p.h. It carries a pilot and four passengers, and will be equipped for ambulance work.
The Commercial Aviation Committee, which was formed on December 12 by the London Chamber of Commerce, the Association of British Chambers of Commerce and the Federation of British Industries, has again brought this matter up ma letter to the Secretary of State for Air, and has suggested that an annual grant should be ma de from Government funds to the proposed central authority and that this grant should be fixed with regard to the amount of petrol tax paid by aviation.
NEW LONDON CHARTER COMPANY.
ANEW operating company; with offices at Heston, has been formed under the name of British American Air Services, Ltd. The directors • are Messrs. D. S. Gibbs, M. Peto, D. C. jewson and A. J. Edmunds. The company has ordered from Brian Lewis and Co., Ltd., a de Havilland Dragon Rapide and a second-hand Dragon, both equipped as six-seaters, as well as a Leopard Moth, The aim is to do charter work.
EXTENSIVE AGENCY BUSINESS.
TE learn that Wallace Arnold Tours, W Ltd., Leeds, has been appointed West Yorkshire bookingk agent for North Eastern Airways' new NewcastleLeeds-London service. In addition to booking at its head office at the Corn Exchange, Leeds, the company will book passengers through its branch offices and sub-agents in a number of other towns, including Bradford, Harro
gate, Halifax, Brighouse, Skipton, Dewsbury and Wakefield, and will provide road transport to carry passengers between Leeds and Yeadon aerodrome.
• ADVERTISING IN THE SKY.
E`URTIIER uses for commercial aeroplanes in the sphere of publicity are developing. We have recently reported how two or three companies have fitted neon signs to the undersides of wings and fuselages, for advertising purposes.
In the past week or two, Capt. G. Birkett, of Birkett Air Services, Ltd., Heston, working in conjunction with Air Services, Ltd., has made a series of successful experiments with the Autogiro belonging to the Airwork school. This machine has been used to tow what might he called an aerial poster on which 5-ft. letters are mounted vertically in a kind of rope ladder 120 ft. long, and towed at the end of a 350-ft. cable.
A MILES MERLIN FOR CAPTAIN B IR KETT.
THE first Miles Merlin (a new machine produced by Phillips and Powis, Ltd., Reading) is to be delivered shortly to Birkett Air Service, Ltd. This machine, with a Gipsy Six 200 h,p. engine, carries a pilot and four passengers and, with Ratier variable-pitch airscrews, is expected to cruise at about 145 m.p.h. This should make it an economical machine for light transport. As flaps are fitted the landing speed is as low as 45 m.p.h.
The Birkett model will have extra tanks to give it a range of 10 hours, landing lights mounted on the leading edge of the wing, and a separate stretcher attachment, so that it can -be used for ambulance work. RATIONALIZING COMMERCIAL PILOTS' LICENCES.
IN these days of specialization, the B licence for commercial pilots is considered to be too general to provide a full standard of competency in any one branch of commercial piloting. The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators of the British Empire has recently taken up this -matter with the DirectorGeneral of Civil Aviation, who ' has agreed to consider the possibility of issuing (at any rate, for a time) a new form of limited licence, for use only in this country, which would be available to test and demonstration pilots and instructors who did not wish to qualify for blind flying.
By a Notice to Airmen on November 24, 1934, the Ministry re quired all B-licence holders applying for renewal after April 1, 1935, to qualify in blind flying, but this is hardly necessary for test, demonstration and some instruction pilots.
The Guild has pointed out that there seems to be a case for a transport pilot's
licence, which would involve qualifying in navigation, blind flying and wireless telephony, but would probably not insist on the applicant holding groundengineers' A and C certificates.
The whole question of revising the commercial licences is now being con sidered and will be taken up, so far as required, with the International Commission for Air Navigation, which is the collecting centre for the views of the various governments.
SWANSEA AERODROME TESTS.
TESTS of the landing ground selected at jersey Marine, Swansea, for possible use as the terminal of the proposed Swansea-Cardiff-London service which is to be opened in May, have apparently given satisfaction. Possibly th,e ground may be licensed for the air service without being licensed for instruction.
A GOOD START BY MADDOX.
Q INCE it started charter activities, in January, under the managership of Mr. F. R. Midgley, Messrs. Maddox Airways, 37-41, Gracechurch Street, London, E.C.3, have made good progress. Since the middle of March flights have been made down the Bay of Biscay, to Luxemburg, Lincolnshire (twice), Portsmouth, Liverpool (for the Grand National steeplechase), • Blackpool, Antwerp and Millport (an island in the Clyde). The firm have decided to use and maintain their aero planes at Brooklands. n35 •