Impressions of a Night Flight to Paris
Page 49
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DESPITE the thousands of people who have flown, there are still millions who have never left the ground in a heavier-than-air machine, and to them this brief account of a novice's night trip to Paris on an Imperial Airways liner may prove of interest. We will let him tell his story in his own words:—
A trip to Paris to see the Automobile Salon offered the choice of a Channel crossing by boat or by air, and with a slight feeling of excitement I chose the latter. I was asked to attend at the Imperial Airways office at Victoria, London, at 5.45 p.m., where, with others, I was duly weighed on scales which told the officials a lot but me nothing, my baggage was checked over and found to be well under the stipulated 15 kilos (so that I did not have to pay excess), and my passport collected. Within a few minutes I was in a comfortable coach bound for Croydon.
Having arrived at the aerodrome, I was ushered out to the plane, my passport being handed to me on the way. Just as I arrived the engines were started up. Everyone around me looked so totally unconcerned that I guiltily suppressed my " do-or-die " feeling and took my comfortable armchair seat in a compartment with more room. in it than is usual in a corridor train.
Within a few moments, a preliminary try-out of the engines having been made, the machine began to move, and, after a brief rush and a little rough riding over grass, was in the air. Banking to Ulm on to the correct route was momentarily disconcerting, but then the steward brought my cocktail and a dinner menu.
It was almost dark before we crossed the cliffs at Bexhill, and I was interested to pick out the lights of steamers in the Channel. A little farther on we were travelling immediately above a glorious sea of clouds with a path of brilliant moonshine to the left and a marvellous orange-hued horizon at the right ; the scene was intensely reminiscent of pictures and films of the Polar regions, and the apparent solidity of the snow-white clouds was truly remarkable. Other passengers who had travelled by day stated that they had never previously seen such a beautiful effect.
The noise of the engines, never excessive to one who -has been brought up on transport, and the excellent dinner—not to speak of the cocktail and wine—acted as a soporific, and I thoroughly enjoyed a 20 minutes' nap. When I awakened we were a quarter of an hour's run from Paris, which proved to he a really magnificent spectacle with the Eiffel Tower showing clearly in the distance.
Another bank and we swooped in a spiral to the aerodrome at Le Bourget. So gentle was the landing that although I tried hard to say exactly when it occurred, the only indication that we were on the ground was the slightly bumpy taxying over the grass. A few minutes, the minimum of trouble with customs and passport officers, and we were in the coach for the Paris centre.
• The whole journey was so easy, there were so few formalities, no trouble at all with luggage, and courtesy shown everywhere, that one can only express surprise that more people do not take advantage of air traveL The comparison between this and a packed train,a possibly rough crossing and stuffy French carriages is almost startling. The return journey was made a few days later in another Imperial Airways liner, but with the same comfort.On this occasion, however, the machine rose to a height of a mile and three-quarters. I was travelling by day, and was intrigued, at this height, to be able to pick out people walking about and motors moving like snails along the roads.
The only discomfort that I experienced at all during both journeys was slight deafness on descending, which was cured by blowing my nose.
One curious thing that I noticed was the apparent lack of speed except just wh-:..n leaving the ground or when landing because there is nothing with which to make a comparison—aerial lamphosts have not yet been installed.
It may be invidious to compare such a graceful machine as the " Horatins " with a lorry, but it seemed for all the world to be like a lorry climbing a steep hill on first gear ; one felt inclined to get out and push, and yet the air-speed dial showed 90-100 m.p.h.