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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0001.PDF
Flight, January 1, 1920 CUT AIRCRAFTBNGINEEFL First Aero Weekly in the World r > Pounder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM No. 575 (No. 1, Vol. XII.) JANUARY I, 1920 rweekly. Price 6d.L Post Free, 7d. The Aircraft Engineer and Airships Editorial Office: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. 2. Telegrams : Traditur, Westcent, London. Telephone : Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free : United Kingdom .. 28s. id. Abroad 33s. od* These rates are subject to any alteration found necessary under abnormal conditions _ • European subscriptions must be remitted in British currency CONTENTS •/, Editorial Comment -.'• . ". ' PAGE The Cape to Cairo Air Route «V i* ., i» _ .. 1What Hid to be Done .. .; •., .. .." '.. .. 1 The Future of the Air Service . .. .. 2Fallacious Arguments .. .. .. .. .. .-.• .. 2 New Knights of the Air 4 ' A Happy New Year " 3The Paris Aero Show sSome" B.A.T." Aeroplanes ... ... .. .. 18 The Cairo-Cape Route .. .. .. .. ., ».-".. ' 20Correspondence .. .. .. .. «. .«._ - ., .. ..22 Visual Signals for Aircraft ..... •. 23Airisms from the Four Winds .. .. .. ..,.,»... ..24 In Parliament .. .. .. .. —. «. -..'- .. .. 27The Roval Air Force .. .. ' .. .. ,. - :;i .. .. .. 28 Model Aeroplanes ao. Sidewinds 30 DIARY OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS. Club Secretaries and others desirous of announcing the date of important fixtures are invited to send particulars for inclusion in the following list: » Paris Aero Show.Deo. 19 to .. Jan. 4,1920. 1920 Jan. 8 April 18 to May 2 June 1 ... July July Aug. 1 ... Sept. 1 ... How Airmen Find their Way. By Major H. L. Wimperis, R.A.F. Royal Aeronautical Society, Juvenile Lecture Seaplane Competition at Monaco Air Ministry Competition (Small Type Aero- planes i, Martlesham Heath S.B.A.C. International Aero Exhibition at Olympia Seaplane Contests at Antwerp Air Ministry Competition (Seaplanes) Felix- stowe Air Ministry Competition (Large Type Aero- planes), Martlesham Heath EDITORIAL HE announcement made by the Air Ministry that the air route from the Cape to Cairo is practically ready, complete with aerodromes and land- ing grounds, for the actual opening of an aerial service from North to South Africa must come as a surprise to those who have not followed the work of survey which has been going on since the Armistice. The Memorandum, which we publish, details the major portion of that work, an(j notes the preparations which haveAir ^oute already been made. These preparations are in an astonishingly forward con- dition, and although the pioneer flight yet remains to be made, it cannot be long now before we shall witness the commencement of what will be in the future a regular mail and passenger service over the whole length of Africa. That the work should have been completed at all in the short space of a year is sur- prising enough in itself, but when the terrific diffi- culties which have had to be swept away are taken into account, the achievement seems to be almost miraculous. No tribute is too high to pay to the three survey parties who have carried out the work in some ot the most difficult country in the world. No continent has proved itself so unconquerable to the explorer as Africa. Little more than half a century ago the maps of the Dark Continent showed prac- tically nothing but a well-defined coast line, with the interior represented by a white blank. The great lakes at the headwaters of the Nile were not shown. Tanganyika, which is really a great inland sea, did not appear. The sources of the Nile were unknown, while the Congo was represented by a doubtful line, which later exploration showed to be completely wrong. It was not until i860 that Burton and Speke discovered Lake Tanganyika, and not till five years later was the mystery of the Nile elucidated by Speke. In 1874 Stanley made his greatest journey, during which he mapped the course of the Congo from its source to the sea, and surveyed the shores of Tan- ganyika and the Victoria Nyanza. Much has been done since, but the story is by no means complete even now. Yet we have strung out from one end of the continent to the other a line of aerodromes and landing grounds, over five thousand miles long, and the time is in sight when the trans-continental journey, which now entails from two to three months of arduous and often dangerous travelling, will be completed by aeroplane in a week. And yet there are some who still affect to believe that there is no future for aerial transport ! The official memorandum is as bald in its language as these documents almost necessarily are, but the record of what had to be done by the survey parties covers a story of enthralling interest. Especially D What Hadto be Done
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