Pensioned Off When the Walt Disney Elementary School at Tullytown, Pennsylvania opened last Monday, a Douglas Skyrocket was already established there as a playground toy. It is one of the second batch of machines from which the turbojets were removed to allow increased rocket tankage; this particular machine once reached a height of 13 miles. It seems strange that so advanced an airframe – though no doubt unairworthy – should thus be virtually scrapped.
London Lufhansa The first German registered civil aircraft to visit Britain since the war was one of the four Convair 340s of Lufthansa, the revived German airline. Registered D-ACAD, the aircraft is one of four now used on German internal routes and due for introduction to international short-haul work on May 16th. From that date the German Convairs will be seen at London Airport twice daily; flights will connect London with Munich and Frankfurt, and Hamburg and Dusseldorf.
Good Wishes Winston The Secretary of State for Air, Lord De L'Isle and Dudley, V.C., sent the following message to Sir Winston Churchill on the occasion of his retirement: "On behalf of the Air Council and all ranks of the Royal Air Force I send you, on your retirement from the office of Prime Minister, best wishes for your health and happiness. The Royal Air Force recalls with gratitude your long association with the Service as Secretary of State for Air, and as Prime Minister and Minister of Defence during the late war."
Indian Crash What really happened to the Air India International Constellation VT-DEP which fell into the sea off the coast of Sarawak on April 11th still remains obscure. The aircraft had been chartered to carry members of the Chinese Communist delegation to the Afro-Asia conference and had left Hong-Kong for Djkarta. Shortly after 9 a.m. G.M.T. two "Mayday" signals were heard. An air and sea search was immediately instituted and three slightly injured survivors of the Constellation's complement of 18 were picked up by H.M.S. Dampier. Next day, the Communist New China news agency issued a statement of the Chinese Foreign Ministry alleging that the accident "was a murder deliberately engineered by secret organizations of the United States and Chiang Kai-Shek."
Source: Flight International
