Jet Accidents
A question was recently asked in the House of Commons about the number of fatal accidents involving jet aircraft, particularly during close formation flying. The Under-Secretary of State for Air, Mr. Ward, stated in a written reply that during the twelve months ended October 31st, 1953, there had been 15 fatal accidents involving R.A.F. jet aircraft due to collision and seven of these collisions occurred during close formation flying. Mr. Ward said that such flying was still a tactical necessity for day-fighter ground-attack aircraft, and that the accident figures showed that the inherent hazards had been minimised by careful training.
Before the Wrights
The majority of references to the Wright Jubilee, including those by Flight and various learned societies, have spoken of "the 50th anniversary of powered flight". Although there can be little misunderstanding that powered flight by a heavier-than-air machine is referred to, it does occur to us that the lighter-than-air aspect should be mentioned.
For the record, then, let us remark that on September 24th 1852, the French engineer Henri Giffard made a successful flight, in an 88,000 cu ft dirigible airship which he had constructed, from Paris to Trappes, a distance of 17 miles. The airship flew, under reasonable control, at a speed of about 5 m.p.h. on the power of a steam engine developing about 3 h.p. for a weight (including boiler) of 350 lb.
Previous dirigible flights had been attempted, with qualified success. Two years earlier Hugh Bell had ascended from Kennington Oval in a 15,000 cu ft airship, the 6ft airscrew of which he operated manually; he drifted down-wind 30 miles in 90 minutes.
Also worth recalling at this time is the Russian claim to have antedated the Wrights' success by some 20 years. They credit an engineer named Mozhaiski, who designed a monoplane and a compound steam-engine said to have produced 30 h.p. for a weight of about 330 lb. Though in recent years the Communists have queered their own pitch by extravagant claims to "firsts" in almost every sphere, this particular example does at least appear to be reasonably well documented.
Mercy Service
The 25th anniversary of the founding of Australia's Flying Doctor Service is being celebrated in Adelaide by an appeal in aid of the establishment - at Port Augusta, South Australia - of a tenth base. Over 850 outback homesteads are served by the existing nine stations.
Source: Flight International
