Pa~e TLree America Has the World's Best ! Flying Tourist Abroad Finds Aviation Techniques Vary as Do Languages

London. By WAYNE THOMIS pilot pours the coal to his en- A N AMERICAN traveling by The weather was bad, ceiling gines and you are oft'. In the n.European airliners after under 500 feet. and we came in United States It is universal having flown extensively through rain squalls and be- practice to open up each of the over airways within the United neath the cloud layer, throttled motors, be It a twin, tri, or rour- States quickly discovers that back and obviously fiying not motored machine, just before aviation techniques can vary as much over 100 miles an hour. takeoft', in order to be certain greatly as languages. He also When the field showed up that they are delivering full gains an appreciation of the high through the general gloom the power and every pressure indio quality of American transport pilot slid down to a height of cator shows proper fuel and lu- airplanes. 200 feet and began his circle. bricant flow. But not here. Within the last month I've The wind was very light but One result of this neglect was flown in Imperial Airways, Air was definitly from the east. We apparent in another , Ala, Littoria, and Luft· straightened out and began our plane at . We taxied out, hansa airplanes in the course of final approach. At that moment the motors were opened up, and short journeys. My view of alr- the wind shifted to the north. we staggered into the air. Our line operations necessarily has I was watching a wind cone and pro g I' e s s remained sluggish. been superflcial, but I have seen saw the change occur. . There wasn't the usual accelera- a fairly representative cross section of European commercial air lines. My general conclusions are (Acme photo.) that American airliners are rast- Planes of five nations (before ) at Le Bourget field. Paris. er, more comfortable, quieter than European ships; that Amer- is unpleasantly small as well. ,hour, the British flying boats at ican airports with their paved Furthermore, it has a roll in the 165, the De Havilland Albatross runways or large paved landing land, so much so that from the planes at 170, and the new En- areas are superior to the sod passenger station airplanes land- signs at 165. flelds almost universally used ing from the east pass almost Here is the way I would com- over here. And in general I be- out of sight as they enter this pare a DC·3 with the various lieve that American air trafic dip. machines in reference to com- control methods are superior and As to distance from centers fort. In each case the comparl- pilots of American airliners fly of population, the European son is from actual flight expert- more conservatively than those traveler has the same complaint ence: of European lines. as the American-the fields are Savola-Marchetti S-75- Nois- One blessing of American fly- all too far from town. At Lon- ier, with more vibration. ing !hat generally is unapprecl· don, Paris, Brussels, Vienna, Ensign-More room, mol' e ated at home is the absence of Madrid, Warsaw, and Rom e comfortable furnishings, but customs and passport require- from forty to flfty minutes is more vibration. Noise I eve I ments. We can fly for 2,500 required to travel from mid-city about same as DC·3. miles east or west and for 1,800 to the flying field. is tor- Albatross-Much noisier, far north and south and need never tunate in that Tempelhof can be less comfortable seats, extreme look a customs officer in the eye. reached from the main business vibration, bad interior arrange- Over here a 5OO-mileflight in and the main hotel sections by ment. any direction from any capital (Acme photo.) Junkers Ju-52-Much noisier. city In Europe with the excep- Diagrammatic drawing of German Junkers Ju-S2. less room. Reminds one of the tion of Moscow will take you to old Ford trimotors. a border, where you go through Apparently unafraid of stall- tion to cruising speed. The pilot Junkers Ju-86- This b i m o- the inspection routine, having ing his machine, the pilot imme- kept the plane in a straight t.ored ten-place machine is about you I' baggage examined and diately made a steep turn to the gradual climb, then made a slow like the old Boeing 247D airlin- your passport scrutinized. right, seeming as he did so al- circle of the field and brought ers that United Air Lines flew • • • most to dip the right wing tip the machine back to a landing. for so many years. The cabin First of all let's consider flight into the rooftops below us. The There were little beads of is smaller and noisier and not technique. motors were opened up and the sweat on his brow, although it so comfortable as the Douglas. In general the European pilots plane made a wide swing to the was not a hot day, when he tend to treat their airliners with south and then swung around walked back from the cockpit • • • less respect than do American and addressed the passengers. o' The center motor went phutt," There were two items I liked a i I' men. The machines are he explained in English. We very much about the European whipped into steep banks close airways. You can buy a drink to the ground immediately after had maintained our height France's trimotored aU-metal Devoitine. (Acme photo.) of any beverage from beer to takeoft'. Frankly, my hair stood the two wing motors while get- ting Into position for the land- wines and whiskies and brandies on end several times watching gines. Unless the motors are the crashes came at points that a ten-minute drive even in the aboard their planes. In spite the apparent disrespect with ing, but the pilot had been wor- functioning somewhere n e a I' were off the line that should busiest hours. of the presence of alcoholic which the German Lufthansa ried. A test run-up of the mot.ors jus t before takeoff probably normal cruising revolutions the have been followed-indicating Now for the airliners. Ameri- drinks on the planes, I saw no pilots maneuvered the Junkers suction pump cannot deliver 'its that the planes turned from the can machines actually cruise at drunkenness or disorderly con- Ju-52 trimotored planes. would have showed the malfunc- tioning of the motor. normal suction to the gyroscope intended line of flight apparent- between 175 and 210 miles an duct by passengers, or, indeed. I must admit that accidents rotors. And if the rotors are not ly without the knowledge of the hour, the Douglas DC·2s and anything at all that would [us- do not seem to result from such Opening up engines before takeoff has another import.ant turning at rated speeds their pilots. It is now believed that DC-3s being in the 175 to 185 tify the ban placed by the ted- maneuvers. The crashes over indications on the dials of' the the giro instruments mislead mile an hour class. The Lock- eral government on the serving here for the most part, like our function. The modern blind-fly- turn and bank indicator, the the pilots by not telling the heed Electras do 175 m.p.h., and of drinks in American aircraft. own, occur in conditions of poor ing instruments, turn and bank indicator, glro-compass, artificial giro-compass, and horizon will truth. the Lockheed 14s actually hit off Further; passengers gather at visibility. not tell the truth. Blame for such disasters, how- 210,even at an economical throt- a downtown ticket office and are The Junkers ships, though, ha- horizon, and the giros of the automatic pilot are driven off In other words, the indicators ever, rests' on the pilots. They tle setting. carried to the airports in motor bitually are banked beyond 45 suction pumps on airliner en- may say your progress is in a know how the blind-flying instru- Most of the European planes buses as at home. Your ticket degrees into climbing t urn s ments operate and their llmita- are cruising at slightly slower here, however, entitles you to immediately they are oft' the tions. Because the pilots failed speeds. The Junkers Ju-52 is the ride from the downtown tel" ground. I've repeatedly seen to open up their motors on the supposed to do 145 miles an minal to the airport and a simi- the German pilots make a com- ground and allow the rotors to hour. The French machines are lar ride at your destination. plete reversal of direction-180- (Acme photo.) reach operating speed, the In- averaging 165 to 175 miles an They do not charge you an extra degree turns-while still within Aerial signpost at Royal Dutch air struments couldn't tell the truth. hour. The Italian Savoia series 75 cents to a dollar at each end, boundaries of airports no larger lines terminal. Amsterdam. Every pilot who does any instru- cruises at 175 to 180 miles an as they do in America. than Chicago's municipal field-- and this with a heavy trlrnotored in another violent turn until it merit-flying training in the Unit- r------ed States learns that he must plane carrying fifteen persons, headed north into the wind. get his instruments up to work- mail, and express. .All this took place within an ing speed before takeoffs in con- The Ju-52 has a light wing area not more than a quarter ditions of poor visibility. loading and a relatively low mile from the field and at a fty- stalling speed. It's probably ing speed that was breath-tak- true that the pilots know their ingly slow. There was obvious- • • • machine perfectly and are able ly no thought on the part of the Very few airports in Europe to do these things with the ut- pilot of making any second com- or England have any paved run- most safety-but to my eyes it plete circuit of the airport, as ways, while hard-surfaced areas looked like dangerous piloting an American pilot almost cer- for takeoff and landing are con- and unacceptable for air line tainly would have done. sidered essential in the United work. Another practice that always States for airdromes w her e An Italian airliner captain frightened me a little was the large and heavy airplanes are sent cold chills down my spine universal one of not testing the to be flown. Pavement for run- in a trimotored Savoia-Marchetti motors of airliners before take- ways obviates troubles with mud S-75. This is a big and heavy off. What happens over here is and soft ground, facilitates the machine, wing span 98 feet, that the passengers are loaded cleaning of snow from landing 32,000 pounds g I' 0 S s weight aboard a ship, the motors start- areas, and generally is regarded (larger and heavier than our ed and allowed to idle until req- as highly beneficial and worth familiar Douglas DC-3 planes l. uisite temperatures are reached. its cost. We were landing at Le Bourget Then the machine is taxied Many of the European fields field on a trip from Rome. out to the takeoff point and the are as large as or larger than (European photo.) American airports, but t his De Havilland Albatross four-motored added size is needed because plane of Imperial Airways. heavy airplanes accelerate to A Carnay Bride straight line while actually your flying speed much more slowly machine may be turning. on sod than on pavement. One with a Word for YOU It is the practice over here to of the largest fields over here take off in conditions of excep- is Tempelhof at Berlin. It is YOVELY Mrs. W'o L. Clover, Chicago, says, that of tionally poor visibility, some- now some 450 acres in area and L all beauty aids, she likes Camay best for its rich, times when the ceiling is less is being enlarged to 750 acres, cleansing lather-its wonderful mildness. And she adds, than 100 feet and Visibility less considerably more than a square "Also for its intriguing fragrance. I recommend Camay than a quarter mile. The pilots mile in extent. as an aid to a lovely complexion." follow a predetermined line of Le Bourget field is nearly a direction that takes them over mile square. and has buildings the least obstructed route and on only one side. The other THE SOAP OF climb above the fog. three-east, north, and south- But in the I a s t eighteen are encircled by cultivated fields. CAMAY BEAUTIFUL WOMEN months a number of accidents But Croydon at London is in the have occurred during such take- midst of thousands of exactly Trad. Muk Rea. U. 8. Pat. Off. offs. In virtually every instance similar workmen's cottages and