In connection with the danger most dreaded by pilots, ice on the wings, Imperial Airways announce this week a method of keeping ice off the wings with which they have been experimenting for some time and which has now been brought to a practical form.
"The foundation of it is a substanced which lowers the freezing point Of water by several degrees. The problem was to produce it in a sticky paste capable of adhering to the edges of wings and airscrews, struts and tailpieces in spite of rain Or heavy wind.. Similar. substances have been tried before, but nothing that would stick on if, for example, an aeroplane had to go up through a thick warm rain cloud and then ran into a cold belt above.
The inventor employed by the Company, Mr, 7. Halbert, has now evolved a paste which on actual trial on a Heracles liner between London and Paris, proved its capacity to stick on in quite sufficient quantity to be a very great protection against ice. No doubt with time, Mr. Halbert will still further improve his paste. Both weight and cost are negligible—30lb. at a cost of £1 to safeguard one of the great Empire flying-boats.
Heston Airport Sol toston Airpoft! adjoining the Great West Road out of London, has been sold to the Government though for the time being it will still be managed by Airwork, Ltd, to whom it has belonged since 1929.
This Company was founded by Mr. Nigel Norman and Mr. Alan Muntz (who married a daughter of Lord Londonderry) and is the largest privately owned airport in the world, and second only to Croydon in size By 1984, over 3.00 aeroplanes a month were taking off from it; its all round equipment is very fine, and it has become quite the fashionable flying-school for London. Last year the Air Ministry bought the adjoining fields to save them from the speculative builder: these will be incorporate ed with the whole aerodrome. The situation, so near the West End, on the fat fields of Middlesex, and with no high buildings anywhere near it, is ideal. The two former owners of Hesion have made a fortune out of it, as for their foresight and initiative they certainly deserved to do.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.