His Majesty's Visits to Plane Factories, Nations Building Bigger and Faster Machines The two days spent by the King
Weybridge and Cricklewood showed Mia to alteratt "works that he has lost none of the interest in aviation which' he acquired while serving with the Royal Air Force during the War, He went first to the Vickers works at Weybridge, where the Wellesley "Geodetic". long-range "bombers are being made on a large scale for the R.A. F. His Majesty asked many questions about this method of construction and closely examined tone of the three Wellesleys which fare being specially built with a view to recovering the world's non-stop distance. record.
'From Weybridge the King drove to Kingston to the Hawker factory to see the building of the Hurricanc single-seat fighter—a beautiful, heavy ly." armed, low-wing monoplane which with a Rolls-Royce Merlin Miquid-cooled' engine attains a speed 200 mph.
'The King also' visited the Handiey-Page works at Cricklewood, where new records in the mass production of aircraft are being made. He got nto the fuselage of a Harrow heavy bomber—numbers of which -have gone into service already—and spent early half an hour examining its mechanism, There is no doubt that His Majesty was much impressed by the ime density of the effort that has been made in the past couple of years to meet the huge demands of the expansion programme and ie was warm in his congratulations.
Warplanes Fly 100,000,000 Mites Rstimates based on conservative figures of average cruising speed [show that in 1937 Royal Air Force aeroplanes have flown more than 100,000,000 miles, equivalent to a journey far beyond the sun and to 4000 Journeys round the earth at the equator.
Similar estimates at the end of 1995, again assuming low rather than speed, gave égregnte of at Toast 50,000,000 for that year's ying. Since the Service has more than doubled {n size. The first-line Strength of the Metropolitan Air Force—home defence units plus Coastal Command—has approximately trebled. Speeds have stepped tip by 100 mph. Aeroplanes in some feategorics reach 300 mph. Even training abreraft do nearly 200 m.p.h, The flying aggregate is swollen by the work.of the new Volunteer Reserve, the annual refresher flying done by the Reserve of Air Force Officers, and the work of the Fleet Air Arm. Hence, the 1937 estimate certainty on the low side and probably much below the actual gute.
Facls such as these put casualty JAgures in a juster perspective. 1937 a larger Alr Force than Britain has ever previously possessed in time of peace had more accidents than in any other postevar year. [Thousands of new pilots have been under training. Exceptionally Jorge Jnumbers of them have passed from the flying schools to the squadrons, entering upon a phase of their flying feereer which is recognized to be more dangerous than any other. Tu 1934-35 the hours flown by Service Jaircraft for every death were ap-[proximately 12,000, equivalent to 14 million miles. 'The 1937 figure isnot good, but it ly markedly superior to that' for the five or. six years [before 1034.
Conditions That Have to Be Faced Service aviators necessarily work under arduous conditions. They can-hot and must not be sheltered from all risk, though the advancing technique of aircraft and aero. engine Jdesign, and the improvement of "bad Jweather" navigation, tend always to [minimize the perils. of fying.
Many Royal Air Force squadrons jara engaged frequently in active operations, flying over the Northwest Frontier of India or suppressing {tribal disturbances in Arabia, The [Service is charged with patrol and [policing duties over 1,000,000 square miles of territory, including some of the world's most dimeult flying Jeountry. Its aeroplanes fly daily in three continents. Even in the British Iles, it must cope with much bad weather; it has no region of sunshine, and_perfect, visblity, com arable, for. examp! Texas, where much of the United States military flying is done.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.