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Aviation Pioneers

Books : Our Transatlantic Flight.

Our transatlantic flight, by Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown
Our transatlantic flight, by Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown

Newfoundland

Before 1949, Newfoundland was called Dominion of Newfoundland   and was part of the British Commonwealth . In 1949, it became a Canadian province.

The first non-stop flight eastward across the Atlantic.

The book « Our transatlantic flight » tells the story of the historic flight that was made in 1919, just after the First World War, from Newfoundland to Ireland. There was a 10,000 £ prize offered by Lord Northcliffe   from Great Britain for whoever would succeed on the first non-stop flight eastward across the Atlantic.

A triumph for British aviation

Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown , respectively pilot and navigator, wrote the story of their successful flight in this book which was published in 1969. The followings are pilot quotes from the book : « For the first time in the history of aviation the Atlantic had been crossed in direct, non-stop flight in the record time of 15 hours, 57 minutes. » (p.13) « The flight was a triumph for British aviation; the pilot and navigator were both British, the aircraft was a Vickers-Vimy   and the twin engines were made by Rolls-Royce. » (p.13)

Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown
Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown

As with all great human achievements, a very good flight planning and some luck was needed to make this flight a success. If there was an engine failure during the flight, even if the planning was excellent, there was only one outcome : downward.

In order to make the flight, Alcock and Brown boarded a ship from England bound to Halifax. They then headed to Port aux Basques and finally arrived in St.John’s. There, they joined a small group of British aviators who had arrived a few days before and who were also preparing for the competition. « The evenings were mostly spent in playing cards with the other competitors at the Cochrane Hotel, or in visits to the neighbouring film theatres. St.John’s itself showed us every kindness. » (p.60)

Maritime transport was used to carry the Vickers-Vimy biplane to Newfoundland on May 4th. It was assembled in Newfoundland. « The reporters representing the Daily Mail, the New York Times, and the New York World were often of assistance when extra manpower was required. » (p.61).

While the aircraft was being built, there were more and more visiters coming to the site. Brown says : « Although we remained unworried so long as the crowd contented itself with just watching, we had to guard against petty damage. The testing of the fabric’s firmness with the point of an umbrella was a favourite pastime of the spectators […]. » (p.61)

The Vickers-Vimy is being reassembled at Quidi Vidi in Newfoundland.
The Vickers-Vimy is being reassembled at Quidi Vidi in Newfoundland.

It was difficult to find a field that could be improvised into an aerodrome : « Newfoundland is a hospitable place, but its best friends cannot claim that it is ideal for aviation. The whole of the island has no ground that might be made into a first-class aerodrome. The district around St.John’s is  especially difficult. Some of the country is wooded, but for the most part it shows a rolling, switchback surface, across which aeroplanes cannot taxi with any degree of smoothness. The soil is soft and dotted with boulders, as only a light layer covers the rock stratum. Another handicap is the prevalence of thick fogs, which roll westward from the sea. » (p.59)

They flight tested the airplane on June 9th at Quidi Vidi. During the short flight, the crew could see icebergs near the coast. They did a second trial on June 12th and found that the transmitter constantly caused problems. But, at least, the engines seemed to be reliable…

The departure

The two men left Newfoundland on June 14th 1919. In order to fight the cold air in flight, they wore electrically heated clothing. A battery located between two seats provided for the necessary energy.

The Vickers-Vimy departs from Newfoundland in 1919
The Vickers-Vimy departs from Newfoundland in 1919

The short take-off was very difficult due to the wind and the rough surface of the aerodrome. Brown writes : « Several times I held my breath, from fear that our under-carriage would hit a roof or a tree-top. I am convinced that only Alcock’s clever piloting saved us from such an early disaster. » (p.73)

It took them 8 minutes to reach 1000 ft. Barely one hour after departure and once over the ocean, the generator broke and the flight crew was cut off from all means of communication.

As the airplane consumed petrol, the centre of gravity changed and since there was no trim on the machine, the pilot had to exert a permanent backward pressure on the joystick.

Flying in clouds, fog and turbulence.

During the flight with much clouds and fog, Brown, having almost no navigation aid,  had real problems to estimate the aircraft’s position and limit the flying errors. He had to wait for a higher altitude and for the night to come to improve his calculations : « I waited impatiently for the first sight of the moon, the Pole Star and other old friends of every navigator. » (p.84). The fog and clouds were so thick that at times they « cut off from view parts of the Vickers-Vimy. » (p.95)

Without proper instruments to fly in clouds, they were relying on a « revolution-counter » to establish the climbing or the falling rate. That is pretty scary. « A sudden increase in revolutions would indicate that the plane was diving; a sudden loss of revs  would show that she was climbing dangerously steeply. » (p.176)

But that was not enough. They also had to deal with turbulence that rocked the plane while they could not see anything outside. They became desoriented : « The airspeed indicator failed to register, and bad bumps prevented me from holding to our course. From side to side rocked the machine, and it was hard to know in what position we really were. A spin was the inevitable result. From an altitude of 4,000 feet we twirled rapidly downward.[…]. « Apart from the changing levels marked by aneroid, only the fact that our bodies were pressed tightly against the seats indicated that we were falling. How and at what angle we were falling, we knew not. Alcock tried to centralise the controls, but failed because we had lost all sense of what was central. I searched in every direction for an external sign, and saw nothing but opaque nebulousness. » (p.88)

« It was a tense moment for us, and when at last we emerged from the fog we were close down over the water at an extremely dangerous angle. The white-capped waves were rolling along too close to be comfortable, but a quick glimpse of the horizon enabled me to regain control of the machine. » (p.40).

De-icing a gauge installed outside of the cockpit.

Snow and sleet were falling. They didn’t realize how lucky they were to continue flying in such a weather. Nowadays, there are many ways to dislodge ice from a wing while the aircraft is in flight. Here is what Brown says about their situation : « […] The top sides of the plane were covered completely by a crusting of frozen sleet. The sleet imbedded itself in the hinges of the ailerons and jammed them, so that for about an hour the machine had scarcely any lateral control. Fortunately, the Vickers-Vimy possesses plenty of inherent lateral stability; and, as the rudder controls were never clogged by sleet, we were able to hold to the right direction. » (p.95)

After twelve hours of flying, the glass of a gauge outside the cockpit became obscured by clotted snow. Brown had to deal with it, while Alcock was flying. «  The only way to reach it was by climbing out of the cockpit and kneeling on top of the fuselage, while holding a strut for the maintenance of balance. […] The violent rush of air, which tended to push me backward, was another discomfort. […] Until the storm ended, a repetition of this performance, at fairly frequent intervals, continued to be necessary. » (p.94)

In order to save themselves, they executed a descent from 11,000 to 1000 feet and in the warmer air the ailerons started to operate again. As they continued their descent below 1000 feet over the ocean, they were still surrounded by fog. They had to do some serious low altitude flying : « Alcock was feeling his way downward gently and alertly, not knowing whether the cloud extended to the ocean, nor at what moment the machine’s undercarriage might touch the waves. He had loosened his safety belt, and was ready to abandon ship if we hit the water […]. » (p.96)

The arrival.

They saw Ireland at 8.15 am on June 15th and crossed the coast ten minutes later. They did not expect a very challenging landing as the field looked solid enough to support an aircraft. They landed at 8 :40 am at Clifden on top of what happened to be a bog; the aircraft rolled on its nose and suffered serious material damages. The first non-stop transatlantic flight ended in a crash. Both both crewmen were alive and well, although they were dealing with fatigue

The transatlantic flight ends up in Ireland in a soft field
The transatlantic flight ends up in Ireland in a soft field

Initially, nobody in Ireland believed that the plane arrived from North America. But when they saw mail-bags from Newfoundland, there were « cheers and painful hand-shakes » (p.102).

First page of the Sunday Evening Telegraph in 1919.
First page of the Sunday Evening Telegraph in 1919.

They were cheered by the crowds in Ireland and England and received their prize from Winston Churchill.

John Alcock chaired by the crowd
John Alcock chaired by the crowd
Winston Churchill is presenting the Daily Mail Check to the two pilots.
Winston Churchill is presenting the Daily Mail Check to the two pilots.

Their record stood unchallenged for eight years until Lindbergh’s flight in 1927.

The future of transatlantic flight.

Towards the end of the book, the authors risk a prediction on the future of transatlantic flight. But aviation made such a progress in a very short time that, inevitably, their thoughts on the subject was obsolete in a matter of a few years. Here are some examples :

« Nothwithstanding that the first two flights across the Atlantic were made respectively by a flying boat and an aeroplane, it is evident that the future of transatlantic flight belongs to the airship. » (p.121)

« […] The heavy type of aeroplane necessary to carry an economical load for long distances would not be capable of much more than 85 to 90 miles an hour. The difference between this and the present airship speed of 60 miles an hour would be reduced by the fact that an aeroplane must land at intermediate stations for fuel replenishment. » (p.123)

« It is undesirable to fly at great heights owing to the low temperature; but with suitable provision for heating there is no reason why flying at 10,000 feet should not be common. » (p.136)

The Air Age.

There is a short section in the book on the « Air Age ». I chose two small excerpts on Germany and Canada :

On Germany’s excellent Zeppelins : « The new type of Zeppelin – the Bodensee –  is so efficient that no weather conditions, except a strong cross-hangar wind, prevents it from making its daily flight of 390 miles between Friedrichshafen and Staalsen, thirteen miles from Berlin. » (p.140)

On Canada’s use of aeroplanes : « Canada has found a highly successful use for aeroplanes in prospecting the Labrador timber country. A group of machines returned from an exploration with valuable photographs and maps of hundreds of thousands of pound’s worth of forest land. Aerial fire patrols, also, are sent out over forests.» (p.142) and « Already, the Canadian Northwest Mounted Police [today the RCMP] have captured criminals by means of aeroplane patrols. » (p.146)

Conclusion

The Manchester Guardian stated, on June 16th 1919 : « […] As far as can be foreseen, the future of air transport over the Atlantic is not for the aeroplane. It may be used many times for personal feats of daring. But to make the aeroplane safe enough for business use on such sea routes we should have to have all the cyclones of the Atlantic marked on the chart, and their progress marked in from hour to hour. »(p.169)

Title : Our Transatlantic Flight

Authors : Sir John Alcock and Sir Arthur Whitten Brown

Edition : William Kimber

© 1969

SBN : 7183-0221-4

For other articles on that theme on my website: Aviation pioneers.

Categories
Airline manager quotes

Du haut des airs: la vérité sur Air Canada

Du haut des airs: la vérité sur Air Canada
Du haut des airs: la vérité sur Air Canada

Robert A. Milton managed Air Canada during the most tempestuous period of the history of air transport.

I translated the quotes from the French version of the book.

It is all right to say to a Crown corporation to operate, starting tomorrow, like a private enterprise, but it’s like saying to a dog to walk on its hind legs from now on. The dog can succeed, but it will need time to adjust to this new idea”.

Rod Eddington, the British Airways CEO, made everybody laugh when talking about the resistance to change of middle managers. He said: “As it is said for staff reductions, turkeys have never voted in favor of Christmas”.

The most efficient system in the world can only work properly if the people who apply it want it to work”.

No air transport society has ever succeeded in reducing its activities, except in the context of a restructuration under judiciary supervision”.

One day, as I was walking through the department of technical operations, I looked around and noticed that some people were working in a cubicle fitted out along an outside wall. There were many windows in the wall, but they were all covered with brown paper. I was curious to know why. Was the outside view so terrible that nobody wanted to look through the windows? Or was it so beautiful that it could distract the employees? I checked and the view had nothing really special. It was not more beautiful nor uglier than the other views from the building.

When I asked for explanations, I was told that the employees working along that wall belonged to a group where the salary level did not allow access to a window. But, for different reasons, it had been necessary to position them near a wall with windows. A bureaucrat of the organization had been afraid, I suppose, that making an exception to the rule would lead to anarchy, and he ordered that the windows be covered to correct this unacceptable situation. Useless to say that the brown paper disappeared a few minutes after I received the explanation”.

Quite often, people who progress slowly in their career without having to take decisions inevitably end up by having to take one. At that moment, they freeze like a deer being blinded by a car headlights, and they get knocked out”.

If someone puts one finger in my eye, I react by putting two fingers in both of his eyes”

The VISA Aerogold card is nothing else than a money making machine for the CIBC. It represents 20 to 25 % of the market capitalization of the bank”.

It is necessary to respect the rules of the game, but to play in all seriousness by using all the tools that are available to you

Here, Robert Milton quotes a former Minister of Transport of Canada: “He raised the governance problems and the airports inability to control costs, to show interest in customers and to build only the needed infrastructure, instead of the luxurious installations that are now appearing all across the country”.

In the future, I see Air Canada recognized as one of the six best airline companies of the world, with connections in all regions of the globe and with an interior service representing a smaller, but all the same important part of its total income”.

Title: Du haut des airs: la vérité sur Air Canada
Authors: Robert A. Milton and John Lawrence Reynolds
Édition: Libre Expression
©2005
ISBN: 2-7648-0128-9

For other quotes from airline managers, click here: Quotes from airline managers

Categories
Airline manager quotes

One hell of a ride

The Canadian Craig Dobbin built the world’s largest helicopter company

"One hell of a ride" book cover about Craig Dobbin and the world's largest helicopter company: CHC Helicopters
“One hell of a ride” book cover about Craig Dobbin and the world’s largest helicopter company: CHC Helicopters

His view on management

I’m not an expert on anything” he explained. “Whatever the job, whatever the challenge, somebody can do it better than I can. True entrepreneurs surround themselves with professional managers who share their vision and put form around it. Not only can you not do it all yourself, it’s not necessary, and it does not make sense. I believe in being a good casting director of people who work together and share together”.

Handling pressure

It’s been a good week” Craig Dobbin might comment to his personal secretary late on a Friday afternoon. Then his face would cloud over and he’d say, “Get Keith Stanford on the phone and ask him for my financial summary. That’ll fuck up my weekend”.

A capacity to take huge financial risks

The hell with the contract”, he grinned. “Let’s buy the buggers out and we’ll get the contract that way! We’ll start with Toronto [Helicopters].”

“One morning, shortly after the deal to purchase Toronto Helicopters was completed, Craig Dobbin strolled into Robert Foster’s Toronto office. “Robert” he said “I want you to get on a plane, fly to Calgary and buy Okanagan Helicopters for me.” “But Craig,” Foster replied, “you don’t have any money.” Dobbin shrugged and said “That’s your problem.””

On the importance of relaxing and have fun

“Over time, Dobbin introduced initiation rites for first-time visitors [to his fishing lodge]. Steve Hudson’s [a pilot] initial visit to Adlatuk involved a helicopter flight over the ocean in search of an iceberg drifting down from the Arctic. When a suitable iceberg was located, the initiate was given his instructions. “They handed me a hammer and an ice bucket,” Hudson explains. “My job was to jump out of the helicopter onto the iceberg and fill the bucket with chipped ice for our drinks back at the fishing lodge”.

Icebergs, Hudson discovered, are very unstable and riding one in the North Atlantic with a Super Puma hovering a few feet over your head is like trying to keep your balance while walking across a trampoline. “It was a lot of fun for the guys in the helicopter,” he says, “but not so much fun for me, trying to knock enough million-year-old ice of the berg to fill the bucket.” Back in the camp, the ice chilled several glasses of Jameson raised in a toast to the new crew member.””

"One hell of a ride", from John Lawrence Reynolds
“One hell of a ride”, from John Lawrence Reynolds

A genuine interest in people

When he talked with you in social situations,” one business acquaintance recalls, “he was focused totally on you. He wasn’t looking over your shoulder or around the room, searching for someone more important. He was really interested in what you were saying. Everyone sensed this about the man and was drawn to him”.

Dobbin’s humanity

“Dobbin’s business acumen rarely overrode his humanity. On a flight to his fishing lodge in Long Harbour with a group of friends, Dobbin asked the helicopter pilot to set the craft down for a washroom break. The pilot chose an open area adjacent to a shack and tower where a provincial wildlife officer was spending the summer on fire-watch duty. The officer, a grizzled veteran of wildlife work, kept the group laughing for some time with his stories and anecdotes, and the short rest break extended into an hour’s impromptu entertainment.

How long have you been here?” Dobbin asked the old timer as the group was about to board the helicopter and resume their journey. “Ten weeks,” the officer answered, with about another ten weeks to go before returning home. “Anything you need?” Dobbin inquired, and the man said he was out of sugar; it would be nice to have something to sweeten his tea, but he would get by.

An hour later, when everyone had disembarked at Long Harbour, Dobbin instructed the helicopter pilot not to shut down the aircraft yet. He entered the cookhouse and emerged with a two-kilo bag of sugar, ordering the pilot to fly it back to the wildlife officer they had met.

Are you kidding?” the young pilot said. “I’ll spend about two thousand bucks in fuel alone to fly it there.”

Dobbin gripped the pilot’s arm. “Son,” he said, “that sugar will mean more to that old fellow than two thousand bucks will ever mean to me. Now get going.””

Title: One hell of a ride
Author: John Lawrence Reynolds
©2008
Editor: Douglas &McIntyre
ISBN: 978-1-55365-491-9

For other quotes from airline managers, click here: Quotes from airline managers

Categories
Political economy

Political economy: supercapitalism

Supercapitalism

The transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life

Robert B. Reich "Supercapitalism"
Robert B. Reich “Supercapitalism”

Robert B. Reich is a professor at the Berkeley University in California. He also worked for the American government under President Bill Clinton as secretary of labour.

Here is a quote from the New York Times on their review of “Supercapitalism”: “Reich documents in lurid detail the explosive growth of corporate lobbying expenditures and campaign contributions since the 1970s. . . . Supercapitalism is a grand debunking of the conventional wisdom in the style of John Kenneth Galbraith”.

Ferocious competition on an international scale

During the first few decades that followed the Second World War, before the globalization of the economy, the author shows that in United States, profits derived from mass production were based on rules that insured stability. There was a better redistribution of a company’s profits between workers, shareholders and managers. The CEO even had the possibility to take decisions that would benefit to both the society and his company. The middle class was in better shape.

At the same time as capitalism progressively gained terrain around the planet, increasing inequalities of incomes and wealth followed.
The rise of supercapitalism, around the 70s, is due to the globalization of the economy and, consequently, to an increase of the international competition. Consumers and investors have been benefiting a lot from supercapitalism, but the citizen who feels a social responsibility and looks for the common good gradually lost ground.

The “consumer/investor” versus the “citizen”

The author writes that each person is of two minds: a “consumer and investor” but also a “citizen”. The consumer wants to acquire quality goods at low price and the investor wishes that the money invested towards his retirement provides a great rate of return. If the consumer finds a better price somewhere else, and if the investor considers that the return on investment (ROI) is not adequate, both will look towards the competition.

Meanwhile, the “citizen” in us wishes only good things for the society and the planet: companies must respect the environment; workers must have decent working conditions, etc. The paradox is that while we want the best, we encourage the worst.

Wishing the best while encouraging the worst

The fact that a superstore does not offer good working conditions to his employees irritates the “citizen” in us. However, the superstore’s lower operating costs allow us to save money. If prices go up, we will buy somewhere else.

As investors, we possess, through our mutual funds, numerous financially performing companies. In many countries around the world, profits redistributed to shareholders are the result of minimal working conditions given to employees and abuse on the environment. The investor regularly compares the rate of return of several mutual funds and other investments and he will not hesitate to sell his shares if profits are insufficient.

Increased pressure on the company’s CEO

Globalization and increased competition are forcing managers to think only in terms of return on investment. The CEO is accountable to his dissatisfied shareholders and mutual fund managers who both can sell their shares of an underperforming company.

Consequently, the role of a CEO is not to spend for reasons that would please the “citizen”, but instead to maximize profits using all the legal means at his disposal. This way, he satisfies the consumer and investor. He knows that all his competitors do the same.

As citizens, our role is to forbid companies to establish the rules of the game. Those rules must be set by the government in order to preserve democracy and encourage social responsibility.

Companies are not against new rules that would apply globally to all competitors. What they want to avoid is that a specific company benefits more than another one in the new deal.

Winning or preserving a competitive advantage because of lobbyists

Considering the strong international competition between companies, it is easy to understand that massive amounts of money and other efforts deployed to gain a competitive advantage are in constant growth.

After having worked in Washington, the experienced politician is hired by big corporations as a lobbyist (3% in 1970, 30% in 2005). While the politician’s attention is focused on consumers and investors, the citizen’s voice wishing a greater social equality is not heard.

Supercapitalism thus modifies the way the democratic system operates.

Mutual benefits between politicians and lobbyists

Politicians use that competition to demand important amounts of money to finance their political campaign. In exchange, they support and help push the agenda of a specific company: “That’s how politicians keep their hold on power, and lobbyists keep their hold on money”.

Democracy is perverted by the actions of lobbyists and the attraction that money and other advantages has on politician’s decisions. The government is not managed from the inside but by external powerful economic interests.

Better regulations can improve democracy

The author writes that companies cannot take personal initiatives to correct the situation since it will undermine their position towards other competitors in a global market. “Supercapitalism does not permit acts of corporate virtue that erode the bottom line. No company can “voluntarily” take on extra cost that its competitors don’t also take on, which is why, under supercapitalism, regulations are the only means of getting companies to do things that hurt their bottom lines”. Regulations can only be imposed by political actions.

Learn to recognize the actions used to distract the population

It is necessary for citizens and Medias to recognize the half-truths and distortions that “confound efforts to prevent supercapitalism from overrunning democracy”. The author names a few:

The public blame that changes nothing: beware of politicians who publicly blame corporations for actions that respect the law but that the public despise. The corporation works for the consumer and investor, not for the citizen. A public blame is easy and makes the politician look good. The latter must instead work at improving the law and corporations will then be forced to respect the new parameters.

The corporation that pretends to act on behalf of the public interest: do not believe a corporation that says it works for the public good. It is not its role. It is possible that, in order to improve its image or to satisfy the consumer (and ultimately its shareholders), it does something that looks like it is good for the public. But, basically, there is no acknowledgment of the public good, only a desire to preserve or improve its competitive position.

Lobbyists who pretend to look for the public good: lobbyists and experts who pretend that their initiatives are in the public interest only detract attention from their real objectives that are to protect or advantage a specific corporation.

The private sector and the “voluntary” cooperation: beware of politicians who claim that the public can count on the voluntary cooperation of the private sector in order to protect the public good. It is not the private sector’s role and it will not spend any money unless all of its competitors do the same. Those are only words aimed at buying time and confuse the public. If the public good is so important, then a law must be voted.

Public relation campaigns aimed at one specific corporation: beware of public relation campaigns and pressure groups working to force a specific company to be more socially virtuous. Try to discover the real goals behind those efforts. If all this seems reasonable to you, then ask yourself if a new law or new regulations forcing all the competing corporations to modify their behaviour would better serve the public.

Conclusion

A final quote summarizes very well the author’s thoughts: “In general, corporate responsibilities to the public are better addressed in the democratic process than inside corporate boardrooms. Reformers should focus on laws or regulations they seek to change, and mobilize the public around changing them”.

Title: Supercapitalism
Author: Robert B. Reich
Edition : Vintage Books
ISBN : 978-0-307-27999-2
©2007