"Rumbling" & "Goosing"

Not long ago Oliver Edwin Simmonds, M. P., British aircraft designer and lecturer, toured the airlines of the U. S. He told what he saw and what he thought about it in the issue of The Aeroplane which reached the U. S. last week.

To Mr. Simmonds the two worst features of U. S. air transport are noise and "rumbling." The noise evil has been effectively attacked since his visit; the Curtiss "silent" Condor and the new Douglas Airliner have reduced cabin decibels to approximately the same level as a Pullman.

"Rumbling" is a word unknown in U. S. aviation. Mr. Simmonds defined it as the practice of using a plane's engines to help it into an airport "instead of using proper skill and judgment in gliding to the desired point . . . without help from the engines." He viewed with alarm the danger of an engine cutting out while the pilot is rumbling in. Moreover, he contended that habitual reliance on engine power causes a pilot to lose his ability to make a forced landing "deadstick" if necessary. Oldtime pilots prefer not to rumble, Mr. Simmonds found; but operators insist on it because a glide sometimes entails dips, swoops and sideslips which may frighten passengers.

Critic Simmonds was correct about the feelings of oldtime pilots. In the old days of temperamental engines a good pilot always glided in, a poor pilot flew in. But that criterion has been outmoded by multi-motored ships and by modern engines which once warmed up, do not cut out. Transport operators hoot at the idea of danger in landing under power. They point out that at any moment during a landing, a pilot may need to gun his engines full blast to avoid collision, or to overcome a sudden shift of wind. Unless the engines have been turning over constantly, they will be choked and useless when he needs them. Hence the pilot "gooses" the motors with short bursts as he comes slanting down to the field.

No chronic carper, Mr. Simmonds found much good to report to British airmen:

P: England should learn from the U. S. the secret of high-speed, high-frequency schedules.

P: English aircraft should adopt the retractable landing gear as used in the U. S.

P: "The radio beacon [not used in England] is quickly replacing the topographical map in American aviation."

P: Civil aviation in the U. S. is free from military control, while in England it is subject to Air Ministry "interference."

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