Abstract
MR. F. ENTWISTLE, head of the Overseas Division of the Meteorological Office, Air Ministry, delivered the Symons Memorial Lecture before the Royal Meteorological Society on March 16, taking as his subject, “Atlantic Flight and its bearings on Meteorology”. Mr. Entwistle stated that the success of the nights across the North Atlantic last year by Imperial Airways, Ltd., in conjunction with Pan American Airways, Inc., was due in very large measure to the thorough preparations which preceded them and to the ground organization, including radio and meteorological services, which was provided. The preliminary investigations carried out by the Overseas Division of the Meteorological Office in order to provide essential operational data before the flights commenced were described. The first investigation, commenced early in 1936, had as its object the determination of the maximum average head wind component that would be experienced on an east to west track along the great circle route between Ireland and Newfoundland. The results, which were based on an examination of data covering a period of ten years, indicated that while the maximum wind speed likely to be encountered at any point was 95 m.p.h., the maximum average speed over the whole route was 60 m.p.h. This average speed, however, occurred only once in ten years, and if, in the operation of a trans-Atlantic aircraft, an allowance was made for a maximum head wind on be very few occasions in any one year when it was necessary to cancel the flight. A more comprehensive investigation followed in which the times of flight of aircraft of different air speeds on alternative trans-Atlantic routes were compared.
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Atlantic Meteorology and Trans-Atlantic Flight. Nature 141, 546 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141546a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141546a0