Oasis flight 1937
The 1937 oasis flight was the last of a total of three international oasis flight competitions organized by the Egyptian Aeroclub . It took place from February 22 to 26, 1937 and was won by Captain Bloomberg on a Junkers Ju 86 equipped with diesel engines .
Competitive conditions
The competition was open to all aircraft from national and international production and included the following disciplines:
- Top speed
- Lowest fuel consumption per passenger mile
- Range
- Navigation points reached (turning points)
In addition, travel comfort, safety, visibility from the cabin, etc. were assessed in a technical test. The flight itself was divided into two separate competitions: the oasis flight as a navigation task and the speed flight. 41 participants from 11 nations took part in 1937. In detail, 4 aircraft were registered from Germany, Egypt took part with 5 aircraft, also Belgium (2), England (9), France (10), Italy (3), Austria (1), Poland (1), Romania ( 1), Syria (1) and Czechoslovakia (4).
procedure
The German aviators had all reached Egypt with their planes by air and had to take unwanted breaks on the way due to weather problems. After the arrival of all participants, the technical test was held on February 22nd, and on February 23rd the President of the Egyptian Aeroclub approved the start of the 2300 km long flight route.
The flight route led from Cairo to Ghobit on the Suez Canal . There was an intermediate landing in Hurghada , where the first participant with a broken chassis was canceled. The first day's destination, Aswan , was then reached via Luxor after a flight of 810 km. On the second day, the flight went from Aswan to Luxor. The following third day of the competition was planned as a day of rest.
In order to get the highest possible score, every aircraft had a high flight weight loaded. The Ju 86 flew with eleven people on board, the Bf 108 had three people with additional luggage on board. Due to the high outside temperatures, the engine output drops for purely physical reasons, which, in combination with the high flight weight, made for very long take-off distances and also caused some chassis damage. The Bf 108 from Thomsen had not yet lifted off at the end of the sand runway and the pilot Thomsen rolled under a telegraph cable until he had enough speed to get off the ground.
The oasis flight started on the fourth day of the competition. It led 1105 km over the oases of El Kharga (turning point), Dhakla (stopover), Farafra (turning point), Baharia (stopover) to Cairo.
Orientation was difficult because the map material on a scale of 1: 1,000,000 was not optimal and the landscape was constantly changing due to wind drifts. Again and again there were starting difficulties due to bad and soft slopes and not fully available engine power. There were a total of six cancellations due to technical problems and one due to disqualification. The German pilot Karl Schwabe damaged his undercarriage when he took off in Dhakla and knew that he could overturn on the next landing. He decided to land further outside the airfield with his clamp at the next landing point in order not to endanger the other participants, actually overturned and luckily remained uninjured.
Results
When they arrived in Cairo, the remaining planes took off for the speed competition over a total of 498 km. The first four finished as follows:
- Zapetta on FN Nardi 305 with 297.74 km / h
- Hansez on Simoun with 283.25 km / h
- Lumiere on Simoun at 275.2 km / h
- Thomsen on Bf 108 with 252.87 km / h
The end result was:
- Place: Freiherr Speck v. Sternburg, captain v. Bloomberg, captain v. Salomon, radio operator Posner (all Germany) on Junkers Ju 86 (D-AKOP)
- Place: Otto Thomsen, Dempewolf (both Germany) on Messerschmitt Bf 108
- Place: Guy Hansez on Caudron -Simoun (Belgium)
- Place: W. v. Gronau (Germany) on Messerschmitt Bf 108
- Place: PG Aldrich-Blake (England) on Percival Vega Gull
- Place: De Chateubrun (France) on Percival Vega Gull
- Place: Ambrus (Czechoslovakia) on Zlín Z-XII
- Place: Ahmed Salem (Egypt) on De Havilland DH.85 Leopard Moth .
The two participating Bf 108s achieved the first two places in the assessment of travel comfort, the Potez 56 came third, the Junkers 86 fourth, the Farman F.402 fifth .
The victory of the Junkers Ju 86 was achieved through a high technical effort. The two Jumo diesel engines of the Ju 86 were very economical and won all possible points and competitions. In addition, the crew was very extensive, there were two pilots, a radio operator, a navigator and a technician. The second place of the Bf 108 is to be rated very highly here because it was flown as a single-engine aircraft with 100 kg overload only in pairs and thus the load for the two pilots was much higher than for the Junkers crew, who also had more than two Engines.
literature
- Magazine: Der Deutsche Sportflieger. Aviation magazine ; April 1937, Postverlag, Leipzig