82 | Pilot June 2018 | pilotweb.aero
Carbon fibre headset || Selected books || Yaesu FTA-250L tested
Books & Gear
George who?
George Holt Thomas - The
man who created AIRCO by
David Scott & Ian Simmons
90 pages, black & white
illustrations. Available from
D Scott, 21 Ellsworth Road,
High Wycombe HP11 2TU,
£15.00 (incl £3 for p&p) –
profits to the Thames Valley
Air Ambulance
George Holt Thomas is the
man most of us have never
heard of, and yet aviation
would be in a very different
place without his major
contribution. As might also be
the country, given that aircraft
manufactured by his company
dominated in the RFC skies
during WWI. Originally involved
in printing and publishing, Holt
Thomas’s interest in aviation
took him to France on several
occasions and he eventually
abandoned publishing to set
up The Aeroplane Supply
Company which initially
produced under licence aircraft
from the Farman brothers
in France. The AeroplaneSupply Company became
The Aircraft Manufacturing
Company – abbreviated to
AIRCO – where, among other
claims to fame, Holt Thomas
employed the young Geoffrey
de Havilland as chief designer
(and, later, helped him set
up his own company). During
WWI his business expanded at
a great rate but his fortunes
changed after the war, when
demand fell through the floor
and competition increased.
Nevertheless, even during the
war, he had the foresight to
register The Aircraft Transport
& Travel (AT&T) company, and
started commercial flights to
the continent after the war.
As well as de Havilland, other
notable aviation contributorswho worked for AIRCO included
Harald Penrose, Alan Cobham
and Neville Shute. Holt Thomas
also influenced or helped to
create aviation at Brooklands,
the de Havilland Aircraft
Company, the Gloucestershire
Aircraft Company (later
Gloster), Westland Aircraft, and
the International Air Transport
Association (IATA). After he
stepped away from aviation
(due to failed businesses) he
took up dairy farming, but was
still influential in setting up
Imperial Airways – forerunner
to British Airways – in his
latter years.
A labour of love, this well-
researched and illustrated book
fills a gap in the history of British
aviation and influence. JASEHT introduces the super-light
carbon fibre headset
SH40-80 Carbon Fibre ANR Bluetooth Headset http://www.seht.co.uk
£499.95 (non-Bluetooth ANR SH40-60 £399.95,
non-ANR passive SH40-10 £199.95)
Introduced earlier this year,
SEHT’s new 40-series headsets
break new ground and take the
range upmarket from the low-
priced but well regarded units
upon which the British company’s
reputation has rapidly been
established.
So light is even the top of
the range SH40-80 illustrated
that it almost beggars belief
that no one else has used
carbon fibre, renowned for its
strength-to-weight ratio, in an
aviation headset until now. The
specification boasts 44dB of
combined noise attenuation and
an ‘on head’ weight of just 330
grams (total weight, including
battery pack 515g – for reference,
Pilot’s benchmark ANR-
converted David Clark 10-30
weighs in at 805g). Certainly, the
first couple of times we picked up
the bag to go flying, the impulse
was to check that the SH40-80
was actually inside.
Bluetooth allows wireless
connection to other devices in the
cockpit, such as the inevitable
smartphone, so those who are
minded to will be able to listen
to their Spotify library as they
fly. The slight downside of this
feature is that the rectangular
battery box/controller is rather
more bulky than the little square
unit that comes with the next
model down, the non-Bluetooth
but otherwise identical SH80-- Both models us two AA
batteries. For those who are
happy to forego ANR altogether,
there is the SH40-10, which
gives 22dB attenuation. All
models in the 40 range have
breathable faux kid-leather ear
seals as standard. PW