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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0306.PDF
MAY 29, 1909. THE Prime Minister's explanation in answer to Mr. Balfour's question as to the nature of the duties entrusted to the Scientific Advisory Committee on Aerial Navigation, may be considered enlightening, but cannot be deemed very satisfactory. Mr. Asquith said that it is no part of the general duty of the Government Committee either to •construct or to invent. Its function is not to initiate but to consider what is initiated elsewhere, and is referred to it by the executive officers of the Navy and Army Con- struction Departments. The Government is of opinion that the problems that are likely to arise in this way are numerous. It will be the work of the Committee to •advise on such problems, and to seek their solution by the application of both theoretical and experimental methods of research. That is fairly explicit. Two views may be taken and are entertained concerning the matter. One is in effect that the Committee will be as certain a means of '" blocking " progress as the War Office itself could be at the height of its red tape. The other is that the Com- mittee of scientific men would be of immense and prompt practical service. We should like to be able to endorse the second-named view heartily, but it is not an easy one to adopt in the circumstances. We have to remember that practically without exception the members of the •Committee are extremely buey men, who can only devote •very little time to their meetings, which will certainly be none too frequent, as those who are aware of the rate of remuneration will conclude, for it will scarcely cover hotel expenses if quite a modest amount of meetings are to be held each year only. It is well that there should be no encouragement to anybody to strive for a place on the Committee for the mere sake of the emolument that attaches to it. At the same time there is a very vast difference between that policy and the one adopted of choosing a variety of more or less eminent men who are so extremely busy with other affairs than aeronautics, with possibly one or two exceptions, that it is certain that they can perform little more personal service than the average Board of Railway Directors, who for quite other reasons meet for a few hours at fairly long intervals. This Aeronautical Committee will certainly be very much like a Board of Directors, and it is in that connection that we have to express disappointment at the Govern- ment action. Without any disrespect to individual members of the Aeronautical Committee we may state plainly in regard to flight that there are at present no lack of opinions. If Government progress is to be advanced or retarded by the process of employing opinions from others than those actually engaged in the work of constructing and testing and experimenting with flying machines, the result is bound to be unsatisfactory from the national point of view. We do not want to add to opinions. Definite applicable knowledge is what is required alike by the Government and all interested in the study of mechanical aerial locomotion. And above all, we want to advance the practical side of the business and not the theoretical, which will always have quite as many, if not more, honorary devotees than are or can be needed. The nature of the Committee's functions, as outlined by Mr. Asquith, makes only one thing definitely certain, and that is that it will be more difficult than ever to get Government funds for spending on the building of flying machines of any sort. The Board will be prone to display anxiety concerning its reputation if it is to be held responsible for recommending courses, and the inevitable result will be that one thing after another will be "crabbed" or delayed to a disheartening and dangerous extent " in order to err rather on the safe than on the risky side." Anybody who knows anything about these matters is well aware that it has always been diffi- cult to get even a tithe of the money needed to devote to the practical side of the question. Precious time, infinite patience and brains, have to be squandered to get any single step forward. Indeed, one can scarcely get away from the impression that our most brilliant practical official experts are seized with a sort of paralysis of fear at the very idea of advocating anything difficult at this admittedly experimental stage of the science. There is, in fact, a mortal fear of being connected with anything that may not result completely satisfactorily, lest in an ungrateful age reputations which are rightly cherished may suffer, and services no longer be required in consequence. In a word, the Government Advisory Committee of Aeronautics appeals to us at the moment as being a very doubtful blessing ; so much so, indeed, that we are inclined to commiserate with those earnest and brilliant officers alike in the Navy and the Army who are devoting special attention to the subject. We cannot see any useful reason why any committee of distinguished theorists not necessarily concerned with aeronautical matters, and all of whom are unable to devote any appre- ciable time to the special needs of the nation in this con- nection, should be appointed to sit on the work of gentlemen who are devoting their whole time, energies, and enthusiasm to the practical pursuit of the subject. Any such Government system will check rather than help their labours. We want men who are working on nothing else but aeronautics for national uses to have anything whatever to do with the Government phases of this all-important question. It is idle to suppose that anything less than entire service can be of any practical use on the part of those men with whom, accord- ing to the Prime Minister's statement, will rest the all- important matter as to whether this scheme initiated by the Navy Construction Department, or that advocated by the Army Construction Department, shall be gone on with. For our own part the only problems that seem to us likely to arise for reference to other authorities than those connected with the Admiralty or the War Office will be purely those of finance. It is a bad system to encumber enterprise by establishing " Boards of Opinion." The opinions of the practical men who are doing the work are worth a good deal more to the nation than those of a miscellaneous collection of scientists. The men who are doing the work know why they have failed or why they are succeeding, and can form as good if not better opinions as to the way to proceed or whether to desist than can any second body of men who have merely second-hand information by which to be guided. This science of aerial locomotion is not like an established branch of engineering wherein those who have been through the curriculum are in a position to give valuable opinion, though themselves not actually engaged in the particular work in hand. In aeronautics there are no past-masters. 308
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