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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0614.PDF
OCTOBER 9, 1900. IT is the duty of any organ that aims to foster a particular movement to keep an ever watchful eye for enterprises of two sorts—those that are to be encouraged and those that need exposing owing to their being detrimental to the cause. FLIGHT has not shirked either side of that duty in the past, and does not propose to do so in the future. Than ourselves, none have been more to the fore, for example, in decrying the promotion of premature flying meetings, or, for that matter, in lamenting and pointing out the harm of running meetings for the money's sake. There are times and places when and where meetings should be held, and there are times and places when and where they should not be held. Even though it was none of our affair, we were unable to •wax enthusiastic at any time over the Berlin Aviation Week, which unquestionably proved a very dull affair, •whether or not it resulted in certain pecuniary gains. If one looks at the matter from the strictly commercial point of view, it is somewhat ironical "that during last week the German Royal Family should have lavished attention on Mr. Orville Wright, whose remarkable performances were in quite an extraordinary contrast with the mediocre flights made at the " great" meeting hard by. But the position of aviation in Britain is somewhat different. If they have been backward in encouraging the aeroplane in Germany, at least they have led the world in fostering and exploiting the dirigible balloon. In France they have encouraged both schools of aviation, especially the heavier-than-air sort. In this country, as yet, the public are strangers to both. For this reason, though the season be somewhat late, and there is a nsequent risk of unfavourable weather, the Blackpool ing meeting is a laudable enterprise. The ground is itable, and the local authorities are striving in ery way to meet the requirements of the case as stipulated by the Aero Club of the United Kingdom, representing the Federation Internationale rAeronautique. The meeting is one that holds out every promise of being beneficial to the cause in Britain. We are, therefore, heartily glad that the parent Club of this country has fallen in with the proposals to organise it, and has given full and unhesitating support to the Lancashire Aero Club, with which local body the Black- pool authorities are naturally and rightly in closest touch. We say these things being not unmindful of the sugges- tions put forward in some quarters that the Blackpool meeting is ill-advised owing to the probable absence of any British competitors this year, a contention that has been somewhat upset as soon as made, in that, firstly, there are to be a special series of important prizes con- fined exclusively to British competitors with British-built machines, and, secondly, quite a number of such com- petitors have signified intention already to compete. Of course there is no doubt but that relatively small as is that section of the people in this country who take a pronounced and persistent interest in flight, the indi- viduals composing it, or about to do so, are anything but concerted as yet, albeit such indications of dissensions as are abroad would be non-existent but for the ill-advised actions and ambitions of a minority. Curiously enough, those who, seemingly for their own ends, would stir up dissension in the ranks of flight advocates, even before those ranks are properly formed, have shown a tendency to go so far as to urge provincial clubs to refrain from a 618 close relationship with the parent Club, on the imaginary score that " one more bad move " has been taken by it in connection with this aviation meeting. Yet a moment's reflection will reveal the ludicrous character of the sug- gestion in that the A.C.U.K. has taken it up in the very heartiest and closest co-operation with one of the most important of the provincial aeronautical bodies. It gave us great pleasure to be able to record last week that so beneficent and scholarly an enthusiast as Mr. Patrick Y. Alexander has rendered yet another notably practical service to the movement in this country by offering a prize of .£1,000 for a British-built motor of 20-h.p., which shall run continuously for twenty-four hours at that power in conjunction with fulfilling certain other practical conditions, such as represent actual service on an aeroplane. It is sure to be of immense value in giving a hearty impetus to those British manufacturers who have already "got right into this flying industry by attacking the very root of the problem," for it is one of the invaluable features of the gift that it directs the attention of the British public to the very kernel of the proposition. But as regards the public, the great lesson can be fulfilled effectively only if the masses are given an absolutely practical demonstration of what aeroplanes are, and of the direction and extents of the limits of their present powers of per- formance. Hence a meeting such as that at Blackpool, though it should chance to be attended only by foreign flying men—but, happily, there is substantial evidence that this will not be the case—is more essential than - aught else to the progress of the movement in the immediate future in this country. It will also serve the incidental and very useful purpose of furnishing that priceless experience that comes of a first essay, and in the light of which alone we can hope confidently and reasonably to promote next year a mighty International flying-machine meeting of the most widely representative character and satisfactory sort from every standpoint. We feel that the combined influence of flying meetings and of all-British prizes are really the complement the one of the other. But we are not so foolish as to let any exaggerated and therefore false display of patriotism blind us to the immediate value of the foreigner just now, any more than we would seek to weaken the prestige of any established British aeronautical body by glibly charging it with faulty policy. Just at the present time, it is useless to pretend that foreigners who can already fly have nothing to teach us for which it is worth while awarding prizes. And just at the present time it is all important for every enthusiast who would advance the cause of aviation in the British Isles to recognise the extent to which the future policy of any representative national body like the Aero Club depends upon himself. It is absurd, therefore, to condemn one British meeting this year, such as that at Blackpool, on the score that British prize-money will leave the country when it is badly wanted by our own experimenters at home. And it is even more absurd for anyone who has allowed himself to be persuaded that the A.C.U.K. will not properly safeguard all British interests to stand aloof from direct membership or from close associateship when his best and surest method of curing the imaginary trouble is to join its ranks and thus obtain a direct voice in all its doings.
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