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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0578.PDF
[/yGHT JULY 23, 191a AFTERTHOUGHTS ON BOURNEMOUTH AND SUGGESTIONS FOR OTHER MEETINGS. Anyone who has spent a full week on the Bournemouth Aero drome watching the flights must necessarily have come away filled with reflections upon the many outstanding features of that im portant meeting, and it is not without reason that we now deal editorially with our own afterthoughts, seeing that the aspects of the situation are so various, and the principal conolusions that may be drawn therefrom so important. There are two distinctly different aspects of a flying meeting such as this—one is its value as a spectacle for the interest of the general public, and the other is its importance as a test to demonstrate the progress of the art. Each aspect again must be regarded from two different points of view : that of the organisers and that of the competitors. A flying meeting is organised solely with one object in view, that of being a financial success ; to attain this result the general public must be attracted in large numbers to visit the aerodrome. Those who have never seen a flight at all may reasonably be expected to wait all day in order to satisfy their curiosity about something so wonderful, but this is a blase age, and your general public needs a very lively entertainment if it is to be tempted to patronise an attraction more than once. A few of those more specifically interested might frequent an aerodome for the satisfaction of seeing an extraordinarily fine flight by the foremost pilot of the day, and it is said that some will even attend such places in anticipation of an accident. However true this may be in con nection with other forms of sport, we can at least say this of aero plane disasters, that they are far too cold-blooded to appeal even to the most debased among a British public. Altogether, therefore, it comes down to this, that a flying meeting must provide good enter tainment if it is to attract a crowd, and unless it does attract spectators in large numbers there will be no money wherewith to provide those large prizes that recompense the successful pilots for their performances. As an entertainment the Bournemouth meeting was oftentimes dull in the extreme. There was no incentive for the competitors to fly regularly, and a kind of apathy pervaded the proceedings to such an extent that many of the events passed off during the last half-hour that they remained open with little more than an apology for a contest From the organisers' point of view this must have been very disappointing. So far as the competitors were concerned, they would naturally suit themselves when they flew, so long as there was no incentive to do otherwise. The result was that the scientific aspect of the meeting as an indication of the progress of flight, suffered considerably. As there are still several flying meetings already arranged to take place, it is not, therefore, without good purpose to consider whether they might not be made more successful. Of the individual events, those for speed, altitude, and long distance rank first in importance ; speed is the chief asset of flight over other means of locomotion, high altitude is a factor inseparable from the military aspect of aviation, and a long-distance flight is the only practical method of satisfactorily demonstrating the reliability of the machine, coupled with the endurance of its pilot. These three things should, therefore, form the basis of the programme ; but there is an equally important purpose that might be served by any aviation meeting that extends over several days, and that is the demonstration of the airworthiness of the modem machine in the hands of the average pilot. The practical utility of aviation appears to us to be far more closely associated with its development into an everyday sort of achievement by a large number of men than with the spasmodic efforts of one or two exceptionally able exponents of the art, so that regular performances by all entrants might well serve as the basis of the allotment of the prize money. It would have been a great thing to have been able to say of the Bournemouth meeting that never an hour elapsed but some machine flew round the course, and we feel sure that there were those present among the competitors who could easily have established this record had they thought it worth while to do so. It would have been splendid evidence of the progress of flying and would have afforded a continuous entertainment to the spectators who have provided the money wherewith the organisers are recompensed for the large prizes that they offer in competition. The Bournemouth prize fund amounted to £8,000. So does that for the Lanark meeting, and we should like to suggest a little scheme that seems to us to be a more satisfactory way of allotting the money than anything that has yet been adopted. It will be observed that the suggested programme provides for the winning of ,£200 an hour in four events of ^50 each. It would be open for a competitor to try for speed and distance simultaneously, and he could go on all day long if he chose to do so, and thereby qualify for the two special "record" prizes that would be awarded at the end of the meeting if any one lap exceeded 60 miles an hour, and the consecutive distance flown was greater than 200 miles. There is really no particular point in awarding specially high prizes unless the feats achieved approach those that have already been established as records. Similarly with altitude, there would be a prize of ,£50 every hour for altitudes exceeding 1,000 ft., and a special prize of £500 at the end of the meeting for the greatest altitude exceeding 4,000 ft. Passenger flights seem to appeal to the general public a good deal, and the hourly weight-carrying prize would conceivably be an attraction to those competitors whose machines are not equal to winning the speed. On the other hand, the special weight-carrying prize of ,£500 is provided in case any competitor turns up with an exceptionally large machine. larger machines than those now built must sooner or later come into use, and weight carrying, therefore, deserves to find a place on the pro gramme, although there is no particular reason to encourage the overloading of ordinary machines. Suggested Prize Scheme for a Prize Fund of £8,000. Flying to take place from 2 p.m. to 7 p.m. daily. •^ Oft £ fe^o Event. X P-, &"' £ £ £ Speed... Fastest lap of any consecutive 3 laps... 50 250 1,500 Distance Greatest distance flown in the hour (i.e., between 2 and 3, 3 and 4 o'clock, &c.) 50 250 1,500 Altitude Maximum altitude exceeding 1,000 ft. 50 250 1,500 Weight Greatest weight carried exceeding 400 lbs. 50 250 1,500 200 1,000 6,000 Special Prizes for Records during the Meeting. Event. Speed ... Distance Altitude Weight Fastest lap exceeding 60 m.p.h. of any consecutive 3 laps Greatest consecutive distance flown ex ceeding 200 miles Greatest altitude exceeding 4,000 ft. Greatest weight carried exceeding 600 lbs. 500 2,000 £ 500 500 500 A prize scheme such as that suggested would enable a good pilot to win very nearly as much as formerly, but would call for a little more energy, and any indifference on the part of the best men would be the opportunity for the less experienced to pick up a .£5° prize or so as some recompense for their appearance in the com petition. If the funds available exceed the amount stated they might usefully be devoted to the doubling of all prizes for flights taking place in winds exceeding 15 miles an hour. Very little is gained by starting in the morning ; most of the competitors want a considerable time to examine their machines, and proceedings are commonly stopped for the luncheon interval. The best time for flying is generally in the evening, which is just the reason why it is desirable to encourage more practice during the early part of the afternoon before the wind has died down. Nor is any particular purpose served by introducing trick events, as such, into a flying programme at the present time, for at the best they are useless, and at the worst they encourage a man to take an unneces sary risk. The ordinary exigencies of flying at the present time call forth quite sufficient resource in emergency to satisfy any ordinary spectator. If the risk were desirable it would be another matter. We have no patience with the peevish alarmists who would try to stop flying altogether because some of our greatest pioneers have lost in the game of hazard that they themselves chose to play. Life is a game in which we all must lose sooner or later, if it comes to that; and, while no one regrets an accident to a brave man more than we do, nevertheless we honour him for the pluck that he has so usefully applied. It is simply ridiculous to talk as some critics are doing about the present dangers of flying, as if there was no possible chance of minimising them in the future. The pioneer motorist who remembers the limitations of the early automobile, and has recently had occasion to tell a taxi driver that he has five minutes in which to catch a train at Waterloo from—well, never mind where—can very readily appreciate what we mean when we speak of the changes that a*e wrought by development. It would have been little short of attempting wholesale massacre to have attempted to have transported the thousands of people who now daily employ motor cabs under similar conditions with the earliest kinds of cars, and it must at least be remembered that flying is after all very much in its infancy. Comparatively few of the people who now drive modern automobiles indifferently well would make 576
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