FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0268.PDF
[fiwn APRIL I, 1911. THE AERONAUTICAL THERE is evidently something very radically unsatisfactory with either the constitution or the conduct of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain. How comes it that this, the oldest aeronautical body in the world, is reduced to the parlous state of practically living on charity ? That is plain speaking, but it is amply justified by the showing of the balance sheet for the year 1910, from which we gather that of an income of, in round figures, of ^500 just half was contributed by way of donation by Mr. Patrick Alexander. Even with the aid of so munificent a gift, the affairs of the Society were conducted at a loss—a small one, it is true, but neverthe less a loss. We do not mean to suggest that all the useful work of which the Society is capable should be carried out for a maximum expenditure of ^500 per annum. To conduct all the scientific work which properly falls within its province might well mean an expenditure of much more than the sum named, but it is an axiom that bricks cannot be made without straw, and surely the time has arrived when the Society should calmly and sanely sit down to discuss whether it has an adequate supply of straw to justify it continuing the same methods in the brickmaking business. To outward appearances at least the whole conduct of the affairs of the Society exhibits a deplorable want of business ability. Look, for example, at the ballot-paper which has been sent out to members with the notices relating to the annual general meeting. Anything more grotesque than the fojpi in which the paper is drawn we have never seen du»ig the owl^e of a long association with the conduct flff publiq;lpbdies. A list of names is given which it is suggested snould form the personnel of officers and council for the coming year, twelve in number, and each name has a blank space beside it for the purpose of the insertion of an alternative name if the individual voter feels so disposed. It is utterly immaterial to our argument what names appear on the paper; but we do say that the ballot (sic) is nothing more than the rushing through en bloc of the nominees of the present council. Most emphatically do we acquit the members of the council of any ulterior motive in having drawn the ballot paper in its present form ; but our criticism is that it is not a ballot at all and that the whole proceeding is an apt indication of the lack of business up-to-dateness which runs through the whole of the Society's conduct. The proper plan, of course, would have been to ask in advance for nominations from the whole membership so that all the names of those willing to serve would have been on the ballot-paper and an opportunity would have been given to the Society at large to select its own representatives. Another instance of the hopelessly childlike way in which this ballot (save the mark) has been conducted. The voter is naively told on the paper that his name must not be signed anywhere on. the paper —because the essence of the ballot is secrecy, we presume. And yet he gets two envelopes, one to contain the ballot-paper, which is then placed in the other and the member's name is to be signed on the outer envelope. But all this is of minor importance in itself, leading nowhere in particular. It is, of course, always necessary to point out shortcomings in order to arrive at an under standing of why the reform of any particular institution happens to be essential. Few members of the Society are likely to argue that all is well with it. The question now is how to find its proper metier and the ways and means of continuing the Society as a useful institution. SOCIETY'S POSITION. By its understanding with the Royal Aero Club and the Aerial League, the Society remains the national body to whom to look for the conduct of the scientific or theoretical side of aeronautics. Now, scientific research and inquiry was one thing in the days before dynamic flight had actually been achieved ; but it is altogether another matter now. Practically, in those early days, membership of the Society implied far-sighted confidence in the ultimate achievement of mechanical flight, and nothing was more natural than for all enthusiastic believers—whatever might be their technical attainments or their mere powers of imagination—to band themselves together under the aegis of a recognised body. Clearly, however, there is no place today for the mere believer in the possibility of flight, since every man in the street is considerably more convinced of its prospects than was the most sanguine of the earlier day visionaries. In other words the whole position has changed as regards the needs and functions of the Society, and yet no apparent commensurate change has yet come over its programme or its basic management and constitution. One might indeed almost go so far as to say that if those estimable amateur enthusiasts who controlled the destinies of the oldest aeronautical institution in the world were in every way equipped for holding the reins of office prior to the great change of a few years ago, it almost stands to reason that few if any of them are likely also to possess the progressive and semi-professional characteristics that are essential to the needs of the Society now. Possibly, too, there may even be a certain small section of the member ship that no longer really require representation of the scientific kind at all, whereas on the other hand there must most certainly be a very vastly greater number of practical investigators and students wanting an organisa tion of an up-to-date technical kind where they can thrash out the more pressing theoretical problems of the hour in a manner calculated directly to benefit the cause. Apparently, therefore, the Aeronautical Society should seriously be taken in hand without delay by the membership. There is ample scope for invaluable work, and a real live scientific society would not find it difficult to secure an ample supply of funds to meet its most urgent needs; while hundreds of workers in the field of flight would seek to associate themselves with the institution if membership, or if fellowship, or if any other distinguishing classification were to carry with it a high standing of a recognised social kind. It is doubtless much too early days to talk of any aeronautic institution comparable in nature to the Institution of Automobile Engineers. That is rather for the technical men of the industry when it has settled down—and when everyone in the industry has come to know who is who—as distinct from the theoretical men of the movement, who very rightly now wish to sort themselves out from the purely superficial posers of whom the public are apt to hear too much. Research is as essential at the present day as it ever has been in the past, while systematic research is obviously considerably more practicable now than it has been heretofore. If the sole activities of a reconstituted Aeronautical Society were to be concentrated upon the drafting of a rational programme, setting forth the precise lines that might best be followed by those equipped for the conduct of scientific research, it would well justify its existence in the eyes of the world. For our own part, we should be surprised if this were not to lead but little later to the Society itself taking an active part in such work.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
