FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0357.PDF
APRIL 22, ianf (/jjGHT) THE FUTURE OF THE SCHOOL AERO CLUB MOVEMENT. By ROBERT P. GRIMMER, Secretary of Arundel House School Aero Club, Surbiton. Scolaire" has been suggested in order to control the international competitions, which will follow as a matter of course. In England we possess, as far as I am able to ascertain, some ten or twelve school aero clubs. Why should not these be the nucleus of a " British Federation of School Aero Clubs " on similar lines to the one across the Channel ? I am bold enough to suggest the formation of this, and I have been promised the active support of many of our aeronautical firms. The existence of an organised body is essential if we are able to possess any prestige with tlie Continental Federations with regard to the forthcoming international contests. It should be quite possible to arrange among our own clubs competitions for kites, models and gliders on similar lines to football league meetings, and I am sure these contests would be at least equal in general interest to an average football or cricket match. The finals of these contests should excite even national interest, and they would probably be attended by large throngs of spec tators. Experiments made by the members of the proposed Federation with gliders and models might even lead to new and important discoveries being made. There is still a very great deal to be learned with regard to the aeroplane, and a considerable part of what is now known has been evolved from experiments with models. Inter alia, I am convinced that there is a wing shape that would insure perfect and automatic stability. This might well be discovered by even a schoolboy. Again, gliding will eventually culminate in man-driven flight. Wnat vast possibilities are opened here ! And last, but not least, the clubs of the British Federation would, I hope, serve as training centres for the new and great profession of aeronautics. I have very good reason to believe that the British firms would offer special facilities to members of the Federation who were desirous of becoming pupils. Thus, in the course of a few years we should have a generation full of enthusiasm for aviation and determined to maintain the prestige of their country in the air ; for only through the medium of the school aero club can Great Britain be thoroughly imbued with the aviation spirit. The individual aero club is a possibility. My own club— if I may say it—has demonstrated that, and the Federation is equally a possibility. The boys of Britain take a splendid and active interest in aviation. It is their school authorities who are to blame. Unbending and invincible opposition is almost invariably offered to the formation of a school aero club. I have in the course of the last three years received many letters from boys in various parts of England seeking information with regard to the formation of clubs, but the ultimate result has nearly always been the same. The stereotyped excuse of the average principal is that the school sports would be impaired. Personally I am a great admirer (not in theory, but in practice) of football and cricket. But what, after all, is their educational value ? And they are not necessarily the only healthy pastimes. To design a kite, model or glider, a considerable knowledge of physics and mathematics is essential. For its construction one must be conversant with several handicrafts, of which carpentry is not the least; and in the actual flying the in valuable qualities of patience and self-control are brought out in a marked degree. From an athletic point of view the sport is ideal. The experimenter must be a sprinter (espe cially when a gamekeeper approaches to express his views on kite-flying), a tree climber (the elusive model is fond of trees) and an acrobat—this applies more particularly to gliding. Let me appeal to the school authorities of this country to lend some support to this great and national movement; and if that is asking too much, at least to withdraw their determined opposition. In conclusion, I am prepared to give an illustrated lecture on " The Work of the School Aero Club " at any school in Great Britain, which lecture includes descriptions and slides of all our principal machines. MY recent article in FLIGHT, entitled " A Plea for the School Aero Club," will be fresh in the minds of many readers. In it I outlined the immense national importance of training the coming generation in the principles of aeronautics. The present generation is supremely indifferent to the vast possibilities of the new science, which is destined to have a momentous and far-reaching effect on the future history of the world. From a commercial as well as from a military point of view air power will mean world power, and woe to the country that slumbers at a time when the factors that decide the fate of nations are being rearranged ! Britain only holds the proud position of being the greatest country in the world by virtue of her command of the seas, which have been for centuries the highways of the continents. But sea power, which has been the characteristic of Empire since the days of Carthage, is becoming far less important, and it is my profound conviction that the next half century will see the transit of the world removed to another element. The present generation can no more realise this than could their ancestors of the Early Victorian period foresee the abolition of the stage coach. Yet there will come a day— certainly not in the immediate future—when the locomotive engine is as much a rara avis as is that clumsy vehicle of the forties at the present time. If the younger generation does not possess more liberal views concerning the possibilities of aviation, England loses for once and all her proud place among the nations. And in England, despite its vast possibilities and huge field of work, the school aero club movement is being ignored. Not so in France, in Germany, in Austria. M. Gache, who is the devoted pioneer of school aviation in the former country, recently reviewed in L'Aero and La Feuille Sportive several of the articles that I have from time to time con tributed to the Press of Great Britain. He says :— *' For football, cricket and other sports England had given the example. Numerous and prosperous have been and are always the clubs. It would seem that in the domain of aviation things might be otherwise, and that the French scholars, having under their eyes the first great aviators, would form also the first school aero clubs. It has not been thus. With their ancient practice of association, at a time when their country had neither machine nor pilot, the young English formed a school aero club, having for its object the study of aerial navigation. That was three years ago." And after urging the French schoolboys to follow in the footsteps of the Arundel House School Aero Club, the writer concludes :—" Now, my young friends, work for your country, for aviation, and for yourselves 1 " A number of public meetings followed. The idea was taken up with enthusiasm by the French journals, active support was promised by practically all the manufacturers, school aero clubs sprang up by the score in every Depart ment in the country, and at the present moment a " Federa tion Francaise des A6ro-clubs Scolaires" is in course of formation. Inter-club contests are being arranged, and kites, models and gliders manufactured literally by the hundred. As the founder of the oldest school aero club in the world, I am the recipient of countless letters from the authorities of schools in France asking for information as to our methods and procedure. I am besieged with applications to send messages to be read at public meetings, called together to discuss the subject of school aero clubs. All this is very congratulatory, and I highly appreciate the honour shown me, but I must confess that I would rather see this splendid enthusiasm in my own country. One cannot but admire the strenuous work that M. Gache is carrying out so effec tively in France, but one is apt to become a little jealous at times when one surveys the lamentable state of things here. In Germany and Austria the same movement is de veloping, and more progress has been made there in three months than we have achieved in the same number of years. In fact, a " F6deration Aeronautique Internationale 359
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
