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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0432.PDF
taking part to take risks which would never be con templated in more ambitious journeys such as that across the Atlantic. If you confine events to even such competitions as that of the Daily Mail's around Britain contest, you will always have entering that particular brand of risk-taker who thinks he may possibly fluke through, and that if lie does not, he is not running any grave risks, because he will always be within hail of assistance. But the Atlantic contest is entirely another thing. Before a man can seriously contemplate taking part in a thing of the kind, he must of necessity sit down to study and take into account all the risks of his enterprise. He arrives at a realisation of all it entails, and must make scientific preparations for surmounting his risks, and even though in the end he may decide that, after all, the game is not worth the candle, he will have added something valuable to the sum total of our knowledge. Apart from all these considerations, it is idle to deny that to attempt the Atlantic flight does infer danger, and a good deal of danger. But we do say that the task is not one of such impossibility as to make it so dangerous as to be out of court on grounds of sentiment. The Daily Mail has laid it down in its conditions that the Royal Aero Club is to formulate all the regulations for the actual competition, and we think it may be left to that body with perfect confidence to so draw them and to so keep out the crazy experimenter as to reduce the risks to the minimum. It cannot legislate for the unfore seen, but it can at least so legislate as to prevent what is intended for encouragement degenerating into what conceivably might rank in the public mind along with those unedifying spectacles in which life is wantonly risked for the sake of mere advertisement. Following on Sir Philip Burne-Jones' letter, there appeared in the Daily Mail a few days since, another communication from Mr. Schilizzi, in which he puts the arguments against the Atlantic Prize very cogently, and with admirable balance. But even he goes, we think, somewhat wide of the mark when he says in effect that the offer of the prize is likely to encourage mere reckless ness. He says, further, that all competitions of this character should be framed with a due regard to two cardinal principles. In the first place the element of risk should be cut down to the irreducible minimum com patible with a full yield from the experiment of all the light it is capable of shedding on the problem. Secondly, the experiment should be so designed and adjusted as to bring into the fullest possible relief the weak features cf a machine, and so point the way to modification and im provement. All the essentials, he thinks, can be achieved by competitions of equal aggregate distance to the Atlantic flight along our own coasts. It is here that we join issue with him, for the reasons we have already set forth earlier in this article. Short distance competitions, even where they aim at large aggregates, cannot in their nature induce the close scientific study of the many problems involved, or produce the same influence on opinion as the more risky flight across a wide expanse of ocean. Of this last there can be no doubt, as witness the effect on the public mind of HameFs recent magnificent flight, under the auspices of the Standard, from Dover to Cologne. Aggregate flights of greater duration have been achieved—the Circuit of Britain, for example, but we question very much if even that produced the same sense of what we may call the practicability of the aeroplane as Hamel's flight. It was a spectacular per- APRII. 26, 1913. formance, and that counts for a great deal in influencing public opinion. For our own part, we are absolutely at variance with Sir Philip Burne-Jones on the subject under discussion, and, therefore, in full accord with the Daily Mail and the objects it seeks to attain. «. • • Once more private enterprise has come Making Good forward to make good the neglect of the DerefctkJns Covernment to place the aerial defences of the country on a proper basis. Hitherto the Government has, to put it mildly, given very little encouragement to the formation of volunteer air corps— as witness the fate of the recently disbanded London Balloon Company, and so nothing has resulted from the public-spirited movement towards creating a species of volunteer air reserve as an accessory to the Royal Flying Corps. True, the Special Reserve of Officers exists as a live factor in the situation, but little or no encouragement has been held out to those interested in the formation of a reserve of what might be called a more popular character. Liverpool, however, has now come forward with a concrete contribution to this movement, and by the munificence of two of her citizens—Messrs. W. E. and C. A. Cain, she will presently possess a volunteer air corps, properly equipped with one or two approved aeroplanes. This is a magnificent example to the rest of the country, and one which we hope to see largely copied. We must have an adequate air-fleet, which it is the first duty of the Government to provide, but if those in authority are so dead to a proper sense of their responsibilities as to refuse or neglect to give it to us, then the thing must be started by private enterprise. Thus, and thus only, can the State be aroused to a sense of the national need, and thus only can we achieve safety against the designs of our possible enemies. He gives best who gives promptly, and we sincerely trust that the example of the Messrs. Cain will not only be followed all over the country but that it will be taken to heart at once. Indeed, there are not wanting signs that private individuals are alive to the necessities of the situation, for we note with pleasure that Messrs. William Coward and Co., jointly with the proprietors of The Standard, have guaranteed the cost of a military aero plane to be presented to one of the principal States of the Empire to form the first unit of an Imperial Air Fleet. This machine, which turns out to be the one on which Hamel made his now historic flight from Dover to Cologne, has actually been purchased, offered to the Government of New Zealand, and accepted by them. These two instances of public spirit in the matter of aerial defence are extremely valuable in themselves, but their principle is of even greater value in that it affords an indication of an awakening, tardy it is true, but nevertheless an awakening which must have a most excellent reaction on the present deplorable situation of our air defences. ® ® ® ® Determining Position at Sea. AN interesting experiment in view of the proposed Trans atlantic flight was made at Eastbourne Aerodrome on Tuesday morning, when Mr. Fowler took up Mr. Rainey, a navigating officer of the R.M.S.P. Co., who was anxious to prove whether it was possible to ascertain with any degree of accuracy the position of an aeroplane in flight over the sea when no land was visible. Ml. Rainey took up his sextant and a chronometer, and had no difficulty in determining, within a quarter of a mile, the position of the machine while in flight. The latitude was obtained by the double altitude method, and the position was proved by a chart 2
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