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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0488.PDF
AVIATION IN M*. 1 EMBERTON BILLING, speaking on June ist on the motion for theadjournmentofthe House of Commons for the Whitsuntide recess, said that he regretted that in the criticism in the House generally on the question of the air there had been a considerable amount of heat generated, which perhaps was not altogether necessary. But be thought it his doty in that House and elsewhere, in view of the fact that he had left a combatant force to go there. Certain things had happened since his arrival, and certain reforms had taken place. He took that opportunity of congratulating the Government on the steps, though not, in his opinion, very vigorous steps, but at least they had wandered in the right direction. They had had a Com mittee formed by the Government, and they had bad a Committee of Inquiry. He still very strongly took exception to both the com position and terms of reference of the Committee of Inquiry, but he thought his duty was plain. If it was his intention, as he would like the House to unders'and it was, to serve the Air Service rather than any advancement of himself in the House or outside, it was obviously his duty to appear before that Committee no matter how he might take exception to it, to try and give them all the benefit of the knowledge he had of the, inefficiency of the Air Service and allow them to be the judge of what reforms were necessary. He thought a very useful purpose would be served if a member of the Air Board as distinct from the Air Committee were in attendance upon the meetings of that Air Committee, so that the Air Board might have first hand information as to such evidence and information as was tendered to enable it to bring about reforms which they were all very anxious, some of them more than others, to see brought about in the Air Service generally, both in the naval and military branches. He proposed, as far as that Board was concerned, to refrain from criticising it in any way whatsoever. He quite appreciated thai Lord Curzon had undertaken a task of very great magnitude, and he would have around him a multitude of counsellors, all most willing and anxious for many reasons, and not in every case for the same reasons, to advise and assist him in every way they could. He could only say that any assistance or advice that he could give he would be very pleased to render. His criticism he had always tried, except in some moments, to make constructive. Within the last two months, for some reason or another—he had no need to say for what reason—they had been very fortunate in the reforms which had taken place in the Air Services. Aerodromes which were unsuitably lighted were now suitably lighted. Aeroplanes which were dangerous to fly with had been substituted by better machines. In fact, generally during the last two months he thought he could say without fear of contradiction, unless perhaps it were official contradiction, that there have been more reforms carried out both in our naval and military flying service than had been ca ried out in the previous two years. That, at least, was satisfactory, and he congratulated the departments on the work which they had accomplished. He would like to point out that there was still room for careful administration in some ol the aerodromes. He did not wish to suggest that the five or six officers who have been killed in the past two or three days directly reflected on that point. He must, however, call attention to a point to which it was exceeding painful to refer to. Despite any passage-of-arms he might have had across the floor of the House, there was no man in the House who at the moment sympathised more deeply than he did with the Under-Secretary of State for War in the recent accident to his son. He would be the last to fail to understand what that meant to the right lion, gentleman. He read in the Times the account of the accident, which he believed was described thus : "A fatal aeroplane accident occurred yesterday in Kent. A military Ir'plane had descended and was rising for the return journey, when it was caught by the wind, and sideslipped at the height of tao ft., falling nose downwards. The pilot, Captain George Alfred Grime Jones, was killed, and the observer, Second Lieutenant Tennnnt, was seriously injured." Knowing the type of machine, that it wasaB 2 C No. 4335, and, in view of his remarks more particularly applying to that type of machine, and the fact of the machine falling 120 ft. with a sideslip and a nose dive, he could hardly believe that the one who was killed was the pilot. He did not know a more regrettable accident which had taken place to this type ot machine, which, as he had said before, had a habit of being under powered. It had never come to his knowledge that the pilot had been killed and the passenger only injured. He only, therefore, proposed to ask whether that was so. Before taking any steps, he received two letters from people interested in Captain Grime Jones, asking him to cill attention to the fact that these newspaper reports, which he understood had been released by the Press Bureau, were wrong. Captain Grime Jones was not the pilot. It was rather hard that the man who was not responsible for that accident, and was killed, should be accused of it. He had reason to believe that J0NE 8, 1916. PARLIAMENT. it was Lieut. Tennant, who was a probationer, without experi ence, acd—it was stated in a letter from a very responsible party—was the last officer who could be trusted at that time to fly with a passenger. Neither of them had any experience when this regrettable accident occurred. He did not propose to criticise now—it was too delicate a question. But he considered it his duty, with the information in his hand, to make that statement in public that Captain Grime Jones was not the pilot, neither was he in any way responsible for the accident, nor for his own death. It was incidents like that which made them feel that there was all the more reason why the very greatest care and discipline should be exercised where these young fellows were concerned in their early days of piloting. He had not accurate figures, but he thought that, according to the percentage of pilots killed in tuition, the civilian schools compared very favourably with the military schools, numbers for numbers. He asked the repre sentative of the Air Board to represent to his Board the necessity— and he trusted they had the power—of watching very carefully the types of machines which were being employed and the types of machines which it was contemplated were going to be ordered. Every day, and more especially just about now, very large orders would be given both for engines and aeroplanes, and on the type that was ordered there depended to a very great deal not only the lives of the men who would be called upon to fly them, but possibly the orders which would be given now would bring the machines due for delivery at a moment when we should need them most. He asked the representative of the Board to impress upon Lord Curzon the inadvisability of giving large orders for machines which were obsolete, and large orders for engines simply because of Government design. That particular K.A.F. engine was, as compared with any other engine, less efficient, less reliable than any other standard aeroplane engine in the world. There were engines of about six or seven pounds per horse-power for six hours' flying, and here was an engine of eleven pounds per horse-power, and yet, because it was a Government des'gn, orders approximating to 2,500 of this type were being and had been given. He knew Lord Curzon was earnest and anxious to get on with his gigantic task and regain for us the supremacy of the air, but that supremacy could be regained, certainly to a large extent, by human endeavour such as the bravery and skill of our flying men. He hoped Lord Curzon, no matter what advice he might have from officials either one way or the other, would exhaust every possible advice of the trade and the services of the interested and disinterested people, and then come to a decision, but not to be led astray by interested officials in various Government Departments who were anxious to s» e the child of their own imagination at all costs used more freely in the service . than other, and possibly more capable, productions of private enterprise. Major Baird (representing the Air Board): The hon. grntleman dealt in a very kindly manner with the Air Board, and he thanked him for the expression of his intention to assist them to the best of his ability. They were always anxious to hear any suggestions from people of experience which would help them to carry out the terms of their reference, and the matter of engines and types of machines was specifically included in the reference which had already been read to the House. He could assure the hon. mem ber that that was not a question which was being lost sight of, but on the other hand, he surely must know that you could not order types of machines without great examination and great inspection, and, from the very nature of the ca^e, a machine may become obsolete, or obsolescent, before the order was completed, and the main difficulty of the whole problem was to keep not only abreast of what the Germans were doing, but to go one better as far as we possibly could. The hon. member would believe him when he told him that that was a question which the Board realised to the full as clearly as anyone possibly could, and the experienced aeronautical officers who serve on the Board as the technical advisers of the President were fully competent to give advice, from their experience and practical knowledge, on those matters. He could not help thinking that the hon. member, if he had thought over the matter more, would not have brought up the case of that most regrettable accident which occurred a few days ago. He could not believe it could be to the advantage of the service, or that it was in accordance with the traditions of that House, that an accident of that painful nature, which was now forming, as all accidents always do form, the subject of official investigation, should be brought up and dealt with in that House while that investigation is going on. The mention of such a subject at such a time could only be a source of pain and suffering to those who bad already suffered enough. Mr. Billing suggested that if the Government had taken the opportunity of correcting the Press reports he would never have
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