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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0572.PDF
1/XlGHT all specific charges which had been made in public would be given in public. Mr. Bright asked if it was only the horse-power of an engine that prevented us getting to Essen. Sir David replied that there were other reasons. The designing of a large aeroplane was a much more complicated matter than the designing of a small one. It might be stated generally that none of the large aeroplanes designed by any country was satisfactory. Every country was still making strenuous efforts to solve the prob lem, and we were not by any means behindhand. Such machines would have to be accompanied by fighting machines, and there was the difficult problem of ensuring that they did not become separated. Mr. Balfour Browne : You cannot keep your destroyers in touch with your Dreadnoughts ?—It is very difficult. The Chairman: Mr. Joynson-Hicks put it that we ought to be able to stop the Zeppe'ins from starting, but this is also a question of distance. How far do you think it would be reasonable in the present state of aeronautics to expect an aeroplane to. be able to go in order to destroy Zeppelin sheds and to return to our lines on a calm day? Sir David: There are now in existence and in our possession aeroplanes which would be able to go to certain of the Zeppelin sheds and come back again in reasonable weather. Sir David dealt exhaustively with the personnel of the Flying Corps, the system of promotion, &c. "Will you deal with the fault of too many officers?" the Chairman asked. " It has been stated that this is a branch of the Army in which all are colonels and there are no privates." Sir David refuted the suggestion that officers were appointed who had no knowledge of flying. The British service was unique in that the executive of the Flying Corps was confined to officers who had qualified as military pilots. The Chairman : Two cases of improper promotion have been referred to, and it has been said that this is an army in which every, body is a colonel and nobody is a private. Sir David promised to deal with that charge in private. Sir David Henderson: In reference to the specific cases of " murder or criminal negligence," I have been accused in an unpleasant way of laughing at the details of hypothetical occurrences in the air. Since then I have had numerous anonymous letters on the subject, accusing me of utter heartlessness, and I would like to state definitely The Chairman: It is as well in the circumstances. I, too, have had quite a number of letters. Mr. Pemberton Billing : So have I. Sir David Henderson referred to Mr. Billing's speech of March 28th, as quoted by Mr. Billing. " I should like any hon. member to picture himself in a machine absolutely alone, walled in by wires, with a pilot somewhere behind . . . He is sitting there helpless at 11,000 ft., the machine diving and sheering in all directions, and knows that the moment will very soon come when she will get into a nose dive and he will crash 11,000 ft. and be smashed to pieces simply because of the foolish folly of these officials who do not understand and will not be taught that dual control in such a machine would have saved that man's life." It is a very serious accusation against me, continued Sir David, that I smiled at the reading of this extract. What I smiled at was -the omission of the sentence—" he hears a gasp and a cry and turns round and sees that his pilot is dead." For a person who claims to have a knowledge of aeroplanes to make a rhetorical remark like that—well, one may be excused for smiling in such circumstances. I won't go into the matter deeper. The Chairman: We have had this thrashed out before.—I may tell the Committee that my only son has been for 3^ months flying ® ® A Protest by Sweden. THE Swedish Minister at Berlin has protested to the German Government because a German seaplane attacked the British steamer, " Portlock " while inside Swedish territorial waters. German Motor Company's Profits- THE Benz Company of Mannheim, one of Germany's largest motor manufacturers, earned net profits of ,£600,000 in 1915-16, which was more than twice its heaviest peace-time earnings. It declared a 20 per cent, dividend for the year, compared with 12 per cent, in the year before the war. Austrian Troops Fed by Aeroplanes. ACCORDING to a correspondent of the Corriere 0?'Italia, two regiments of Jaegers, finding themselves besieged in the Frenzela Valley, are being furnished with food from aeroplanes. JULY 6, 1916. at the front on a B.E., my nephew is flying a B.E., my wife's nephew is also flying another Government machine, and I have several cousins flying another type. I naturally feel rather deeply about it. Mr. Billing: Will you tell the Committee why you smiled?— Because it is untrue, or impossible. In regard to the accusation that a pilot was allowed to fly over the Channel in a worn-out machine, he said that the technical officer who examined the machine and saw the pilot start would give evidence. In another case where bombs carried on an aeroplane exploded, the opinion among the squadron was that the pilot, in his desire to get rid of the bombs before landing, misjudged his distance from the earth, and both he and the mechanic were involved in the explosions. Another view was that the bombs blew up when the machine landed. Sir David Henderson went into Mr. Busk's death at Farnborough, in reference to which Mr. Billing had read a letter purporting to come from Mr. Busk's father. He had reason to believe that Mr. Busk's father had been dead for at least 10 years. The Court of Inquiry that was held was unable to find out the cause of the air man's death, but added that it was probably due to a leak of petrol combined with a backfire through the carburettor. Mr. Billing remarked that he had submitted the original letter he had received to the Chairman. In the case of Captain W. Lawrence, whose Bleriot machine broke during a nose-dive, Sir David said that Captain Lawrence's theory as to bombing was to fly to a great height, dive, flatten out, release his bombs, and climb out of danger. The objective of his attack was well guarded by anti-aircraft guns. At some point of the dive the machine broke. He believed that the captain came down with his engine on for 3,000 ft. at least. Sir David told Mr. Billing that if a machine was once supposed to be unsafe the type was immediately discarded. This type of Bleriot was discarded soon afcer—not because of the accident, but because the machine was too slow. The report of the Court of Inquiry into the accident in which Lieut. Tennant was involved was read by General Henderson. Capt. Jones was the passenger, and the machine was fitted with dual control. The report of the Court was that the pilot committed an error of judgment in attempting to turn at too low an altitude. The case of Lieutenant Littlewood, who descended in the Ger man lines at Lille, was next referred to. In a letter to his father Lieutenant Littlewood said that from Boulogne he was not certain of his location, " for the map I was provided with was rotten, and not correct." When about four miles over what he thought was St. Omer, Lieutenant Littlewood stated that anti-aircraft guns began to fire at them, and some shrapnel struck their planes. Thinking it was our own gunners firing at them in error, he made a hasty descent. When about 500 ft. up the engine gave out, " and we landed into some telegraph wires, which smashed up the machine, but neither of us was injured." Captain Grant, his observer, in a letter to his wife, wrote :— " By all the rules of the game I, who was sitting at the front, should have been killed. Instead, I made a hole in a turnip field and got up cursing our gunners for firing at us. I got up and had the surprise of my life to find that they were Germans." Mr. Billing suggested that had the pilot had a good map probably he would have landed in our lines.—I have no knowledge of what map he had, and I have had no complaints from pilots about the maps they are supplied with. Mr. Billing : Do you say there is no one to blame for delivering this valuable machine to the Germans ?—I have not said that no one is to Blame, but I do not admit it until I know something more about the affair. The Committee again adjourned until the next day. ® ® • A Double Fatality in Kent. WHILE starting off from a south coast aerodrome on his return to France on June 29th, Flight-Lieut. G. R. Talbot, R.N.A.S., was killed through the machine side-slipping soon after leaving the ground. An air-mechanic who was accompanying him was also killed. Pilot Killed in Motor Cycle Accident. A VERDICT of " Accidental death " was returned at an inquest relative to the death of Norman Vivian de Beer, R.N.A-S. He came from South Africa, and a few days before death had obtained his pilot's certificate. On June 22nd while riding a motor cycle in Edgware Road, he came into collision with a motor car and was thrown through the wind screen. The driver of the car was exonerated. 572
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