FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0101.PDF
Flight, February 1, 1917. Aero Weekly in the World. Founder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 423. *frfe. 5, Vol. K.)] FEBRUARY I, 1917. rWtekly, Price M.L MIN 1*4 Flight. Editorial Office: 44, St. MARTIN'S LANE. LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, We«trand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 182S. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free- United Kingdom .. 6t. td. Abroad us. oJ. CONTENTS. Editorial Com mem: ——« M.CB A Question for the Higher Command .. .. f »=• The Future of the Air .. .. .. .. • .. ... .. •• 101 11 Combing Out" .. .. .. ... .,;•:.. • • ... • J02 A Fine Response .. .. ' -... *' - *, • ..,*, '•,. .i ^ .. .. io» Honours.. .. .. .. .. ' -., ... :,. .. ..« . .. .. 104 Wing Loading and Lift Coefficients """•»'; ™' «• •• •• •• »os Training m Military Aviation .. .. .t . ... *«^ *. •• ic6 The Royal Aero Club. Official Notices .. .. .-. ', ^, '.-•• •• I1Q Answers to Correspondents .. . „. .'. -.;: .. 111 Armchair Reflections. By the " Dreamer" .. ... ..'. '^ i ... 1^ Airismsfrom the Four Winds .. ., „„ -.','.-' .. -•„ •_ ,. J13 The Roll of Honour .. .. .. ..... ., ..„,.."- _;. "... .. 115 Personals i.; '-1.. .. .. '.. « .. 116 The British Air Services .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 117 Aircraft Work at I he Front. Official Information 119 Some Problems in Aeroplane Construction. By Capt. V. E. Clark, Capt. T. F. Dodd, and O. E. Strahlmann 120 R. N.A. S. and R.F.C. Winter Comforts Funds 121 Side-Winds .. 132 EDITORIAL COMMENT. ' E [are always very diffident aboutappearing to interfere in matters affecting the internal administra-tion of the R.F.C., more par- ticularly when methods of employ-ment at the Front are concerned. There is, however, a matter which intimately affects the efficiency of the flying serviceto which we think attention may usefully be called. We are told that it is the practice inA Question France to hand over to the newly-fledged Higher P^°ts the new, fast machines which are Command, replacing the older types, while leavingthe latter to be flown by the men who have been flying at the Front often for many months.There may be good reasons for this, but if so they are not at once apparent. We quite appreciate that the new men have probably been trained on the latertypes of machines, and are thus better qualified, initially, to fly them. Against that we have to setthe fact that these new pilots are quite inexperienced, for the most part, in the manners and customs of Hun airmen, which the older men have learnt untilthey know them backwards. It would, surely, have been sound policy to have brought back a number ofthe more experienced pilots to go through a course of flying on the new machines during the comparatively quiet time of the past two months, supposing theirwant of acquaintance with the new types to have been the difficulty. It appears to have been too readilyassumed that one pilot is as good as another, whereas there must of necessity be a great deal of differencebetween the one who has had a year's experience' of fighting in the air and the one whose wings, if we mayput it that way, have only just been fledged. The point is one that might well engage the attentionof the higher direction of the R.F.C. • • • General Brancker's lecture before theThe Future members of the Aeronautical Society the Air. ^ast week gives a good deal of food for serious thought to the student of thefuture of aviation. The gallant General took as his thesis the training of military pilots. It is notnecessary here to follow him through the whole of his most interesting discourse, but there are one or two points upon which it will be useful to dwellbriefly. Flying from the practical point of view, h»> says—i.e., from the standpoint of getting about fromplace to place—has Income easy and comparatively safe, and therefore everyone who can should take it up, in peace time, as a means of travel and of recrea- tion. The great factor against aviation for suchpurposes is our uncertain climate, but with experience and with reliable engines it is possible to fly in almostany weather short of, a thick fog, in a hurricane^or a violent thunderstorm. To our way of thinking, General Brancker deservesthe thanks of all who have the welfare of the movement at heart for his clear expression of facts that are onlyjust beginning to be grasped by the lay mind. In spite of all the progress that has been made, and ofthe prominence into which the war has brought aviation, it is the most difficult thing in the world to get the average man in the street to believe it possibleto ascend into the upper air without literally taking one's life in one's hands. He cannot believe, in spiteof all the evidence, that flying for ordinary purposes, as apart from the conditions of active service, has become almost as easy and nearly as safe as riding abicycle, or certainly a horse. As General Brancker says, very few Englishmen or Englishwomen withgood nerves and health but could become pilots with sufficient experience. . • M» It is this sort of propaganda to which aviationmust look for its future. A great deal of missionary work was needed before the ordinary person believed in the motor car, and had it not been that that workwas widely and efficiently carried out by the com- paratively few its development must have been verygreatly retarded. Before aerial travel can become comparable to motor travel on the high roads there D
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
