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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0113.PDF
[ FEBRUARY I, 1917. BY way of a start the Society of British Aircraft Ccnttiuc-tors have good reason to be satisfied with their usefulness. The generous collection without fuss from amongst its membersof £6,785 towards the two Service Funds for providing winter comforts to those away out yonder is a pretty good earnestof the hand the Society is likely to take in any matters of concern to the aeronautical world. Note the names of theindividual donors to this list, which we publish elsewhere in " FLIGHT." ' j§ IT is being asked day by day in wider circles whether it isnot time a re-organisation of our light-suppressing arrange- ments were seriously considered. The whole question isonly a matter of degree, and there is no doubt' that the present stage of inky^darkness is about as bad as it well maybe. By the increase of the light to double its present power little harm could arise under the. system of advice in. advanceof the approach of air raiders to these coasts. It would then be ample time to reduce all light power to its presentvanishing point if thought advisable, and as even twice the present light could hardly be deemed a glare to even themost keen-eyed, there would be very little danger of trouble amongst the public when they suddenly found the light backto its real Zepp. stage. Moreover, this fact alone would be warning sufficient for most wise folk to keep within their fourwalls. This latter may, however, be, in the opinion of those who decree what is to be, the rock against which anythingof the sort will wreck itself. Therefort we must probably be content to go on having our populace gradually killed off bybewildered drivers in the streets. MR. IMGLEBY ODDIE, the Lambeth Coroner, took occasionto emphasise the whole subject last week, at an inquest on the body of a man who was killed by a R.F.C. motor car,Mr. Oddie suggesting that the lighting regulations had been carried too for. Every one, he said, would appreciate thenecessity of darkening our streets at times when raids were likely, but he had never heard of Zeppelins arriving at 5, 67, 8, or eren 9 o'clock in the evening. People leaving work and returning home had to catch their trams and omnibusesor walk about at a time when the streets were extraordinarily dangerous, and it was a question whether the time had «otcome when the lights should be turned up, at any rate until 9.30. The people who made the regulations perhaps did »otusually travel by trams and'omnibuses, and so did not realist' what a terrible state of thifigs existed in London just BOWin " crush hours " at night. ALL of which sounds like sound common sense. Moreorer,Mr. Oddie further strengthened his views by the statement of a few facts. Accidents, he affirmed, due to the darkenedstreets were now so common that the newspapers did »ot report them. He had been looking up the statistics of hisown district, and the result was very striking. In October, November and December, 1913, there were 17 inquests dueto street accidents, in the same months in 1916 there were 47. There were eight London coroners, and if those figureswere multiplied accordingly it would be found that a terrible state of affairs existed during thehoius of darkness. ONE of the early visitors to Lady Drogheda's AeronauticalExhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery was Prince John, and other much interested visitors last week included KingManoel, Princess Louise of Battcnberg, the Duchess of Rutland, Countess Torby and Countess Zia Torby, Lord andLady Tredegar, Lord Alington, Lord Harcourt, &c. IT was pleasing to hear General Brancker on the openingday of the Show in his own inimitable and incisive way drawing attention to the extraordinary and almost alarmingprogress—that was how he put it—of aviation- in the last few years. Although fighting in the air had been clearlypredicted many years ago, those who talked about it just before the war were regarded as ill-balanced enthusiasts.The future prosperity of England, General Brancker claimed, would depend on aviation, which was one of the greatestguarantees of peace in the future. There was no doubt at all that our pilots were the best in the world. But casualties THE AERIAL "TANK " OF THE FUTURE—By an inventor who should be interned. "3
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