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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0543.PDF
MAY 31, 1917. a revolution in speedy transit. Ceylon becomes 2J days from London, Tokio 4^ days, Sydney 5 days, Cape Town 3! days, Vancouver 3 days, and so on; and once you have accepted the premises on which I started you will admit that I am only putting before you propositions which are perfectly easy to carry out. You will see on this map that I have marked Timbuctoo, which sounds the most improbable place that anybody would wish to arrive at, but strange to say it is one of the places where an aerial service is already projected by the French, which really affords a very good instance of the use of the aeroplane. At the present moment it takes three to four months from Bordeaux to Timbuctoo, and owing to this the many officers employed spend half their time going and coming. The cost of'this journey at present is ^120, and it is estimated by a friend of mine in the French Government, who has given me this plan, that it could be done by aeroplane for £100 per journey, and taking it in easy stages it would only be a matter of days instead of months. Instances in the Overseas Dominions, where not yet developed, we shall find in hundreds, where the aeroplane can be used, but I show you in Fig. N, as an example, a map o f Australia, showing you the railways marked on it. You will • see that an aeroplane service on each side o^f any of these lines of 50 to 100 miles would certainly mean the establishment of a great many small townships which eventually, when big enough, will, of course, have their railway. This, coming down to pounds, shillings and pence, presents an absolutely commercial aspect, as shown on the map. A passenger from the township to the railway, or vice versa, can be carried profitably at fourpence per mile, which is a little more than first-class fare in this country. Mails and goods can be delivered at 2$d. per lb., and this applies to all the Overseas Dominions. One point I should like to disabuse everyone on at once is the discomfort of an aeroplane. At the present time it is not, of course, suited for carrying a large number of passen- gers, but I have gone carefully into this problem with my draw- ing office, and allowing for the reduction in speed the altera- tions will necessarily make, we find that it is perfectly easy to design a comfortable cabin in which passengers would be quite as much at their ease as by any other method of transit. When, therefore, you come to the discomfort of a shaky train* the dirt, and the annoyance of changing from train to boat and boat to train, &c, you will find that the comfort of the aeroplane is easily superior to the discomforts one goes through on an ordinary journey to-day. You will later on, on the cinema films, see the interior of the big Porte Boat, built by my company, and you will see that already we have a machine which has a commodious cabin. Now I should like to explain that my figures and my fancjes this evening have been based on present day machines, but wermust take into account that the aeroplane has only really been encouraged since war began and for war purposes. It is therefore fair to assume that the aeroplane has developed along entirely wrong lines from a commercial point of view, and the present design is wrong (thinking commercially) for the following various reasons :— 1. Excessive climb demanded in a fightingjnachine/and power thrown away to obtain this. -" ^=—*~-?~--. 2. Excessive attention devoted to visibility, gmvpositions, &c: 3. Excessive strength for fighting manoeuvres, &c. The present unpleasant features of an aeroplane, i.e., noise, oscillation, cold, cramped positions, are all due to war design and can all be eliminated,in a passenger-carrying aeroplane without reducing this speed very much, but only by sacrificing climb, visibility, guns, &c. \v* < k In criticising the cost of running an aeroplane service and comparing it with train service or ships, one ought to consider how very unpractical and useless the first trains or ships were, and how exceedingly unpleasant travelling in them must have been. Passengers in the first train, I believe, were just as cramped as they are to-day in an aeroplane. The oscillation was greater, they were covered with smoke and cinders and the speed was limited to the rate at which a man could walk in front with a bell. The early ships were equally unstable, and it was a very doubtful point when a ship set out if it would arrive at its destination, if ever. If one reads any of the accounts of the early voyages one is struck by the fact that very frequently they set out from a place and returned six months later, having met adverse weather, and it was the custom to say Masses for anybody who thought of doing anything so hazardous as going a sea voyage. The safety of the present steamship transit, I would submit, is due in the first place to engine development; also to the fact that every country has spent millions of money in har- bours, lighthouses, docks, shipyards, &c, &c, and for an aeroplane service exactly the same steps will have to be gone through to ensure success for the commercial aeroplane. Looking a good deal ahead one point occurs, i.e., that the geography of the upper air is at present quite unknown, and assuming the large aeroplane comes into use with reliable, powerful, and compact engines, it is reasonable to suggest that steady air currents, &c, mav be found which would enable the trip to be made at a much greater speed and with much greater power than is at present even anticipated andy consequently much greater economy. Now all I have been able to do to-night is to give you some- thing to think over, something to digest; but I hope I have proved that flying has come to stay, and must from an Im- perial point of view be supported in every way. Mail ser- vices, as I have shown you, can be established commercially ; business men can use the aeroplane commercially for many purposes, and for pleasure nothing can beat it. I have arranged a somewhat imaginative cinema film showing you something of what an aerial service will look like, and the last thing I have to say is this. Remember that we live on an island, remember that we have always depended on the sea for our protection, and last but not least, remember that we are an Empire. On all these points it is necessary to maintain a huge aerial fleet, and the proper support of com- mercial aeronautics will enormously assist these ends. This time we must be first. An Aerial Battle Over Belgium. FROM Sans van Gent the Telegraaf learns that a fight occurred during the evening of May 19th, between Allied and German airmen, 12 aeroplanes of the former, arriving from the sea, being engaged by nine Germans. The whole popula- tion turned out to witness the engagement, which lasted over half an hour, the Germans ultimately retiring, with their numbers reduced. Aeroplanes in the Carso Battle. IT is authoritatively stated that in the great battle on the Carso last week the Italian air fleet engaged consisted of 140 units,,, of which 29 were battle planes, 42 observation machines, 16 hydroplanes and 53 chasing planes. •'During the attack these machine? dropped 10 tons of bombs and fired 10,000 machine-gun rounds at enemy trenches, depots and gun positions. Although for this purpose they flew at a dangerously low altitude, they returned without a single casualty. Austrians Drop Infected Sweets. DURING the last Austrian air raid over Codigoro, near Ferrara, writes the Times correspondent in Rome, on May 23rd, the airmen threw out sweets, which on examination were found to contain bacilli of cholera. An order has been issued directing that all wells should be covered, as it is thought probable that in future raids the enemy may endeavour to infect the water supply. Raiding Along the Danube. • TOWARDS the end of last week German aircraft carried out several raids on towns situated in the Danube region, dropping many bombs and making numerous victims. A raid on the town of Ismail was particularly destructive, a large number of women and children being killed or wounded. Another Apology by Germany. GERMANY has apologised to the Dutch Government for the fresh violation of Dutch territory by a Zeppelin which appeared over Deventer on the night of May 7th. It is explained that " the airship lost its way owing to heavy clouds and other atmospheric influences." Germany and Reprisals. INFORMATION to hand via Switzerland is to the effect that all British and French flying officer prisoners in Germany are now being transferred from the various prisoners' camps to Karlsruhe and Freiburg, where their presence is regarded by the Government as an effective obstacle to further Allied air raids. A report from Karlsruhe states that, acting in harmony with the local burgomaster, the military authorities have distributed officers among the principal hotels there, while in order to pro- tect poorer quarters of the city several schools have been transformed into lodging-houses for the officers. 543
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