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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0653.PDF
JUNE 28, I917. THE WORLD'S AIR ROUTES AND THEIR REGULATION.* By Colonel LORD MONTAGU OF BEAULIEU, C.S.I., F.R.Met.Soc, A.I.M.E., Advising Mechanical Inspector to the Government of India. THOUGH the time has not yet come when regular postal and commercial communication by means of the air is established there are many signs that after the war an effort will be made by all civilised nations to develop this aspect of flying as foreshadowed by Mr. Holt Thomas in his recent lecture It follows, therefore, that already there is need for con- sideration of the problems of how official, private and com- mercial flying must be regulated in a national and international sense. Moreover, it is important that the principles governing the regulation of such traffic should be agreed upon and established before the traffic itself actually comes into exist- ence, when awkward precedents may have arisen-leading to unsound ideas being adopted, which should be opposed in the interests of efficiency and order. International and National Legislation. There has, so far, been no international conference to deal with the problems which concern world flying, but it may be mentioned that in 1899 it was agreed at that now dis- credited body, the Hague Convention, that no bombs or explosive missiles might be dropped from aircraft. A year or two later, however, Germany and France signified that they could no longer adhere tp this undertaking, though Great Britain still remained bound, not having signified dissent. Now the bombardment by aircraft of points of naval and military importance, and of undefended towns as well, has become a matter of daily occurrence, and the resolution of the Hague Convention remains an interesting relic of the past, and the-moral it conveys is plain. This is not the place to discuss how far the dropping of bombs by aeroplanes upon towns—whether of military, partly military can be no private or national rights in the air over the seabeyond the three-mile limit. Over the land, by .the law of England, it is held-that private property extends usque adcesium—that is, the possession of a piece of land carries with it rights to the sky above the same area. National airrights, therefore, presumably extend all over the land of any nation, and in the case of countries with a sea-board theremust be added the fringe of the three-mile limit round the coast. The Position of the British Empire. The British Empire is in a peculiarly favourable position for the development of Imperial aviation, for our widely separated possessions will enable our air traffic round the world, over land and sea, to proceed without having to ask for concessions from other nations. The very scattered nature of the Empire in this matter is an advantage, and the Central European Powers will lose presently the advantages of their compactness. The importance of harbours and coaling stations under the British flag all over the world in the past to our naval forces and to our mercantile marine has been very great. But in future still more important will be a chain of landing placfes for both land and sea planes, and, for the latter, sheltered harbours will be as necessary and valuable for the development of our air services by sea as flat alighting grounds on the land for land machines. When the map of the world is studied, it is interesting to CHICAGO T K I) S T A T !•: S,JNEW YORK The World's Air Routes and their Regulation. or non-military character—will influence the course of war ; but without going deeply into this interesting phase of the subject, I may assert that if all an enemy's country is to be considered liable to attack from the air, the cherished privileges hitherto granted to the non-combatant population are at an end. In future civilians, whether men, women or children, will be subjected to a considerable and increasing proportion of the risks formerly borne by the soldier alone. As a matter of fact this is no new development in one sense, for a besieged city shelled by the long-range guns of the enemy has never had such immunity. The bomb-carrying aeroplane, being for this purpose a long-range, gun, is merely following the example of its more or less stationary prede- cessor on the ground, with a much more limited range. t The International Aeronautical Conference which sat at Nancy in 1899 decided that only warfare could reveal the abuses to which the aeroplane could be put. This conclusion was prophetic and eminently true ; there have been plenty of such revelations lately. As regards national legislation on the subject, Parliament < passed a law, which came into operation in 1913, prohibiting flying over certain areas of naval and military importance, and stipulating that foreign pilots alighting in this country from abroad should descend in certain specified areas, after giving 18 hours' notice in advance to the Home Office of their intended flight. Germans of late have had the hardi- hood to ignore this statute. So far as international law is at present concerned, there • Paper read before the Aeronautical Society on June 21st, 1917 . observe that, with a few exceptions, our possessions are con- veniently situated for flying. There is a chain of imperial landing places southward and eastward from Gibraltar, about 900 miles from London as the plane flies, towards the Cape, to Egypt, India and the Australasian Dominions. The nearest points between the North American Continent and Europe, the West Coast of Ireland and the East Coast of New- foundland, are also both within the Empire. Routes and Winds. |f| For some time to come flying will be more easy over the land than over the sea, owing to the existence of well- organised landing places at every 10, 15 or 20 miles. Over the sea flying must be more difficult and dangerous to start with until the absolutely reliable engii\e is available and the movement of storms and the circulation of winds have been studied and their behaviour can be forecasted accurately. In any case, I think it^s unlikely that straight-line routes between place and place' will be those that will ordinarily be adopted. In the air the currents of wind are not only far swifter than in the case of those of the sea, but so swift that an adverse wind beyond a certain point will reduce any but the fastest aeroplanes to the position of not being able to achieve any useful speed 6ver the surface of the globe. I assume, in saying this, that the average speed of commercial flying will probably not exceed much over 80 m.p.h. for some time to come. It will never pay to fly for money-earning purposes a mile an hour faster or a foot higher in altitude than can be proved to be financially worth while. Wind currents will therefore be of supreme importance to air 653
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