FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1917
1917 - 1070.PDF
the Royal Flying Corps as we knew it during the Great War, and it will be by that he will be chiefly remembered. His successor, General Salmond, brings to Ms new task boundless energy and the reputation of being a great organiser. Moreover, the whole of his service in the present war has been with the R.F.C., of which he has been an officer since 1912. He will have the advantage of finding all the creative work already done by his predecessor, and will thus be at liberty to devote himself entirely to the task of organising for victory all the re- sources he will find ready to his hand. Until now he has been responsible for the training of pilots of the R.F.C., and during the year he held the post of Director of Training he multi- plied the monthly output of pilots by ten, at the same time greatly in- creasing their efficiency. That by itself is sufficient to stamp General Salmond — the youngest Major- General in the Army, by the way —as the right man to succeed so able a chief as Sir David Henderson. Before the present war broke out General Sal- mond had already a fine record of service behind him. He served during the South African War with the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, and gained the Queen's medal, with three clasps. He afterwards went to the West Coast of Africa, where he served for three years with the West African Frontier Force, and returned to England in 1906, being promoted captain in 1910. Two years later he took up flying, and qualified for his brevet at the Grahame-White School at Hen don, and was shortly after appointed an instructor at the Central Flying School at Upavon. In the following year he became a squadron com- mander, and in 1914 was given a brevet majority. When the war broke out he went to France in com- mand of a squadron, being mentioned in Sir John French's despatch of October, 1914, and in recognition of his consistently brilliant work at the front, he was promoted temporary lieut.-colonel and made wing commander early in 1915, and later in the year received a brevet of lieut.-colonel. Promotion again • •-:'•• OCTOBER 18, 1917. came his way last year, when he became brigadier- general, and, as has already been stated, was made responsible for the whole of the flying training of the R.F.C. Now, at the early age of 36 he is a Major- General and head of the R.F.C., a position to which he has won by sheer hard work and outstanding merit. • • • "All Hands Not before the time was ripe, a number to of our daily contemporaries have called Aeroplanes." attention to the way in which " luxury trades" are ab- - Photo, by Langfier, 23A, Old Bond Street. Major-General John Maitland Salmond, C.M.G., D.S.O., the new Director-General of Military Aeronautics. sorbing a very large amount of labour which ought to be devoted to increasing our out- put of aircraft. It is surely time for the Govern- ment, which has certainly not erred on the weak side when it has been a case of interfer- ing with the liber- ties and pursuits of the people in other directions, to step in and deal drastically with certain of these trades which are doing nothing to- wards winning the war but are, on the contrary, post- poning the day of victory by the absorption of use- ful labour. The Daily Mail the other day re- produced a num- ber of advertise- ments from the columns of a pro- vincial journal offering munition rates of wages and bonus to jewel-case makers, jewellers, joiners and shop- fitters, and silver- smiths. As the Mail remarks in quoting from one of these, " girls who can use the blow-pipe " are wanted for welding and fine metal work on aeroplanes. Cabinet makers are required for propeller work, and woodworkers of all kinds for other constructional work in connection with aircraft production. Apparently, the heads of the furniture and wood- working trades fully recognise the need for a trans- ference of labour from private to aeroplane work, and employers and unions have offered to the Govern- ment 25 per cent, of the men they now employ. While recognising the patriotic character of the offer, it should be impressed upon employers and unions alike that the supply of skilled labour for aircraft con- struction is even now inadequate to the demand, while the shortage will become progressively greater as the new programmes of construction in readiness
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
