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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0703.PDF
Flight, June 27, 1918 CHT EMQISfBBFL Tint A.ro Weekly i* the World. Founder and Editor t STANLEY SPOONER. A Jouraail 4«TOU4 t* tk« Interests, Prmeti««, aad Progress of Aerial Locomotion &«4 Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM No. 496. (No. 26, Vol. X.) JUNE 27, 1918. fWeekly, Price 64.I. Post Free, 7d. and The Aircraft Engineer. Editorial Office t 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. a. Telegrams: Trnditur, Westcent, London. Telephone: Gerrmrd 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom .. 28J. ad. Abroad 33s. eJ. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: « - '"*.:."."..' ". PACK A Sound Air Board Policy .. .. .. .. 701 The " Independent Air Force' .. . .. 702 The Work of the Parliamentary Air Committee .. .. .. .. 702 The Secretary of State and M.P. s .. .. ., .. .. .. 703 The Aeronautical Society .. .. .... 703 Capital and Labour and the Government .. ., ~ ..• ». .. 704 Honours .. .. .. .. .. .. .. •., .. .. .. 705 The Roll of Honour 711 The Royal Aeronautical Society .. . .. 712 Some Outstanding Problems in Aeronautics. By Dr. Durand .. .. 713 Airisms from the Four Winds . .. 715 Trade Parliaments and their Work.—X. By Ernest J. P. Benn .. ..718 Personals 719 The British Air"Services .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..721 Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information 723 Aviation in Parliament — 725 The Aircraft Workers'Sports .. .. .. ,. 726 SideWinds .. 729 Company Matters 730 " Newspapers are an essential part of our war organisation."— (Sir Auckland Ceddes, Minister of National Service.) N these days, when we have eighty Ministers of various Government De- partments, possessing an aggregate personnel surpassing the First Hun- dred Thousand raised by Kitchener, and costing the British citizen six pence in the pound on his Income Tax, and when our success in this war of machinery, particularly in face of the loss to us of Russian manpower, renders it more and more essential that we should endeavour to economise infantry to the utmost, and Air B^rd defeat the Huns as much as Possible Policy. by the employment of machinery, those responsible Government officials who can devise better ways than any hitherto employed of rendering machinery more and yet more effective are deserving of the thanks and moral support of the community. Such a case appears to us to be provided in a new policy evolved by Colonel J. G. Weir, brother of the brilliant Air Minister, and himself Controller of the Technical Department of the Air Board. Thus, in regard to so vital a matter as aircraft engines, hitherto the designers and makers of these essential munitions of war have been able to ascertain only at second hand how their standardised products answer in service. Various branches of the Technical Department at Headquarters have undertaken to look after this work, to evolve modifications, to issue drawings concerning them, and to carry out the hundred and one details inevitable in the case of a campaign in which anything connected with mechanism must necessarily be in a state of perpetual flux or development. Obviously, adequately to do such work as is indicated would require a technical staff at Headquarters as numerous as those possessed by the aggregate of all the aircraft engine producing firms in the country, and would, besides, demand the marshalling of an equal combination of brains. 'On the face of it that is impracticable. That is no theory. The thing has been tried and found wanting. Now a new policy is being embarked on whereby each maker concerned with a given type of engine, let us suppose, will be required to follow it right through, including its performances with the Forces in the various theatres of war. Thus, there will be no delay in those responsible for design and producing coming by knowledge of the weaknesses, or points of improvement desirable in any given engine. At the earliest moment the men who can devise those forms of mechanism will be able to seize each oppor- tunity as it comes along, further to develop the given type, altogether apart from giving attention to remedying any weaknesses that might conceivably be associated with it. Though, unfortunately, the majority of the aircraft engine makers in any country do not originate them, whereby it follows that usually the originating firms are each responsible for more than one model, it must not be concluded, therefore, that those originating firms would be called on each to follow the history in the field of a variety of engine types. On the contrary, no one firm would attend in that fashion to the failures and evolution of more than one type of engine at a time. The methods by which this is ensured are as ingenious as they are effective, and they should meet with the approval of all producers. This getting immediately into direct touch, moreover, is calculated to remedy at the earliest moment all unsatisfactoriness in service, such as may be due to lack of understanding of the particular piece of mechanism either as manifested in incorrect installation, or by way of wrong methods F 3
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