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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1371.PDF
sound designers and our firms of sufficient productive skillare already appreciably numerous, constituting collectively a very important industry which would only be handicappedby the Government establishing an artificial state of affairs, as by indiscriminately encouraging firms to lead more orless easy existences at the charges of, shall we say, the tax- payer. We want the best, and nothing but the best. More-over, we have enough of the best in this country -to leave no manner of doubt as to the brilliant future ahead of the move-ment unless our next Government deliberately mars it. That the Flying Services must be cut down at least as regards'the scale they were planned to attain in 1919 is alike obvious on national financial grounds and practical on economicalones. Plainly, the interests of the public demand that only physically and mentally fit airmen should gain a livelihoodby what may be called commercial flying. The Government should have the necessary control over such members of thecommunity as can be achieved alone by ruling that all pilots for public flying services must be on the Reserve of theRoyal Air Force. The Sound Phases of the New Policy The scheme had in mind at the moment is that airmen forfuture public services must go through a period of training, possibly of as much as a year's duration, before each willreceive his certificate for such work. The training in question would embrace practically all that it is needful for an airmanto know for military service, therefore ensuring, incidentally, that sense of individual responsibility which it is in tljeinterests of the community at large should be guaranteed in the case of such an utterly unprecedented, romantic andsuddenly achieved stage of progress as is represented by the coming of commercial flying. This War has proved thatwe want enormous reserves of properly trained airmen, in that future campaigns will be conducted much moreactively, will be fought out much more quickly, and will employ quite different proportions of the various arms tothose used in what may be styled the transitional type of warfare through which we have just passed. Far moreairmen will be employed in relation to bayonets than in this campaign. But we cannot keep a standing air force on anysuch scale. Apart from the mere cost of the men is the great expense of the vehicles they must fly more or less continuouslyif they are to be " fighting fit," One sees every gain, there- fore, in the establishment of such Government control aswill effectively prevent the development of anything so intolerable and prejudicial as, shall we style it, air hogging.In like fashion, as the Board of Trade's function is to lay down certain regulations concerning safe shipping, so it isreasonable that a Government Department should exercise a certain control over the types of flying machines used forpublic aerial transport services. Theoretically, and without reflection, it sounds an excellentidea that all flying machines for civilian purposes should be passed by members of the Aeronautical Inspection Depart-ment. While praiseworthy in certain connections, assuredly during the War its work has not been beyond the scope offair criticism. And Unsound Ones For the Technical Department of our Air Board to continueits functions and to enlarge its sphere by controlling aircraft matters as regards interfering with aircraft designs for publicand private aerial services, as distinct from Government ones, is a proposition entertained by the outgoing Govern-ment, and, of course, whole-heartedly approved by the Department in question, but concerning the advisabilityof which it is the duty of the individual citizen to reflect very seriously. In effect, the notion is that, backed by themuch vaunted Government experimental work, and so forth, the self-acclaimed wonderful Technical Department of theAir Board is to make all for the best in anything but an ideal world. When it comes to the proposed extension of thescope of this Department, it is one's duty to put the question point blank : What is the story either of the work it hasaccomplished, or, more particularly, of the work achieved by any of the individuals composing its staff, including alikeprominent and obscure ones ? Granted a certain amount of Government experimental work has contributed to theevolution of aircraft in this detail or that, even as has indi- vidual or commercial investigation, as instance the lead givenby this, that and the other firm both during and before the War. The point is precisely that which one argued whenthe abominable pre-War system of the Royal Aircraft Factory obtained at South Farnborough and was rapidly ruining ouraorial chances ; if the British taxpayer were to spend one hundred thousand, or one hundred million pounds a year on theestablishment of any such Government Department to do the experimental work, still that Department could v <rt secure DECEMBER 5, 1918 the services of all the brains, nor the fruits of all the experi-ments that can be carried out yearly throughout the length and breadth of the land by all the aircraft enterprise col-lectively. There has been done a certain amount of profitable experimental work, including varieti-es too costly for firmson a commercial basis to undertake. The whole spirit and method in which this fruit has been used to date must bealtered. When it comes to aircraft engines, of course, it were fatal for the Government to attempt to control theutterly free evolution of these. In other words, the Technical Department's legitimate function in the period now openingis to concern itself with equipment for the Royal Air Force, or for the Government aerialpost and other services. Beyondthat it should be powerless to interfere in any way. It is all very well to argue that it is necessary to stop any freakinventor having his will at the expense of the public. No such condition of affairs could be prevented effectively bythe Technical Department of the Air Board. It has done many an absurd thing during ^he war, and will do manyunsound ones hereafter. If it were put in charge in the manner that has been insinuated under cover of the allega-tion that our Dominions overseas are requesting, in effect, the establishment of Bureaucracy in aerial matters in Britain,there is no gainsaying that many a valuable development to the movement would be quashed at the outset. Theremust be absolutely free scope for development and the application by individuals, or companies, of aircraft and power plant schemes,whether the particular group of officials employed by the Technical or any other Department of the Air Board approves them ornot. Who can pretend for a moment that any group of men, no matter how selected, is qualified to exercise a veto on thedestinies of aviation development in these islands ? The United States of America, France, Italy, even Germany,will not embark on any such suicidal policy. Neither must we tolerate anything in that strain. Make Every Parliamentary Candidate Pledge HimselfOne writes this at this juncture of set purpose. The game of bureaucracy is afoot. It is the greatest incubusthat threatens this country to-day and in the years to come. We have carefully reviewed the fair prospects for the fullestflying development in the Empire, of course on the assumption that alike fettering and undesirable practices on the part ofindividuals, corporations, or Government Departments will not be exploited. Yet another of the aims is that all landinggrounds worth the having, even for civilian as distinct from military use, should be Government owned. It is evenbruited that everything in the nature of international aerial services, if not internal ones, is to be owned, in effect, by theGovernment, .hence the cover under which the Technical Section would become supreme. The initiative of designersand producers would decline in measure with the increase of activities of that Department in the direction indicated,All this is very different to the proposition that every machine to be flown must have a pilot trained by the Governmentfor twelve months. That idea is sound, even as is the one to the effect that every machine to be flown in public servicemust be certified by the A.I.D. as to its soundness ; but we must strive with might and main to save ourselves fromthe terrible threat of bureaucracy now arising. A few men only are needed to act on behalf of the Government inassociation with the industrial and commercial phases of flying apart from the Service phases ; whereas we arethreatened with the establishment of departments employing hundreds, if not thousands, of men. British genius doesnot lie in this direction. On the contrary, this is the thing that kills it. Our strength will develop in measure as weexploit individual enterprise. The omnipotence of the Technical Department of the Air Board, for the most partmanned by what some have styled the " throw-outs " of the industry, and, in any case, practically not at all by menof notable achievement will cramp development and prove fatal whenever the next national emergency arises. It isscarcely conceivable that Lord Weir, quick to learn, can lend himself to Parliamentary trickery and the establishmentof Bureaucracy. He comes of sound commercial engineering stock, and has succeeded because he did not scheme, but hasworked. Whether he remains our future Air Minister, or whether we choose another one, it is essential that the headof the Service under the Government yet to be elected should be one able to withstand association with those conscience-less creatures, Bureaucrats, keeping his hands free of all schemes to throttle the fullest legitimate development oJour national genius for individual enterprise. There is only one way out. All interested in flight must see to it that even-candidate soliciting votes, no matter on what programme, is heckled and made to give publicly a pledge that, if returned,in the House of Commons he will actively oppose and 1372
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