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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1414.PDF
DECEMBER 12, 1918 future be conveyed to Calcutta in four days, as against 16 days, the minimumat present. These instances illustrate the intrinsic utility of air services, apart from the value of making closer links within the Empire and ofgiving support to the construction of aircraft so as to be ready for war emergencies. It is more difficult to settle the reasonable expectation of general goodstraffic, which must take the form of express parcels, usually of small weight. Furs, lace, jewels, precious metals, extracts, essences, valuable feathers,&c, might be carried by air because of their high value ; also rare and out of season fruits and vegetables, flowers, and perishable articles generally. News-papers and periodicals afford scope for aerial services, because news grows stale quickly. Drugs, dyes, chemicals, medicines, optical and surgical andother instruments will be so carried, as often these are wanted quickly. Wherever, for want of some article, life is endangered or industry is at astandstill, as where some spare part or tool is required for a machine, the .aeroplane will afford the quick remedy, and its flight will be profitable.Cinematograph films, gramophone records and commercial samples may figure in the class of goods carried by aircraft. Their rapid distribution willquicken exchange, and this will react to increase the volume ot traffic, but the whole series of illustrations above given tends only to show how limited thetotal volume or weight of aerial goods traffic is likely to be in developed countries. 13. The technical appendices to the reports of Special Committee No. zcontain interesting information as to the respective capacities of the airship and the aeroplane. We think It advisable to make some general comparison,from the commercial point of view, between the two classes of aircraft based upon this information. For this purpose the largest type of airship is takenas an example, since it is found that as the size of an airship increases the ratio of its useful load to gross weight improves, e.g., for a ship of 60 tonsgross, 30 tons of disposable load are available. This represents roughly nine times the load carrying capacity of the largest modern aeroplane. Theprime cost per lb. of disposable load in the case of an airship is estimated at almost orie-half the prime cost per lb. in the case of an aeroplane. Theeconomic limit of the journey without landing is about 1,000 miles in the case of an airship, as against 500 miles in the case of an aeroplane. Theairship, therefore, has the advantage of a greater load capacity; but its speed, under present conditions, is slower, being probably not more than60 miles per hour. In this respect the performance of the airship on overland routes would appear in general to be open to keener competition from railtransport. On the other hand, on sea routes the airship will, save in contrary winds, have a marked advantage over steamships as to speed. As comparedwith the aeroplane, the cost of handling and housing airships will be higher, and, until open air mooring is fully developed, the regularity of airship ser-vices will be more adversely affected by high winds than that of aeroplane services. In journeys in which speed is not the most material factor, and r-particularly where passengers are beiag carried, and safety is consequently a paramount consideration, the airship offers advantages over the aeroplanein the way of comfort, ease of navigation, capacity for safe'flight at low altitudes, and high ratio of disposable load. 14. On the question of landing grounds along aerial routes, there was somedivergence of opinion in Special Committee No. 2, and it will be observed that the Interim Report of that Committee is only signed by Mr. Holt Thomassubject to a reservation on this point. While we agree with the majority of the Special Committee in not feeling able to recommend that chains of land-ing grounds should necessarily be laid out at regular and comparatively short— say 10-mile—intervals along aerial routes, especially in developed countries,we consider, nevertheless, that the advantages of lines of landing grounds on certain main routes hereafter to be laid out would be very great, and thatsuch lines would largely assist the development of civil aerial transport. In undeveloped countries regular chains of landing grounds at suitableintervals along aerial routes will be indispensable; and in such countries the consequent expense will be less material in view of the comparative advantageswhich aircraft will enjoy in competition with other forms of transport. Regular sea stations for the landing of aircraft are at the outset essential iftrans-oceanic aerial transport is to be seriously attempted. It is recom- mended that when questions of laying out, maintaining or abandoning land-ing grounds for military purposes have to be considered, regard should be had, if possible, to the probable needs of civil aerial transport hereafter. Theestablishment of landing grounds within urban areas should not necessarily be precluded, and the institution of rapid transit schemes between aero-dromes and town centres, such as Post Offices, would be of great value. Developments in aeroplane design may permit of landing safely and con-veniently within a narrow, compass in the future ; and as has already been indicated, a central situation for an aerodrome for civil aerial traffic hasconsiderable importance. 15. We recognise, however, that military considerations must overrideall others, and, though we have necessarily dealt with our subject matte1 mainly from a commercial point of view, we would emphasise the impor-tance : first, of the" need that all established commercial air routes with their aerodromes and landing places should be suitable for strategical andtactical use in the event of war ; and, secondly, of the need for the rapid convertibility in the same event of some types of commercial aircraft tomilitary uses. We do not offer detailed suggestions on these points, which appear to be peculiarly within the province of the Air Ministry; but werecord our strong opinion that it is vitally necessary, in the interests of national safety, that all air routes established should conform fully to militaryrequirements, and that the development and manufacture of types of com- mercial aircraft should for a long time be governed by the requirement thatthey should be in some manner of effective military use, and that this require- ment should be satisfied even at the cost of a serious diminution in the com-mercial value of both routes and craft. 16. With regard to the marking of aerial routes we agree with the practicalsuggestions of Special Committee No. 2. It will be observed that the Special Committee do not recommend the institution of a general system ofmarking for the whole country, but suggest that if companies operating com- mercial routes provide their own schemes of marking, these should be subjectto some central control for the pjrpose of avoiding a possible confusion arising from the employment of different schemes. We are of opinion thatit will not be necessary for the State to lay down any definite scheme for the provision of route marks. Probable improvements of signalling by directionalwireless and of other methods of signalling from aerodromes by night and day would seem to make it inadvisable to embark upon the organisation ofany universal system of arbitrary markings. 17. In concluding that part of our report which deals-with the practicalPossibilities of aerial transport we desire to draw attention to the great importance of meteorology in connection with aerial routes and servicesgenerally. The Interim Report of Special Committee No. 2 deals more particularly with'the dissemination of meteorological information, and wePropose to touch upon the problems of meteorological research at a later stage in the present report. The practical suggestions contained in theInterim Report of Special Committee No. 2 and in Appendices G and H to that Report can be used as "a basis for a system of meteorological stationswhich, in our opinion, should be organised immediately after the conclusion °i the War. The provision and management of such a system are matterswhich we think should be left to the State and not to private enterprise. ' • CHAPTFR III. Business Questions Relating to the Position of the Aircraft ManufacturingIndustry after the War, the Probabilities of the Establishment of Aerial Transport Services, and the Steps which would be necessary for the mainten-ance of this Industry mid for the Development of these Sen<ices. 1. Special Committee No. 3 were concerned primarily with businessquestions relating to the position of the aircraft manufacturing industry after the War, with the probability of the establishment of aerial transportservices and with the effect which the establishment of such services might have on the maintenance of the manufacturing industry.2. The Special Committee were impressed wiih the importance of keeping alive the aircraft manufacturing industry in the interests of National Defence.In order to enable the industry to respond to war emergencies, they expressed the view in their first report that the services of the industry should continueto be employed for the design and development of Naval and Military air- craft and for the carrying out of the national construction of aircraft for thefuture, and that this would enable the design and construction of aircraft for civil transport purposes to grow on a sound and permanent basis. Atthe same time, in their first report they gave their reasons for believing that the development of civil aerial transport services reasonably to be anticipatedat the end of the War, if no special steps are taken to foster it, will not be sufficient to keep the manufacturing industry alive, and will not for srmr yearsto come involve any appreciable volume of orders being placed with the producers in this country. 3. We see no ground for disputing this conclusion, for though, as we havesaid in paragraph 2 of Chapter II of this Report, we are confident that de- mands for aerial services to provide for carriage of mails, passengers, and ofcertain classes of goods will arise at the end of the War, we apprehend that, as we have said at the end of paragraph 12 of the same chapter, the totalvolume of aerial goods traffic to be anticipated will be very limited, and that even on the most hopeful view of the probable extent of the demand for aerialcarriage of mails and passengers, the number of aircraft required to meet it will be small in comparison with the vast number now being produced forthe purposes of the War. 4. The aircraft producing industry in this country has developed duringthe War in a phenomenal manner, solely owing to the unexampled demands of the naval and military authorities, and has grown to considerable dimen-sions in Canada also, where before the Wat it did not exist. 5. This great industrial organisation, amply equipped as it is with capital,material, machinery, expert knowledge and trained labour, is in anything but a secure position. Fostered as it has been wholly by the exceptionalconditions of the last four years, it must wither, and very rapidly, in pro- portion as these conditions or their equivalent cease to obtain.6. We are thus led to consider a question raised by General R. M. Groves at the meeting of our Committee at which the first Report of Special Com-mittee No. 3 was presented, the question, namely, of the importance in the widest national and imperial interests of the development of the use of air-craft after the War. If it appeared that the public interest was not involved in the continued and extended use of aircraft, the dwindling of the aircraftmanufacturing industry, with whatever hardship to individuals it might be accompanied, would not be a national disaster, but we could not neglect thepossibility that no less vital an interest than the safety of the State itself might be concerned in the matter. Accordingly we invited Special Com-mittee No. 3 to report further to us on the question raised by General R. M. Groves. 7. The supplementary Report of Special Committee No. 3 appears to usto go to the root of the problem, and we agree with that Report in believing that the development of civil aerial transport services, in order to create amarket for the manufacturing industry and consequently to enable it to maintain its power of production and of progressive improvement in design,to the extent and for the reasons given by the Special Committee, is essential for the safety of the Empire. We agree that aerial transport services cannotbe developed by the ordinary commercial methods so as to secure the required result, and that State action of some kind in developing aerial transportservices is therefore unavoidable. 8. As to the form of State action to be taken, it will be observed that twomain alternatives are discussed by the Special Committee under the heads of :—(a) State assistance to private enterprise. (6) State ownership or participation in the ownership of aerial transportundertakings. The Special Committee have not felt able to advise as between the twoalternatives ; and, similarly, we feel that the problem, raising as it does issues far larger and graver than at the outset of our enquiry we could haveexpected to be confronted with, is one for His Majesty's Government itself rather than for us to determine upon. The choice involves the considerationof political questions, labour questions, and questions of national finance upon which a Committee constituted as ours is, is hardly competent to advise,and which seem appropriate for Cabinet decision. We confine ourselves, therefore, to saying that, in our opinion, the form of State action to be takenmay be either of those described under heads (a) and (6) above, or even a combination of the two, but that the decision in the matter must rest withHis Majesty's Government. The arguments for and against each of these alternatives are fully set out in paragraph 7 of the supplementary report ofthe Special Committee. 9. In paragraph 5 of their Supplementary Report the Special Committeegave a picture of the extent of the development of aerial transport services which should be aimed at. We agree with their view and desire to emphasisethe importance of a general scheme of main air-routes being planned in advance, so that when aerial services come to be put into actual operationthey may be in harmony with the scheme. 10. While considerations of national security afford the all-importantreason for advocating State action for the development of aerial transport services, other advantages, also to be hoped for from such development,should not be overlooked. Among the most important of the national benefits to be hoped for are increased facilities for friendly intercourse withforeign nations, and, still more, the improvement in inter-communication between the widely-scattered countries which make up the British Empire.So far as the Governments of the self-governing Dominions and of India are concerned, it will be for those Governments, to whom copies of this Reportmight, we suggest, be forwarded, to determine their own attitude in regard to the problems presented by the subject of our discussions. Whether theydecide themselves to run or to join with the British Government or each other in the running of aerial services, or not, it is in any case to be hopedthat by arrangement with the British Government they may be willing to give all necessary facilities for the arrival and departure of British aircraft.Such facilities would include the provision of aerodromes and landing places or the grant to the authorities controlling British aerial services of the right toacquire them for themselves. The Dominion and Indian Governments would, we hope, also be willing, unless they were running State-owned aerialservices of their own, to allow the British authorities to tender to their Post Offices for the carriage of their mails, and generally to operate in their terri-tory on the same terms as their own citizens. It has already been shown that the longer the distances which it is desired to cover rapidly ihc greaterare likely to be the commercial advantages enjoyed by aerial transport /or
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