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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0002.PDF
IJLjJS^^I air as certain as that of the seas. Much has been done towards attaining that end. In fact, so much has been done that it only remains to make the art of navigation in the air automatic, so to say. Com passes and instruments generally have long passed the stage of crudity in which the outbreak of war found them, and it is more in the "manner of then- use and the best methods of instruction and applica tion that we have to make improvement than in the actual navigational instruments themselves. Again, there is the question of constituting a real and effi cient meteorological system for assisting air trans port. During the War the additional knowledge we have been able to gain of the conditions ruling in the upper air have taught us much, but that knowledge which we possess requires to be co-ordinated while we are seeking for still further improvement in the methods of forecasting the weather. Obviously, the comparatively loose system of storm warnings which sufficed for the mariner falls very far short of the requirements of the aerial navigator, for reasons which are so apparent that they need not be stated. Improved systems of wireless, both of telegraphy and telephony, must come into use. As a matter of fact, things have been accomplished during the War that are wonderful and have vastly simplified the problems of aerial navigation, and in this direction it is purely a question of amplifying what we already have in order to fit in with all the needs of commercial transport. Need for still further improvement there undoubtedly is, and just as certainly it will be achieved, since there is no finality in anything. The main thing is that in this direction the strides that have been made in the past four years will, when the facts can be disclosed, seem more like a page from a work of romance than a sober statement of achievement. • • • It is satisfactory to know that the State present Air Minister is dead against Monopoly! anything in the shape of a State monopoly of commercial aviation. We trust most sincerely that his successor at the Ministry will hold the same views and continue along the lines of the same policy. Lord Weir does not believe that the best ends of civilisation would be served by keeping civil aviation for a Government monopoly. Co-operation between the activities of the State and the activities of the private firms would produce the finest results, lie thinks. The State must be the pioneer ; it must help, encourage, guide and exercise control; it must be in a position to say, " Thou shalt " and " Thou shalt not," but emphatically it must not monopolise. There must be a department of control, which must be in the charge of a few men, but of the best available men, who must be highly paid—men accustomed to wait patiently for results, and not men who want to be in the middle of next week before they have got over Sunday. Such a department must be broad-minded enough to engage the interest and enthusiasm of the biggest people for the biggest schemes. It must strive to acquire the best qualities of a private business, and it must function as far as possible like a private business, for a public end. This new department should spring out of the existing Air Ministry, which must be re constituted and reorganised so as not only to control the administration of the Royal Air Force, but to act as the supreme authority for the development of civil aviation. JANUARY 2, 1919 This all sounds very well indeed, and we should be quite content with the programme outlined if we knew that the Ministry was to remain in perpetuity under the administration of a business man like the pre sent—or is it the late ?—Air Minister. But before we can view it all with perfect content, we should like to see the draft of the proposed legislation which is to give effect to this programme. It seems to us— we are not at all inclined to cavil at the outline sketched by Lord Weir—that if such a programme were administered by a broad-minded business man it would come as near to the ideal as anything can in this very imperfect world. On the other hand, it is possible to see how it could, in other hands, come perilously near to being that very monopoly against which we have invariably raised our voice in protest. Experience of departments leads to the knowledge that, as a genera] rule, they are much fonder of the formula of " Thou shalt not " than of the permissive " Thou mayest," and it is here that the danger of overmuch control lies. Agreed that there must be control, and possibly a good deal of it, we shall have to watch very carefully what is done when the time comes for the actual terms of the regulating Acts of Parliament to be formulated. • • • The first essential step to be taken by International such a new department as that dis- Regulation cusse<j by the Air Minister must be to Flying settle the details of international com munications, involving the settlement of an international aircraft convention. Such a con vention has, said Lord Weir, already been drafted, and is being submitted to our Allies. If they sub stantially approve it, an International Air Conference will be held, and, he said, there was every reason to believe that within the next four or five months the principal nations of the world would have reached an agreement on this momentous matter. Similarly, domestic legislation will have to be passed for the regulation of flying in this country. The draft Bill has been prepared, and it is anticipated that within a few weeks after the assembling of the new Par liament a useful Act will come into force. Until this Convention and this domestic legislation become operative, there can be no private flying at all, either international or in this country. It would be idle to endeavour to anticipate the ultimate shape to be taken by the foreshadowed legislation. It would be just as futile to try to lay down what should and should not be done, and exactly how. We can only wait and see what the pro posals of the Government and of the nations agreeing to the Convention are like, and the effect they are likely to have on development, before proceeding to discussion or criticism. At the same time, we may be allowed to express the hope that the negotiations leading up to the conclusion of the International Convention will be made as public as possible. We do not want to find ourselves faced with accomplished and unalterable facts, which may be to the detriment of the future and which might have been changed or modified as the result of open discussion. • • • Reverting to the question of domestic Lefttalattai legislation» Lord Weir suggests that the State should acquire in permanence a large proportion of the existing military aerodromes, and should render them available for general use 2
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