FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0099.PDF
JANUARY 23, 1919 •them. It lays down rules for safety of construction and navigation, but it does not go farther. Keep State control of aviation within the same reasonable bounds, and we shall make progress. If the bureaucrats get their way, there will be stagnation all round owing to want of competition and the consequent absence of the spirit of emulation. As a matter of fact, when we get down to bed-rock, the Government departments connected with aerial development have not a great deal to be proud of in their war record in so far as concerns progress. We owe our paramount position in aircraft design and in productive capacity almost entirely to the private firms and individual constructors who have worked out their own plans and ideas without direct aid from the Government. Machines of Government design have played a very minor part in the War, while in the matter of engine development the same story is equally applicable. That being so, it is illogical, to say the very least, that the Government should now seek to take entire and detailed control of a business in whose development it has had but a small m m What is Wrong with the W.R.A.F. ? IN our article on the W.R.A.F. last week we made use of the expression, when discussing the case of the Hon. Miss Douglas - Pennant : " Why the sudden volte face alleged to have been performed by Lord Weir and Sir Godfrey Paine, who first of all refused to entertain Miss Douglas-Pennant's resigna tion of her post, and then, a few days later, seem to have collaborated in her dismissal ? " . . Major-General the Right Hon. J. E. B. Seely, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., M.P., Under-Secretary of State for Air, and Vice-President of the Air Council to preside over the Council. • part and which the bureaucratic mind is absolutely incapable of carrying any farther along the road of progress. With regard to certain articles that have The appeared in previous issues of "FLIGHT," Chevrons in criticism of the Air Ministry's action Settled11 in forbidding the wearing of active service chevrons, we are glad to know that our protests have apparently carried weight in official quarters. It has now been decided that these chevrons may be worn on blue uniform. The 1914 chevron is to be green, and those for overseas service in subsequent years black. By its decision to rescind an order that was utterly unjust and a breach of faith with those who have qualified by service for the wearing of chevrons, the Air Ministry has done the right thing, and will allay a great deal of justifiable discontent. For our own part, we are pleased to think that we have been able to exert our influence for the righting of what was unquestionably a wrong to a large number of officers and men of the R.A.F. El El This is less than fair to Sir Godfrey Paine, and we sincerely regret that we should have inadvertently coupled his name with the actual dismissal of the late Commandant. During the few days that elapsed between the refusal to accept her resignation and her dismissal, Sir Godfrey Paine had been succeeded as Master-General of Personnel by General Brancker, and thus had nothing to do with Miss Douglas- Pennant's dismissal. '• K'i;it>' 1 "pyisht. The Marquess of Londonderry, who has been appointed an additional member of the Air Council, in charge of finance, contracts and lands business of the R.A.F., and to represent the Air Ministry in the House of Lords. 99 G 2 jg . - .
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
