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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0127.PDF
Flight, January 30, 1919 First Aero Weekly in the World Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM Ne. 327. (N*. 5, Vei. XL) JANUARY 30, 1919 [Weekly, Price M. L Poet Free, 7d, Flight and The Aircraft Engineer iMUrmlOfie*: #, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGS WAY, W.C. a. lelegrami: Traditnr, Westceut, London. Telephone: Garrard i»»S. Annual Subscription Rates, Pact Free : United Kingdom .. sir ad. Abroad jai. •*• Thar rata* arc subject to any alteration found accessary a>oder war conditions. CONTENTS. a editorial Comment : PAGB The Furore of the Airship 117 General Secly and the Aerial Future .. .. 118 What Does it all Mean - izj British Brains in the War 130 Meteorology and Aerial Servict 131 Rigging 13s Honours .. .. .. .. . 135 The Roll of Honour 137 The Royal Aero Club. Official Notices 13 The Work of Section T. 5, R. A. F. 13I Airaau from the Fow Wind* 141 \irshrp* for Commercial Purposes 4 Correspondence 149 Toe Report of the Civil Aerial Transport Committee 150 The Royal Air Force 156 Side Winds ,58 EDITORIAL COMMENT jjl "^X VEN before the war it was to some S\ i» extent the fashion to believe that • [ ^ • the whole future of aviation lay with HL|^fl||LB the aeroplane and that the airship WS bore about the same relation to the -~= r^r former as the spherical balloon does ~""~"" to the dirigible itself. A reference to the files of " FUGHT " will show that we have never subscribed to that belief and that we were Th F rnrrn at some P3*™* to combat the point of of the"* view we nave indicated. It must be Airship admitted that the almost complete failure for its intended purpose of the Zeppeli! during the war, added to very sparse information available about the development of the airship in Allied countries and particularly in Britain, has tended to accentuate the belief that the lighter-than-air vessel must in the nature of things take second place to' the aeroplane. So much so, that in all the recent discussions that have taken place regarding commercial aviation and its develop ment, the airship has been almost completely ignored, and the talk has almost entirely centred about the aeroplane. It will not do, however, to ignore the possibilities of the lighter-than-air craft, which, for its own purposes and within its own limitations, has, we are convinced, an enormous field of usefulness before it. Before we go any farther, it will be as well if we remember that the lessons of the war have, so far as the aeroplane is concerned, been learnt in the open, so to speak. Its work has been of a kind which it was utterly impossible to keep secret, since it was seen by the eyes of millions. Everyone who took the trouble to follow the war news—and everyone did—was kept thoroughly posted in the broad lines of development. When the German air service was at the zenith of its power, the man in the street was fully informed of the types of machines with which the enemy was provided, together with a great many particulars of their construction and engine power. When the answer was found and provided to those types, he was almost equally well- informed regarding our own, for the sufficient reason that by the time our new machines were in com mission the enemy knew all about them and there was thus no need for concealment, while, again, there were so many eyes to see them that the fact could not be concealed that we had a triplane, for instance, which was far faster and climbed better than anything the Germans had. Therefore, the general public was kept pretty well informed on the wide lines of aeroplane development. It was far otherwise in the case of the airship. After the first few Zeppelin raids and when our defences had been perfected, these craft had no luck at all and the last great attempt at aerial in vasion by airships, which resulted in the loss of eight of the fleet, finally discounted the Zeppelin in the eyes of the public, which almost ceased to seriously regard lighter-than-air vessels. True, it was known in a general sort of way that we were employing small airships for various purposes con nected with coast defence and against the submarine, but there were few who had any appreciation of the real amount of work that was being carried on by these ships. Even among those intimately con nected with aviation on the heavier-than-air side there was very little knowledge of what was being done in the other direction. Some of the facts and data connected with airships and their pos sibilities in the development of commercial services are now given in a pamphlet issued by the Air Ministry last week, called " Notes on Airships for F *
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