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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0379.PDF
MARCH 20, 1919 mittee a large sum for military aviation, but I do not know that it is so very large when you consider how great a reduction has been made. But I would add this in turning, as I now do, to civil aviation, that you cannot measure in terms of money how much of this will be for the advantage of civil aviation and how much for military aviation. We specifically say £3,000,000 for civil aviation, experiments and research, but far more than that is of advant age to civil aviation which comes out of the military £63,000,000. First of all there are all the military machines which we are building. No doubt there will be constantly increasing divergence of type between the military and the civil type of machines, nevertheless the building of the military machines is a means of keeping the aircraft industry going. Then there is research for military purposes which is of value for civil purposes also. The great expenditure on meteorology is, of course, of equal value to both. In the case of aerodromes we must obtain and maintain a considerable number all over the world, and nearly all of these will be available for civil aviation, and even those few that are retained, that are retained exclusively—and they are very few in number—for military and naval purposes will, of course, be available on emergency for emergency landings. Therefore we cannot measure in terms of money how much of our military expenditure is of value to civil aviation ; but we can and do say that the whole resources of the Royal Air Force, as far as is consistent with the purpose of their military duties, are and will remain at the service of civil aviation. On the side of civil aviation, pure and simple, I might say that we take of this sum of £3,000,000, specifically, £2,000,000 for research and experiment, £500,000 for special new types of machines, £500,000 which has been asked for by Genl. Sykes, Chief of Civil Aviation, for the special purposes of his Depart ment, in addition to the other large sums which are available for civil aviation, as I have described them. I cannot say that that £500,000 is a final figure. Genl. Sykes himself said to me, " The worst thing to do is to definitely lock up money which you do not want at once to use." Therefore, it is much wiser to take a modest figure to start in order to see how far it will go for the necessary purposes which I hope now to describe to the Committee. What is to be the duty of the Controller-General of Civil Aviation, who has charge of the civil side of the Air Ministry ? His first duty will be to complete the international agreement in Paris in regard to the future of flying. Fly ing is and must remain in many respects an international business. There are no natural boundaries in the air, and you cannot have successful civil aviation unless you come to an agreement first with the Allies, and then with the rest of the world, as to the way in which flying is to be conducted. We have done much already, and Genl. Sykes was our representative in Paris all through the earlier stages of the negotiations. We are far more advanced than any other country in the preparations made for civil flying. I am very glad of criticism, and the more we are criticised the better it will be for us. If the suggestion is that we have not done enough—well, I quite agree, we can never do enough—but if the suggestion is that we have done less than other countries I would say that that is erroneous so far as our information goes. We are far further advanced than any other nation. We are the first nation to have legislation such as we passed the other day. We are the first nation to have regulations for our own civil flying agreed to by all con cerned. We are the first nation who have drawn up a draft of an Inter national or Inter-Allied Convention. The draft of this Inter-Allied Conven tion has been agreed to, I am glad to say, by the Dominions and India. We have shown it to the other Allies, and I hope and believe that in great degree they will accept the principles contained in our draft. There has already been the first meeting of the air side of the Peace Conference, and the next meeting as at present arranged is on Monday, when my right hon. friend has directed that Genl. Sykes and myself, with technical officers, shall repre sent this country in Paris I hope I shall be able to report to the Committee before very long that the principles of the draft aerial convention we have drawn up have been generally assented to by our Allies, and if they are, I have little doubt that the other nations of the world will shortly join. The next duty on the civil side will be to plan air routes at home and abroad, and not only to plan them but to get them ready. The Controller-General has already drawn up a list of the aerodromes that will be required in this country for civil aviation, as well as those required for military pur poses. As soon as we have settled, as we practically have done now, on the required aerodromes, we shall set to work to equip them properly with meteoro logical stations, if not all, a great number with sound and light signal stations, with beacon stations, with aerial buoys ; in fact, balloons with special marks, with telephone and telegraph stations, with directional wireless as well as ordinary wireless, enabling you to direct your aeroplane from the ground by information you send by wireless, and, I am glad to say, with wireless tele phony, in which during the last few days we have achieved a result which the right hon. member for Blackburn (Sir H. Norman) knows we have been trying to achieve for many years. We have got a wireless telephone with which on the same machine you can both send and receive from the same operator. Until a few days ago it was possible for one aeroplane to com municate to another, but it was not possible for the same aeroplane to receive an answer. Now the difficulties are overcome, and we have got a satis factory instrument which does this remarkable thing, which will be of immense value to military flying. Therefore the second duty is that we have to com plete the aerial routes at home and abroad. Mr. Joynson-Hicks : Can the right hon. gentleman say whether the com pletion of these routes and the fitting up of aerodromes is to come out of the £3,000,000 for civil aviation ? Maj.-Genl. Seely : For this year we estimate that is all we shall be able to spend. A good deal of what I have described is already in existence at the stations. Some new things will have to be put in. We have taken this money, and in this case I am glad to say we have not been hampered in any way by the Treasury. We have got what we asked. I think we have. At any rate, I am sure that if the Committee approves, the Treasury will raise no formal difficulty to a sum which they have already provisionally approved. Abroad much has already been done which is not known in the making of aerial routes. We have surveyed the whole aerial route from Africa to India—that is, from Cairo to Karachi—and aeroplanes have actually flown from Calcutta. We have surveyed the route from Cape to Cairo. There are surveying parties out there at this moment. There are three parties in Africa between Cairo and the Cape who are choosing aerodromes and making plans for the great air route to be opened. I say nothing about the Atlantic route, because that is a difficult matter, and the less said about it the better until we are sure we can do something at it. It is no good boasting that you can do this, that, and the other until you have seen your way clear. The next duty in the Civil Aviation Branch, under Genl. Sykes, will be to examine and advise on all schemes of aerial transport and to assist them in any way in which the Air Ministry can do so. And the Air Ministry can assist a great deal, because, owing to the fact that the whole of this great system has grown up during the War, nearly all the pilots and, in fact, all the best brains are either in the Royal Air Force or the Air Ministry or are found among the different firms and inventors who worked for us during the War —because everybody who had a plan, an idea, or a factory ungrudgingly threw it into the common stock during the War. As we have so great a pro portion of the pilots and the brains, we can help very greatly in all aerial plans. Fourthly, there will be the registration and licence of pilots and air craft for all civil purposes. We are bound to perform functions such as fall upon corresponding Government Departments with reference to vessels at sea. But as much is taken from the shoulders of the Government in the case of ships by the co-operation of Lloyd's and " Lloyd's Register" we hope that those two great bodies will assist particularly in the matter of inspection. I bad the privilege of meeting members of both bodies within the last few days, and I think that they will co-operate with us. Certainly we will be very grateful to them if they will. And a scheme of insurance such as they have adumbrated will be of great value in setting the industry on a sure foundation, the Government meantime maintaining, as in the case of the sea, its special responsibility for the safety of the public. I would like to pay a special tribute to various men of science who' have been good enough to advise and help me in considering the various subjects on which I have touched to-day, notably Lord Rayleigb, Sir Richard Glaze-brook and members of his committee, and Sir Charles Parsons and many others have been good enough to write me fully their views as to the possi bility of future aerial travel and transport, because, after all, this is a scientific question first and foremost, and it is men of that type, and the younger men of science, who can alone lead us along the right path and help us to secure good results in peace time after the tremendous advance which has been made in air travel during the time of the war. Everyone of these men dwells upon the enormous advantages of continuous research, the vital importance of providing money for it, the essential need of the experiments which must be carried out on methods of propulsion, on the structure of wings, on stability, and on retarding machines on landing. All these and kindred subjects are of vital importance, and on them depends really the future of civil aviation. It is not a dream to think that we may make great advances. We have made many remarkable discoveries during the War. I have referred to one —wireless telephony—which we have at last perfected. There are many others. I have here a long list of the things that have been done. I will only mention one or two. There is one which will interest this House because a member of this House, the member for Chatham (Col. Moore-Brabazon), had a very large share in inventing a most useful apparatus—the air camera —by means of which we can take a series of photographs from the air and from great heights which will give yon a more accurate survey of the land over which you pass than you could obtain by weeks or months of surveying in the ordinary way. That has been of incalculable value during the War. This only requires to be stated to show what its value will be in time of ace. Another remarkable invention, if you can call it an invention, cause it is an adaptation of what was known before, is directional wireless. The Germans were the first, I am advised, to use directional wireless with effect, but fortunately for us we could always intercept them, and as we had got their code the directional wireless which enabled them to fly enabled us to know exactly where to attack them. But we had a system of direc tional wireless which had most of the advantages but none of the drawbacks of theirs. Now that peace is come there is no need to further conceal the fact that we have been able to direct machines from the ground with com plete success, and, in the view of the experts who have charge of this par ticular arrangement, is in its infancy. One of the greatest problems of the air—to know where you are after a long flight in misty weather, through a medium not travelling a few miles an hour as on the sea, but 50 or 60 or 70 miles—may by this means be overcome. In the way of actual experiment it will interest the House to know that before the War ended we were experimenting not in the way of laboratory experiments, but in actual design, with various types of a novel kind. There is one machine now being built, a seaplane of a very novel type of a very great size. This one has advanced so far that it has actually been flown. It has five Rolls-Royce engines, and carries 13,000 lbs. at the rate of io» miles an hour, which is a very large weight to carry at that speed. Another experimental aeroplane is being built which is even larger. It was not intended for peacelul purposes, but we hope that it will be of use now that peace has come. It has a span of 141 ft., it is 85 ft. long, and will carry a useful load of just under 20,000 lbs. This is not completed, but if we can take a line from the performance of the seaplane it should probably be a success. Moreover, we have another aeroplane of which the plans are com pleted, far larger than either of those with eight engines, developing possibly a very considerable speed, and taking a much larger load than either of those two to which I have referreo. Then we have under construction an entirely novel type of aircraft, which I will not particularise, but of which one can say, although it is quite possible that it may not succeed, that the mathe maticians say that it should attain a speed hitherto quite undreamt of, and, of course, having qualities of a kind quite different from anything which we have seen. I hope later on in the year that I may be able to give some information about this somewhat remarkable invention. But even if it fails we shall learn useful lessons from it. Sir Charles Parsons tells me one thing which I think will be new to molt members of the House. It certainly was to me. It is as to the properties of airships which, in his judgment, contain immense possibilities in the future. The tractor power required to pull a given load, given the same speed, varies almost exactly inversely with the size of the vessel. Suppose you take an airship 750 ft. long and assume it to have a speed of 60 miles an hour and a displacement of 64 tons, the estimate is that you will require 5 per cent, of that 64 tons in order to pull your vessel at 60 miles an hour. But if you increase the length to 1,500 ft. and get, as you would do with the same form, not 48 but 164 tons, you would require not 5 per cent, but 2i per cent, in order to give that the same speed-—that is, by doubling the size of your vessel, you require only half the horse-power to do the same work. Sir Charles Parsons pointed out to me further that although this does not apply in the same degree to sea vessels, it is to a certain extent true with regard to them. But here designers are limited and have throughout been limited by the fact that harbours do not accommodate vessels of more than a certain size without the expenditure of dredging which would, of course, run into tens of thousands and millions if you once got vessels eight or ten times their present length. But in the air there is no such limitation. The atmosphere reaches up to 50 miles and the depth of harbours is limited as a rule to 40 ft. So, in his judgment, there is an immense possibility for the airship, and I quote Sir Charles Parsons, who has been good enough to write me a memorandum on the subject, because of him you may say that he has that most valuable brain which combines great speculative power with, as everyone knows, the power of concrete application to turbines and other practical things in the highest possible degree. There are other things of great possibility. There are flying boats which may do wonderful things, especially on the great navigable rivers of the world. From the sea to the source of the Nile is, I think, between 4,000 and 5,000 miles. My right hon. friend (Mr. Churchill) travelled it the whole way and he ought to know. There you have a perfect landing ground the whole way for a flying boat. The sea is not a perfect landing ground because the waves are rough, but a thing like a river does, so those who fly seaplanes inform me, provide a perfect landing ground. When one looks at a map of the world and sees the navigable rivers, up which ships can only slowly toil at an average of six or seven miles, and are then constantly stopped by rocks and other obstacles, all of which are nothing to a seaplane, one sees the immense possibilities of seaplane travelling in the future. In commend ing those Estimates to the Committee I must apologise for having spoken at greater length than I had intended, but the subject is of such absorbing interest and of such vital importance that I trust I may be forgiven. Nobody can ever be certain he is right in this matter. It is so speculative, the whole business is so new, that everyone must be prepared to make a fair number of mistakes. But that is no reason why we should not fry, and try our hardest, and why we should not enlist the best brains in our support as we 379
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