FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0405.PDF
MARCH 27, 1919 „ holds the British Aviator's Certificate No. 1. It seemed to us that we could not ask a better man than the man who started at the beginning to give us his views on the future of the air. Colonel J. T. C. MOORE-BRABAZON, M.P., said : I am speaking here as representing the Royal Aero Club and in the absence of the Duke of Athol and General Sir Capel Holden, as your Chairman has told you I do represent, in a way, something of an historical character in aviation, for I would remind you that I have succeeded in solving a problem which at one time was thought to be impossible, and that was to cause a pig to fly. That is the most historical thing I can tell you ; also I would say that every day I have been made to feel that I am getting older and older, because in The Times you will see every day what happened 100 years ag:>, so you will see in FLIGHT what happened ten years ago. Only the other day I saw in that paper that I flew 150 yards. That particular occasion was very much impressed on my mind because it really occurred not through any fault of mine, but through a gust of wind, and when I reached the ground again and walked back to the hangar considerably alarmed, tiie taxi-driver who had brought me alarmed me still more by kissing me on both cheeks. There is just one little point that I want to speak about to-night, and that is that if we are to look to the future, as the toast I have to propose asks us to do, before we do that we should just cast our minds back a little to the past, to the history of these last ten years. We have got to a position when we can, with confidence, say that we are right ahead of any other country in the world. And when we say that we have to remember that that did not happen by itself. It happened because of certain men in this country and certain men in this room to-night. I want to say this, that it is about time that this country said " Thank you " to those men. We have had some of our soldiers decorated and rightly so. We have received in the Air Force I think four K.C.Bs. and one Civil Servant has been decorated with us, because those men in a very able way knew how to direct the forces that were put into their hands, but we have to remember that there were other people who supplied the goods, who put them in their hands. You cannot make bricks without straw, and we have been given to use in the Air Force the very best machines in the world, and it is now the time I think that we, the public, should recognise the genius of the gentlemen who made the machines that gave us the victory. In talking of the future of the air one is very liable to begin to tell fairy stories. I only give you an example. The other day General Seely made a most remarkable speech in the House of Commons and spoke of a machine he knew of that was going to do something remarkable. On that day in one of our prominent papers I saw, to my amaze ment, a picture of what was called an aeroplane. It looked, I must say, rather like a flying public-house, and it was described as the new aeroplane that will do 200 miles an hour. If there was one thing which was absolutely certain, it was the impossibility of its going 200 miles an hour. Now I see many friends here to-night who have enormous confidence in aviation. They had such confidence ten years ago, even though now I think they are surprised at what has happened in the time. But just as they were confident in those days, so, in view of what we have done, we are deeply confident of the future of this great Service. There is a peculiarity about Englishmen, which is that they like to be left alone, but circumstances over which we have ho control have brought us under Government control of the Air Force. I think we may anyhow congratulate ourselves upon the men who had first to fill the responsible places to control us. First of all we have the Right Honour able gentleman, the Secretary of State for Air. It is a little bit difficult to speak after him in the beginning, but if I may make a remark in regard to him I would tell him that if by any chance he should happen to meet the Secretary of State for War I would ask him to tell him that we here believe that the one Service of the future and the one really attractive arm of England is the Air Service and nothing else. And then we have General Seely, the Under-Secretary of State for Air. Not only is he particularly ornamental with his breast of many colours, but also I would say he is a man of singular intelligence. First of all let me say that it is very difficult to get -£60,000 out of anybody, but he has managed to get that out of the House of Commons. And also let me pay another tribute to his great intelligence, and that is that he agreed to allow the Aircraft industry to design their own machines. Now, Sir, I understand that the governing bodies of Aero nautics are going to use the great powers and the great ability of your Society in one of the sub-Commissions which H0SS are being formed for international use of aircraft. I do hope that on one of those sub-Committees not only will you use this Society, who are our hosts to-night, but the Govern ment will also use a similar body, viz., the Royal Aero Club for which I speak because in the past I am sure you will agree with me that we have done useful work for aviationj as I hope they will do in the future. Now then as to the future of aviation, do not let us think that the future lies in the hands of the Government to make or mar ; the future of Aeronautics in this country lies in our hands, and no others. It is for us to push ahead now that we have got right to the top, and never let anybody else pick us up. Major-General the Right Hon. J. E. B. SEELY, replying, said : My first statement must be an apology that I, a civilian, should be in uniform, but the fact is that I arrived from Paris only half-an-hour ago, thanks to Colonel Robertson. When we were about three and a quarter miles from the Coast I looked at the speed indicator and observed we were going 100 miles an hour, I noticed that our height was 900 feet ; I did a hasty sum ; I said that is 300 yards, flying angle 1 in 8, let me see 2,400 ; can I swim the remaining two miles ? You will be glad to know that I was not asked to swim. The result was I arrived here coming by motor-car so late that 1 had not time to put on the appropriate costume of what Mr. Moore-Brabazon has called another place. If the future of the air is to be for the world, and especially for the British Empire, what we hope it will be, there has got to be a combination of four things all working closely in harmony as a happy family. There has got to be wise direction and good laws ; there has got to be good laws for the air ; there has got to be the co-operation of the Royal Air Force and the pilots ; they are one and the same thing for the moment ; thirdly, we have got to have the co-opera tion of the people who make the aeroplanes, the workmen who make them ; and, fourthly—I am not giving them in the order of their importance—we have got to have the co-operation of the people who design them and make them. With regard to direction I say nothing, as I am to some extent concerned, except that, in all sincerity, I do rejoice that my friend/Mr. Churchill, is at the head of the Air Service, He and I worked together at it in the early days, and we had a contest as to who should get the most money from the Treasury to which our friend there referred. I just won. Before the War I got rather more money, and I say, now it is all over, Mr. Churchill, that I am inclined to think that although I got a little more money from the present Prime Minister, you spent yours the best. You had the great good fortune that you found one or two geniuses. I will not name them, they are represented here, and you gave them a free hand, in the splendid way you have of giving people their chance. You did produce for the Royal Naval Air Service, which was a branch then of the unified Royal Flying Corps, now happily the Royal Air Force, the best possible machine it was possible to produce at the time, and I do not think that any one man in the administrative sphere has done so much for flying in this or any other country as Mr. Churchill. But there is another man whom I would describe as the founder of victory in the air. Just as Carnot was the organiser of victory in France 100 years ago, so Lord Weir was the organiser of victory in the air. Of course many others have been hard at work, have been doing their best, and doing it very well, but he just gripped the whole Army, brought all parties together and made a happy family, a real happy family. As to wise laws, I will leave General Sykes to speak. We have both just come back from Paris, and it is a fortunate thing that at the meeting where the main principles were discussed, all those main principles were accepted by the representatives of the great nations there assembled. That is a great step forward. Sub-Committees are now con sidering the different details so as to carry out those main principles. Our Chairman to-night, Mr. White Smith, is the representative of this country, and a most able repre sentative, on the Commercial Committee that is working out the details, and the most important details of that side of our business. But I would like to add this, that if we may say with satisfaction that the meeting, the day before yesterday, accepted all the great principles which we hoped to see accepted by them, it was to General Sykes that we owe it—that these main principles were laid down on wise, far-reaching lines in language which all could understand and in language which commended itself finally to the re presentatives of America, of France, of Japan and of Italy. I look forward next week to seeing the business completely settled, and if that happens, as I hope it may, it will be largely due to the foresight, to the energy and skill and devotion to duty of General Sykes.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
