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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0558.PDF
For traffic direct to London—Hounslow in Mid" dlesex. At these " appointed" aerodromes all outward and inward-bound aircraft must land for examination of goods and passengers. The point has been urged that these aerodromes would be better situated in land, since much of the time gained by aerial transit will be lost if examination has to be carried out immediately on crossing the seaboard. The diffi culties of control have, however, decided the Air Ministry in favour of the coast examination stations, provisionally at least, but for the convenience of pilots flying direct from the Continent to London, one " appointed" aerodrome has been placed at Hounslow, whence pilots can proceed after examina tion direct to their destination. The fixing of the " appointed " stations is by no means final either as to number or situation. If sufficient trade and air traffic should grow up in any other direction, the question will be reconsidered and " appointed" aerodromes established as necessary at other centres. The final note is one of encouragement. It is re marked that hitherto much of the progress in aviation has been due to war and war conditions, and it follows that at first the majority of machines used in civil aviation will be either actual war machines or war models adapted. But types more suitable for pleasure and commercial work are already be ginning to make their appearance, and for them, as has been the case with the earlier war models, rigid care and supervision in regard to construction and airworthiness will have to be insisted upon for the safety of the travelling public and also the public which does not travel. For this duty the Air Ministry will continue to be responsible. It will not in any way hinder development by imposing inspection on inventions or purely experimental machines, but it will insist upon the inspection and certification for general airworthiness of any passenger machine plying for hire. Not only the machine but also the pilot who carries passengers and the aerodrome where he lands will be liable to periodical inspection, and if they are not passed as fit the license is liable to be withdrawn. ..Not the slightest exception can be taken to this. In fact, it is neither more nor less than what is required for the purposes of the public safety. To insist upon less would be to risk, if not to invite disaster, while to impose more would be to set a handicap upon development which would have a distinctly retarding effect on progress. We think that, on the whole, the Air Ministry is to be congratulated upon having issued an admirably clear and lucid statement of the general conditions under which civilian aviation will be conducted in the immediate future. Obviously, the Department of Civil Aviation has still to feel its way to a very great extent and if the statement just issued seems to lack the air of finality in its details, that was only to be expected under the circumstances. Indeed, to have attempted anything in the shape of finality at present would have been merely futile and have given rise to the feeling that the Ministry was out to hamper rather than to encourage the movement, and it has therefore very wisely made the expression of its intentions as general in terms as possible without making it indefinite to the point of uselessness. It has certainly erected a most important landmark in the history of aviation, in that this is, so far as we are aware, the first general document of the kind that has ever been issued by any Department of State in the world. There have been laws and regulations for the conduct of aerial traffic, but not of a serious commercial character such as the Air Ministry's statement endeavours to deal with now. Formerly these regulations dealt with what was merely an infant sport, with certain potentialities for the future of which no one could foresee the fruition. Now we are dealing with what is practically an accompUshed commercial fact and with a development from which, while we cannot see the end, we know the greatest results will accrue to the benefit of civilisation. • • • A Parliamentary Paper has just been Britain's issued, under the title of " Synopsis ki the" of British A11" Effort during the War," War which reviews briefly the history of the development and doings of the British Air Services during the past five years. The text of the Paper will be found in another part of this issue of FLIGHT. It is impossible to single out any outstanding details for comment, inasmuch as the story is not one of individual action, either by units or smaller entities of the Services, but simply a running record of service and development. It is, nevertheless, interesting to note that the outbreak of war found the British Air Service consisting of a total of 272 aircraft, of which 93 belonged to the R.N.A.S. and 179 to the R.F.C., while the total personnel of the two wings was 197 officers and 1,647 other ranks. In October of last year these totals had grown to 199 squadrons with a personnel of 27,906 officers and 263,842 other ranks. The total number of machines " on charge " at the same time was 22,171 and of engines 37,702. From August, 1914, to May, 1915, a period of 10 months, the output of machines was 530 and of engines 141. During the 10 months from January to October, 1918, the respective totals were 26,685 machines and 29,561 engines. It is figures like these which indicate, as nothing else can, the real magnitude of our effort to obtain aerial supremacy over the enemy and the wonderful manner in which our manufacturing resources were adapted to that end. The table showing the result of operations in the air is at once interesting and informative. It indi cates very well to what an extent we had established a definite superiority over the Boche. The number of enemy aircraft accounted for, i.e., brought down or driven.down, was 7,908 on all fronts, at a cost to ourselves of 2,810 machines " missing." Incidentally, now that the War is over there can be no harm in asking that the precise method of announcing our losses of aircraft should be disclosed. According to the table we have quoted, we lost about a third of the number of machines which were lost by the enemy, but this statement does not tally with the official German figures, which we have often found to be surprisingly correct. The question is, do these machines returned as missing represent our total aerial losses ? Obviously, if a machine is crashed behind our own lines, we know what has become of it—it certainly is not " missing." Perhaps the Air Ministry will now take heart of grace and tell us exactly what our aerial losses were during the war. The section of the Paper dealing with the assistance given to the Allies is extremely interesting. Not a single one of the Allied Powers but is indebted to
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