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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0570.PDF
of the accompanying photographs, secured by a FLIGHT photographer during the demonstration, shows a candidate undergoing this test. The capacity of the lungs is also as certained by making the pilot take as deep a breath as possible and then exhaling into an instrument similar to an ordinary gas meter, which is set at zero before the test, and which registers the number of cubic centimeters of air blown into the instrument by the pilot. As there is little or no re sistance to blowing, pilots sometimes are able to show better capacity on this instrument than on some of the others in which blowing is opposed by a pressure that has to be over come. In test No. 4 the pilot has to support a column of 40 mm. of mercury for as long a period as possible, and his pulse is taken during the test (at 5 sec. intervals). In a fit man the pulse should increase gradually during the test, while in the case of an unfit man the pulse may behave very erratically, as, for instance, by increasing rapidly and then dropping to or btlow normal. Also, in the case of the unfit man, the time of supporting the 40 mm. of mercury will naturally be shorter than that of the fit pilot. The test is repeated after a physical exercise, and if the pulse in creases by more than 25 it is considered bad. Another test, this time of the reflex reaction time, is carried out by means of a pendulum which at a given moment shows a small white light. The pilot must press a button the instant he sees the light. This action stops a length of string by means of which can be read off on a graduated scale the time, in hundredths of a second, elapsing between the instant the pilot sees the light and the moment of pressing the button. This instrument is shown on the left in Fig. 1 of the accompany ing photograph. AIR BOARD AND AIR A WHITE PAPER issued on Tuesday last gives a few details of the expenditure of the old Air Board and the Air Ministry (which succeeded the Air Board on January 3, 1918) during the year ended March 31, 1918. From this account it appears that the total expenditure was £2,531,974 95. *,d., which was expended under the following heads : Salaries, wages and allowances, £107,518 35. $d. ; travelling expenses, £4,254 13s. $d. ; miscellaneous stores, £1,058 5s. jd. ; incidental expenses, £10,311 155. id. ; works and buildings, £2,408,831 12s. The expenditure on works and buildings is due to the transfer to the Air Ministry on February i, 1918, of a large programme of construction which was being carried out by the Ministry of Munitions, who had recently taken the works over from the War Office. Some charges for works for the Naval Air Service were also incurred after February 1. From an attached paper it appears that there was an expenditure of £26,465 17s. id. in respect of land for the aerodrome at Shoreham, this representing the purchase money plus £608 2s. 4^. for costs. A second item was £35»324 I55- 3d. in respect of the Uxbridge Aerodrome on the Hillingdon estate, which, except for £50 costs, is shown as representing purchase money. Attached to the account is some correspondence between the Air Ministry and the Treasury, in which the latter enter an emphatic protest against the granting of more favourable terms to contractors engaged on the construction of aero dromes. In his report on the account the Comptroller and Auditor- General states that when the Air Council assumed responsi bility for the construction of aerodromes a number of existing War Office contracts were cancelled. There were substituted for them revised terms, which were more favourable to the contractors, increasing their estimated remuneration in bulk from £98,000 to £164,000. The Treasury in the early months of 1918 appear to have received complaints from various sources as to alleged extravagances under the new method, and they asked for the observations of the Air Ministry on the system in force and its possible alternatives. They were not completely satisfied with the arguments put forward by the Ministry. On July 9, 1918, the Treasury expressed their views to the Air Ministry in a letter, from which the following passage is taken :— " Their Lordships regret that the Administrator of Works and Buildings should have taken the step (which was clearly outside his competence as an officer of the Ministry of Munitions) of cancelling and revising in a sense more favourable to contractors the already liberal contract terms on which aerodromes were being constructed for the War Office. As these contractors were receiving a percentage on their expenditure and incurring no risk, it is difficult to understand what public benefit could be derived from a change which increased their remuneration (by an amount MAY 1, 1919 Major Rippon concluded his demonstration with the remark that the standard of fitness that wilLbe insisted upon in the future is now under consideration, and will obviously depend upon the number of candidates, the nature of the work, and the needs of the Service. Major Clements, R.A.M.C, then gave a demonstration of a test for judging distances. This is based on the pheno menon of stereoscopic vision, and is tested by means of three wires placed vertical, the two outer ones being fixed, while the central one is moved along towards and away from the candidate. A screen with a square opening is placed between the candidate and the wires, so that he is unable to see either top or bottom attachments of the wires, as this would enable him to judge accurately the position of the central wire. The candidate is asked to pull the cord operating the move able wire until he considers that the three wires are in a line. (The wires are at right angles to the pilot's line of vision). A graduated scale enables the medical officer to read off the number of centimeters which the central wire is in front of or behind the two outer wires. A candidate with good judgment of distance will repeatedly come very near to getting the three wires in line, while others will be a good distance out, either too near or too far. If a candidate consistently places the central wire beyond the outer ones, or, conversely, if he repeatedly places it short of the outer wires, it has been found as the result of a number of tests that such candidates on landing an aeroplane either " land " it a few feet off the ground, or land it " into the ground," according to whether in the tests referred to they placed the wire too near or too far. MINISTRY ACCOUNTS which they note is estimated at £66,000) without (so far as my Lords can see) securing in any particular an additional advantage to the State. " They note that the ground alleged is that the con tractors were not making sufficiently handsome profits, and had, therefore, ' lost interest ' in their contracts, but that the Army Council state that this statement is entirely at variance with the information at their disposal. " The complaints which their Lordships have , received from many quarters as to the waste of money which is arising in connection with aerodrome contracts reinforce their view that the form of contract on the cost plus percentage system is open to serious objection. In your letter of the 28th ult. the Air Council represent that the alternative suggestions made by the Treasury are impracticable. My Lords under stand, however, that they are used by the Admiralty in the almost equally difficult ship construction contracts, though not in works construction." The Treasury requested the Contracts Committee, presided over by Lord Colwyn, to examine the question. The report of the Committee, which has been already presented to Parliament, recognised that in the majority of cases under the existing conditions lump sum contracts were not prac ticable, and they therefore recommended the basis of cost, plus fixed cost, with a possible bonus for expedition, and proposed the adoption of certain safeguards. The Comptroller and Auditor-General also mentions that a test examination recently applied by his officers to the Air Ministry accounts and records for the expenditure on aero drome construction brought to his notice defects in the system of control and accounting of such a serious character that he had reported the circumstances to the Treasury. He has suggested that the whole matter should form the subject of special enquiry by an independent body, the result of whose investigations might, if necessary, be brought before the Public Accounts Committee at a later period of the session. It is also pointed out by the Comptroller and Auditor- General that the action of the Air Ministry and the Admiralty, acting on their own initiative, extended the award of 12$ per cent, bonus to work done in Ireland, though that was not the intention of the Committee of Production. The Treasury stated that this action had resulted in very serious financial consequences, the Air Ministry having extensive works in progress in Ireland at the time. On the cessation of hostilities it appears that measures were taken to stop the work on the construction of aero dromes as rapidly as possible. By the end of March last work had ceased at 71 sites without completion of the Original schemes. On November 11 the civilian clerical staff at headquarters numbered 2,549, and on January 31 last it was 2,768. It appears, however, that the military staff had been appre ciably reduced. 570
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