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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0690.PDF
MAY 29, 1919 out of her course than did the American seaplanes on their flight from Newfoundland to the Azores, while it must be pointed out that the two perform ances are not comparable in the matter of difficulties of navigation. In the one case, the Americans had nothing to do but navigate by sight. There was a destroyer or some other vessel posted along every few miles of route, so that, as soon as one was lost, the next could be picked up. Thus the navigational problem was reduced to the last terms of ease. In the case of Hawker and his companion, however, there were none of these adventitious aids, and they had to depend for their reckoning' on astronomical observations and the sighting of chance vessels along the line of route. It seems to us that the flight has taught at least one lesson—that the art of aerial navigation has been brought to a state of reasonable perfection, and that in this department there will be little to fear on the score of safety of travel. Twenty miles out in a thousand would not be bad navigation in the case of a slow-steaming ship, where celestial observations had not been obtainable and dead reckoning had to be depended upon. Lord Noiihcliffe and the Daily Mail The have certainly acted in a worthy and and the' sP°rtsmanlike manner in the matter Flight °f tne flight. When hope of the safety of Hawker and his navigator had been practically abandoned at the end of last week, the Mail announced that it had been decided to pay the amount of the prize-money—£10,000— to be divided between Mrs. Hawker and the relatives of Commander Mackenzie-Grieve, in the event of the two gallant aviators having lost their lives. The offer of the £10,000 prize for the first successful Atlantic flight, under the published conditions, was still to stand. Fortunately, the Mail will not be called upon to make good its magnificent promise, but the moment the good news of Hawker's safety was made known it announced that in recognition of the plucky attempt to win the prize itself, and more by way of appreciation of the endeavour to uphold the honour of Britain, it had resolved to present a consolation prize of £5,000, to be divided in the same manner as the prize itself would have been had the attempt succeeded. No single individual has done more to encourage progress in aviation than Lord Northcliffe, added to which the fact that he is the head of a very powerful group of newspapers has enabled him to see that the very fullest publicity should be given to all records of progress and per formance. Aviation is under a heavy debt of gratitude to Lord Northcliffe and his journals, and the magnificent action of the Daily Mail in the matter of the Atlantic flight adds yet another score to that volume of indebtedness. As to the immediate prospects of a Immediate successrul crossing of the Atlantic by Prospects aeroplane, now that the Hawker com bination is out of the running for some considerable time, it cannot be said that these are too rosy. The Americans are, at the time of writing, still detained at the Azores by weather conditions, and there seems to be no present indication of sufficient improvement to enable a start to be made on the second stage of the Transatlantic flight. In Newfoundland the conditions also are unpro mising, even if there was anyone there ready to make a start. Mr. Raynham's machine seems to be hopelessly out of the running in the mean time, and it must be weeks before it can be ready to fly again. The Handley-Page is not ready yet, and would hardly essay the crossing in any case until the weather conditions have become more stable, while the same is to be said of the other competitors for the honour of being first to cross the Atlantic. After carefully balancing up all the probabilities, it really begins to look as though the honour of actually crossing might fall to the lighter-than-air machine after all, if the Air Ministry and the Admiralty between them can make up their minds to essay the flight with one of the new great rigid airships, although, if successful, this would not affect the Mail £10,000 prize. For some weeks past reports have been rife that R.33 or R.34 was to make the attempt, but so far no official announcement has been made. To our way of thinking, it should be done, and done at once. There is not the slightest doubt that, had it not been for the accident to the American airship C.5, she would have made the attempt long ere this, and would in all probability have succeeded. Surely, if it is desirable that this country should maintain the commanding lead in aviation it obtained during the war, it is worth an effort to be first to bridge the Atlantic by air. Hawker and Mackenzie-Grieve having gloriously failed in their attempt to achieve the honour and to credit it to the old country, there are others waiting im patiently to take the self-same risk, and we doubt not they will accept it with the same cheerfulness as those who set out on the first attempt ten days ago. We have not one but several airships which are capable of making the flight with ease, and we are deliberately of opinion that it would be well worth while that one of them should do so. And, if there is any imagination at all in the Departments concerned, they will see that it is done, and without a moment's unnecessary delay. • • * According to the Daily Mail New York Wettes correspondent, a statement has been in the Air " issued by the U.S. Army Air Service in which it is prophesied that before many years are past there will exist giant, all-metal air ships, capable of cruising for 60,000 miles and of remaining in the air for three weeks. " We reason ably may expect," this official statement says, " in the near future to have Transcontinental airships in the United States capable of carrying nearly 200 tons of useful load. Obviously it will be such airships that will transport first-class mail and some pas sengers. Aeroplanes will not be displaced by these mammoth ships. The natural employment of aero planes in great number will be for the local distribu tion of mail in all directions from the main airship stops across the continent." It predicts also that the British will inaugurate a regular airship service to Paris, Rome and Canada this year, and adds: " The vast expanse of the United States seems excep tionally favourable for the establishment of similar air routes, including a service to Alaska, Hawaii, Porto Rica, Cuba and Panama." We believe the memorandum is not far off the truth. In fact, so far as concerns the advent of the 690
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