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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0827.PDF
Flight, June 26, 1919 Fir»t Aero Weekly in the World. Founder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER A Journal devoted to the Interest!, Practice, and Projr*" of Aerial Locomotion and Transport OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM No. 648 (No. 26, Vol. XI.) JUNE 26, 1919 "Weekly, Price M. L Post Free, 7d. Flif£l&t globe. Alcock and Brown equally went off into the and The A ft E ' unexplored air, fired with the intent to bring home to ,..,.. . ,„~ ,*„„ _ nS*neer Britain the honour of the first direct flight across the Editorial Office: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. 2 , „ i.i .. TM 1 j J At Telegrams: Truditur, Westcent, London. Te.ephone: Gerard ,8.8 trackleSS Atlantic. They also Succeeded, and iOT aS Assusi SuWripUon Rates, pMt Fr«: long as history exists theirs will be the names United Kingdom .. its. ad. Abroad.. . .. 33*. od. associated with this great achievement, and to Britain These rates are subject to any alteration found necessary under war conditions will belong the honOUr of it. It is fitting, therefore, CONTENTS that -^s Majesty should have chosen the manner he " has of conferring upon the two aeronautical pioneers Editorial Comment: PAGE the mark of his recognition of the signal service they Honouring the Brave 827 have rendered to the country and its history. The Air Ministry and the Aerial Derby 827 Flights that made History 818 * * * The Aerial Derby g28 For some reason best known to itself, The Great Linen Deal s.,o The the Air Ministry seems to have inter- 2li^Xpmliip :. :: :: :: :: :: £ Alr«iaJSfyvened to forbid the w* °*certain The Royai Aero ciub Banquet 847 Aerial Derby macmnes m *as* Saturday's Aerial The Daily Man £10,000 Atlantic PnZe 84s ' Derby. The prohibition extended to Propels of Aviation in the War Period '.'. '.'. '.'.1% machines which were built foror to the designs of the Personals.. 858 Ministry, and included some nine or ten different types British Air services 8s9 of the most up-to-date variety. So far, no official side-winds .. 86T explanation of why the ban was imposed has been -• • •• ... '._ vouchsafed, nor do we anticipate that the Ministry will deign to explain its extraordinary action. We EDITORIAL COMMENT have some reason to believe, however, that the officials responsible for the decision held, quite wrongly as IONGRATULATIONS to Sir John we think, that as the machines in question had been Alcock and his gallant companion designed by or for the Ministry and that the latter had in the Atlantic flight, Sir A. Whitten assisted the constructors with public funds, it was Brown, on the well-deserved honour not fair to other competitors who lacked that assist- conferred upon them by His Majesty ance to allow the machines in question to compete. the King. It was a knightly deed As we say, that reason has not been given officially, but M they compassed and knightly has " from information received " we gather that this was been their reward. Apparently the the view that led up to the action noted. If it really inspiration of the honour was the King himself, and is the reason, then we may say at once that it seems therein he has followed in the steps of his great to us to be a very lame one indeed. According to its predecessor on the throne of England, constitution, the Air Ministry exists in part for the OI1the Queen Elizabeth, who delighted thus encouragement of civilian aviation. The banned Brave *° honour those of her subjects who machines were certainly not needed for military accomplished great things to the glory • purposes at the moment, and it would have been of the country. It was thus she honoured Drake thought that, even if no other reasons existed, the at the end of his voyage round the world, and though Aerial Derby would have been an excellent oppor- his adventure occupied three years as against the tunity for trying out the new designs. Even if one 16 hours of the first direct Atlantic crossing in the or two of them had been crashed in the race, we are air, the" two are not so absolutely dissimilar as to not at war, and it would have been perfectly easy to preclude mention together. Drake went off in the have replaced them within a very short space of time. tiny, crazy ship of the time to explore the unknown As to the alleged solicitude of the Air Ministry for waters of the world, and achieved the surpassing feat competitors who had not the advantage of flying of being the first Englishman to circumnavigate the machines of the newest design and fitted with the
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