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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1543.PDF
Flight, December 4, 1919 t=7A W [^— r ENGINEER. First Aero Weekly in the World Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion aae Transport OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM No. 571 (No. 49, Vol. XI.) DECEMBER 4, 1919 fWeekly. Price M L Pee* Pre*, 7*. Flight The Aircraft Engineer and Airships Editorial Office: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY', W.C a Telegrams: Truditur, Westcent, London. Telephone : Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free : United Kingdom .. *Bs. id. Abroad.. .. — 331. ad.* These rates are subject to any alteration found necessary under abnormal conditions 'European subscriptions must bt remitted in British current* CONTENTS PAGE I54S 1546 546 Editorial Comment General Seely and Air Policy Following It Up How to Get It Commercial Airships.. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..154 Flight—and the Men : Mr. J. D. North 1547 Eastbourne from the Air .. .. .. .. .. .. .... 1549 The U.S. Navy HS-tL and HS-aL Flying Boats 1550 Royal Aero Club: Official Notices .. .. 1553 Some Handley Page Commercial Flying Data . .. .. .. .. 1554 Flight Aspects of Supercharging. By B. Thomson 1555 Report on Variation of Horse-Power with Altitude and Compression Rati° 1559 Airisms from the Four Winds .. _ I563 The Royal Air Force „ 1567 Personals 156 In Parliament j56g Model Aeroplanes .. ., .. .. ., ,, .. .. ,, 157! Side-Winds .. .. ., ., ,, ., ., .. ., ,, 157-5 Company Doings .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 1574 DIARY OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS. Club Secretaries and others desirous of announcing the date of important fixtures are invited to send particulars for inclusion in the following list : Paris Aero Show. Dec. 19 to... Jan. 4,1920. July, 1920 1920 June 1 ... Aug. Sept. S.B.A.C. International Aero Exhibition at Olympia Air Ministry Competition (Small Type Aero planes) Air Ministry Competition (Seaplanes) Air Ministry Competition (Large Type Aero planes) TOR1AL, COMMENT •AVING resigned his position as Under- Secretary of State for Air for reasons which most right-thinking people fully agree with and endorse, Gen. Seely is pursuing the subject of the Govern ment's air policy with considerable pertinacity and skill. He gave private notice of a question to the Prime Minister recently, asking : " Whether the air policy of the Government in relation to the Air Ministry is the same as it was on November 14, GeneandSeeIyiQi7' when the present Lord Privy Seal Air Policy stated that the whole of the Air Service must be independent of either the Admiralty or the Army Council ; why the Secretary of State for War is now President of both the Army Council and the Air Council; and whether the Air Council is now independent of, or depended upon, the President of the Army Council." Mr. Lloyd George fenced with the question, and said that the air policy of the Government was the same as when Gen. Seely accepted the position from which he recently resigned. The Army Council, he said, had absolutely no control over the Air Force. Lord Hugh Cecil aptly interpolated that it was not independent of the President of the Army Council, which is, after all, the point now at issue. The Prime Minister's answer is most certainly far from satis factory. . To put it plainly, it is begging the question absolutely, and while we should hesitate to say that it was intended to be deliberately misleading, it was undoubtedly calculated to lead the unthinking off on a false trail. How on earth can the Air Force be completely independent of the Army Council when it is subject to the President of that Council ? The answer is too perfectly obvious to be missed—the Air Force and the Air Ministry are in the position of being merely departments of the War Office. We do not doubt either the ability or the bona fides of the present Secretary of State. To do so would be to ignore altogether his unquestionably great services to the State. But we do take exception to the duality of office, which must of necessity mean that either the War Office or the Air Ministry must suffer in conse quence of his being unable to allot sufficient time to the services of both. Nor can there be any two opinions as to which it is that is suffering. When we regard the fact that at the Air Ministry there seems to be an utter absence of policy, due to the want of a strong guiding hand, and then look at the War Office, where there is every indication of a vigorous policy at work, we are forced to the conclusion that Mr. Churchill finds that the work oi Whitehall occupies all his energies while that of Kingsway has to go by default. D
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