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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1616.PDF
to a success that is a milestone_in the evolution of travel. Vague and Erroneous Notions Yet how do the men and women who people this world to-day grasp the bare idea of it ? But dimly, if we are to search the records of the thousands of periodicals which are teeming from the press and are issuing accounts of, and comments on, the feat. Most are tied to the idea of comparison with water travel. That leads them astray alike as to the present accomplishment and future achievement of aviation. Most count the days from port to port, and so unduly belittle aerial travel. Many even go the length of forecasting, as is reasonable, the speed ing up of ocean-going travel by some 50 per cent, at some future time. But these both forget that the science and practice of flight is also in advance, and fall into the obvious error of imagining that aerial travel must always be undertaken in precisely the fashion in which this entirely experimental pioneer journey from Europe to the Continent of -Australia has been made. Of course, there is nothing to justify that assumption. Indeed, everything indicates that in long-distance work, even in the near future, aerial travel will differ from ocean travel as much in method as that does for the making of journeys by railroad. We know that it is a matter of months only before landing-grounds with expert permanent staffs shall be established on a scheme already arranged for linking up the Empire and the principal countries of the world. We have always known that at any given time different parts of the globe experience markedly contrasted climatic con ditions. Aerial travel being so much faster than any known method of journeying by land or water, it follows that in flying half round the globe in a period which, we see, can be counted in terms of hours, it is neither practicable nor necessary for the same crew and machine to make the given journey from start to finish. Even on relatively short rail way journeys in this country engines are uncoupled en route, and others coupled up to draw the train along the next stage ; yet your engine-driver has no navigating to do. He has not even to steer. Already it is assured that in the much more exact ing work of piloting aircraft, the personnel, and even the machines, will be employed in flying certain stages only of the given long route. For one thing, that way you eliminate the fatigue factor as regards the personnel, and you enable each crew to learn their section of the given route like a lesson from a book. There is nothing impractical in employing machines • on the relay system. Passengers and loads, such as EI III London-Berlin Flight A COMMERCIAL Handley Page, carrying five British civilians, landed at the Allgemeine Elektricitats-Gesell- gchaft's aerodrome at Spandau on the morning of December 10, coming from London vid Cologne, reported The Times .corre spondent in Berlin. The passengers are staying in Berlin pending a decision by the German authorities as to whether they shall be allowed to continue their flight to Warsaw. Ex-Soldiers to Learn Flying in Tasmania THE Australian Government's encouragement of civil flying will include free instruction for returned soldiers taking up commercial flying, says the Daily Mail correspondent in Hobart, Tasmania. Numerous companies are forming passenger and commercial air services, both home and inter- State. He adds that many aeroplanes have armed, mostly Sopwiths. • A New French Prize AT a general meeting of the Aero Club of France on De- 16 DECEMBER 18, 1919 mail matter, are quickly and easily passed from one machine to another. Therefore there is nothing visionary in Mr. Douglas Vickers' forecast of a relay aerial mail service between the Motherland and the Commonwealth in seven days. It does not even call for better aircraft and engines than are available at this hour. Principle of the Independent Third Arm The year draws to a close with a manifestation of aerial enterprise which is of more moment to our time than to posterity, because it concerns our immediate problems of national security. Our aerial arm cannot be all that we would wish to make it forthwith, because the financial burdens of the period are already wellnigh insupportable. But, if in cutting our suit according to our cloth we adopt the right principles, we shall have nothing to lament. FLIGHT is concerned with aviation, not with politics, nor with that inevitable outcrop of them, inter- Service intrigue. Most of the daily prints have not sufficient knowledge to give as clear a perspective as students of aeronautics possess concerning the potentialities of our movement, while over many of them, faced with the problems of how to divide national expenditure between the three arms, have little knowledge of the proved effectiveness and possibilities of the youngest, hence they cannot con ceive of it as being a thing apart from either of the older services. These are the circumstances in which the nation owes a debt of gratitude to Vice-Air- Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard for the scheme he has just evolved to a cost limit which necessity imposes. Whatever faults it may have when viewed in this light or that, fundamentally it is the only desirable scheme, because it is based on the Air Service being the Third Arm, independent, yet ever ready to co operate. It is the duty of every man and woman interested in aviation alike to welcome the scheme, and by talking to their fellow-citizens, to educate them to an appreciation of the correctness of its basic principle. Service instinct apart, it is un reasonable to expect that either sailors or soldiers can yet understand the role of aviation in national defence of the present and near future. We have much to fight for, even before the public in general shall become sufficiently educated in the matter ; the situation being the more complicated, in that sections of the general Press may be described as tied houses, wherein the advocates of aviation may present their views either partially, or not at all. Hence the need for a strong and influential technical Press ; and for all enthusiasts to carry on, each as he can make occasion, the all-important work of championing. H H cember 5 M. Soreau announced the creation of a new prize of 100,000 francs. The regulations are now under con sideration. To Map the Sahara IN connection with the aerial survey of the Sahara which is to be made by three French aces, Commandant Vuillemin and Lieut. Dagneau arrived at Algiers on Decem ber 2, having flown the 550 kiloms. from Alicante in 2 hour? 40 mins. They will also investigate the possibilities of Unking up the different French posts in the desert areas by means of aerial services. Across the Mediterranean AT one time flying across the Mediterranean was con sidered somewhat of a feat; now it is all in the day's work of the French aviation service. On December 5 one squadron of seaplanes under Lieut. Lefranc left St. Raphael for Dakar, and another, under Lieut. Guerre, left the same place for Algiers and Bizerta. 18
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