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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0062.PDF
construction of experimentaljaircraft and engines in which are embodied all the lessons learnt in the Great War. Mr. Holt Thomas puts the sum at a million a year, which he thinks would be sufficient, spread over the principal designing firms, to enable the latter to retain their staffs. If such a compara- tively trifling sum—which should rightly be regarded as an insurance premium—were spent on producing machines and engines to be immediately sent to the scrap-heap, it would be well expended if they were scrapped to set about the designing of something better. The essential point, as he says, is that design would be maintained. - . - • • • • The question of personnel is quite in another category. FLIGHT has urged Question £or iong enough that there is only one Personnel wav m which the pilots and mechanics to fill the cadres of the fighting air service in case of emergency can be provided, and that is by the immediate and definite encouragement of civil aviation. Other countries are doing it. France is paying so much per kilometre commercially flown, and is, in addition, undertaking to find enough official pupils to keep recognised flying schools in a healthy condition. Germany is going all out for aerial supre- macy. She already has 7,000 miles of organised aerial routes. She has established an Airmens' Union—to which we have referred more than once—to enable ex-service pilots to keep closely in touch with one another and with their old headquarters. She has also established an Air Fleet Union, analogous to the Navy League, the aims of which are to foster interest and enthusiasm regarding aerial power among the people. Even before the War, this Air Fleet Union had a membership of over a million, and it is believed to be a great deal larger now. Furthermore, she is organising a scheme of aerial propaganda in the schools, in order that the young Huns shall be fully acquainted with the possibilities of air power. And, in the meantime, what is our own Government, pace all its promises of " encouragement," doing to foster a vital industry and to create and maintain the essential public interest in aviation ? Very little indeed that appears. As we have more than once said, the Government seems to be groping in the dark for a policy, what time progress is at a stand- still, and the industry goes from bad to worse, so far as the construction of aircraft is concerned. It is not that the industry wants charity. It does not, for it has plenty of business to keep it occupied in other directions. Mr. Holt Thomas himself observes that, in order to make money for his own shareholders, it is quite unnecessary to construct new aircraft, as his company's factories are engaged in work of another kind, for which there is a great demand. That is to say, it matters nothing, from the purely business point of view, whether the Governmeat has or has not an aerial policy. It is not orders for new aeroplanes the industry wants, except that those who have pioneered it and have seen the country and its Allies through the dark days of the War, are better able than most to realise what the maintenance of our aerial supremacy means to the country and the Empire. It is not a matter of pounds, shillings and pence at all. These men realise well that war in the air will be a very terrible thing when it comes, and that the country which neglects to prepare now must go down before the onslaught of a powerful opponent JANUARY 15, 1920 whose vision has been clearer. They know that aviation is a very different thing to what it was in 1914, when it was still in swaddling clothes and was, from the military point of view, merely a side-show and an accessory. Today it has become a decisive factor in war. Given a blow struck suddenly and of full weight, there need be no setting in motion of armies or fleets—the whole fate of a great nation will have been decided by the first terrific blow from the air. Are we to " wait and see " until it is perhaps j too late, or are the Government going to redeem their stated policy and tell us what they intend to_ do to keep alive an industry upon which the fate of the whole Empire may one day depend ? Let us at least know where we stand in this matter. • • • ••- •'•'•'• In another article we have called atten- , ^Why Not tjon £O tne actiOn of Germany in begin- ning air propaganda in the elementary schools. There are some directions in which we can profit even by the example of our late enemy, and :\- here, we think, is one. If the future generation is to. fully appreciate all that is bound up in air power,, we must begin its education early, since even by the generation which has but just come through a great war, the real meaning of air power is imperfectly understood. Germany knows this, and is taking the necessary steps to educate its rising generation in all that is meant by supremacy in the aerial arm. We should like very much to see the same sort of - propaganda work carried out here, but we fear there is little hope of securing official recognition for such commonsense procedure. There is not a great deal to be expected in a country in which it is not officially permitted to fly the national flag over elementary schools on such an anniversary as Empire Day ! There being, as we have said, very little hope of an official lead, it must remain for private enterprise to fill the gap. Apropos, we have received a letter from a valued correspondent, who does not wish to have his name mentioned, in which he advocates the formation of a body of " Air Scouts." After pointing to the splendid work which has been done in connec- tion with the Boy Scouts organisation, and also by . the " Sea Scouts," he goes on to say : " Now that the Air Force has taken its proper place among the fighting Services of the Crown, it is not too much to expect, I hope, to see an Air .Scout organisation ; formed in the near future ; the objects of such an organisation being to foster the " air spirit," and to bring up the youth of the nation in the traditions of the R.A.F. Incidentally, model aeroplane com- petitions should prove to be a great stimulus in training." The idea seems to us to be altogether admirable in its conception. It remains now for some senior officer of the R.A.F. to enact.the rMe which has been so ably filled by Sir R. Baden-Powell in the organisa- tion of the Boy Scouts. We need not dilate upon the need which exists for educating our youth in the overwhelming importance of air power to the Empire. That is too obvious to require more than merelv stating to point the need for such an organisation as that suggested by our correspondent. • • • In a recent issue of The Times a corres- Cairo-Ca pondent discusses the possibilities of Air Route the air route from Cairo to the Cape, and points out some of the climatic difficulties which will have to be encountered in 60
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