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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0610.PDF
body of well-informed and intelligent public opinion determined that the Empire shall not lose the safety which our incomparable Navy has hitherto assured • to us. Another object of the League, with which we are in the fullest accord, is to press for a complete separa- tion of the Air Service from any species of control by the War Office, and to reinstate the Air Ministry as a Department of State, with its own Secretary of State, Council and Service. At the same time, it advocates the creation of a liaison body to ensure co-ordination between all three of the Services. These, briefly, are the principal objects with which the League has been formed, and we venture to think they are such as will commend themselves to every intelligent citizen who has given the question of air power and the future of aerial navigation more than a moment's passing thought. The League sets out, under the happiest auspices. Among those who are associated with it in one form or another are many who have been very intimately concerned with the building-up of aerial supremacy as we knew it at the end of the War. It has a very strong executive committee, and its_ aims are right. Much, of course depends upon the manner in which the latter are pursued, and upon how its policy is translated into action. We feel assured, however, that there will be no lack of driving-power, and that the new League is destined to become a very powerful factor in the education of the public in the need that exists for keeping our Air Force up to a pitch of efficienc ' and strength commensurate with the needs of Imperial defence. It has every element in its constitution making for success, and we sincerely wish it well. «• * • Flying seems to have caught on in Aerial Canada, and to be going ahead very Progress fast The Canadian Air Board, with Canada rare vision, has been <mick to apply the lessons learned in the War to the needs of peace. It has established flying bases in Vancouver and at Alberta. At the first-named there is a fleet of flying-boats, to which are allotted the duties of fishery protection over the rivers and territorial waters, and of fire-patrols over the forest areas. Camp Borden, which was thfe principal Canadian air-training centre during the War, has been retained for similar peace-time activities, with administrative headquarters at the Air Board in Ottawa. Another flying-boat station is to be estab- lished on the shores of Lake St. John, where machines are to be used in a great prospecting scheme. A complete aerial survey of the Quebec timber-forests is to be carried out—an exceedingly interesting, and useful, development of the uses to which aircraft can be applied. Not the least interesting feature of the scheme of development is that the machines which are being used are principally those which were discarded at the end of the War as unusable surplus, and 100 of which were presented to Canada at the request of the Dominion Government, which certainly seems to have been possessed of a wider vision than our own. Another* use to which these machines are being put is the aerial photography of land, which is already being carried out for the large real estate companies. It is stated that a move- ment is on foot to make the aerial photograph the only legal pictorial representation of land, but there are many and obvious difficulties in the way of such a scheme. JUNE IO, 1920 These are but a few of the directions in which Canadian aviation is forging ahead. It is probably true to say that civil flying is more advanced in Canada than it is in any other overseas Dominion, or even at home. The main factor in this seems to be that the Government has taken hold of things in real earnest, and is actively supporting and encouraging the movement, instead of merely" talking about it. That is the whole difference in the position as com- pared with what is—or is not—being done here. In England we have to be content with pious assurances that at some time and in some shape the Government will really begin to assist the new transport to extricate itself from the initial difficulties which beset the path of all new enterprises which are imperfectly under- stood by the general public. In Canada the Govern- ment is acting, and leaving the talk to others. • • <•> - Radio-telephone stations are now in full T^fr^ working for the use of the London—Telephone T-, • ° , T , „ , .Control Paris and London—Brussels air routes, so it is announced by the'Air Ministry. There are stations at Croydon and Lympne on this side of the Channel. The French authorities have also established stations at St. Inglevert, Valenciennes, and Le Bourget, while' the Belgian Government is going to open one at Evere, the landing ground for Brussels. A wide extension of services is contem- plated for England, and stations are to be opened before long at Castle Bromwich, Didsbury and Renfrew, for the us^ of aircraft using the routes between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. The wireless control of all British stations, including those licensed on private aerodromes, will be carried out at Croydon. s It is good news to hear that all this work is being done to prepare the aerial routes of the country for safe navigation. Everything depends upon the facilities for communication between flying aircraft and the ground. Unless these are present and are of the best possible nature, we might as well cease to contemplate the possibility of running commercial services at all. It is only the latest developments in' wireless telegraphy and telephony that really make it possible to say that aerial transport is actually now in a position to compete on more or less level terms with older methods. The war, of course, was respon-. sible for a great deal of wireless progress—how much • has not even yet been disclosed. We know that the use of directional wireless had made great strides at the time of the conclusion of the Armistice, but great advances have been made since then, of which aviation is now beginning to reap the benefit. Then, wireless telephony, which is to the full as useful and necessary to travelling aircraft, has made as great progress and is approaching relative perfection. There seems to be no room for doubt that before long it will be possible to talk to America by wireless as easily as one can communicate between one London exchange and another over the wires. How useful wireless telephony can be to aircraft is illustrated by an incident which happened during the war, and which we do not think has been recorded in print. It concerns one of the earliest of British rigid airships, which was carrying out a flight over the North Sea within sight of the coast. It was noticed from a shore station that some thirty feet, as it turned out, of the upper keel was torn away from the structure, unknown to those in charge of the vessel. The latter were informed of the fact by wireless telephone, 610
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