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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0748.PDF
the active Air Force would cost far too much money for^an impoverished and cruelly taxed country to afford. Still less can we afford to again take the appalling risks that so nearly landed us in disaster in^the late war, and if there were no other way we should have to face the expenditure and create such an Air Force as would secure us against all possibility of overwhelming attack by the air. It is not neces- sary, however, if the Government will take the advice of its own Committee and lay down a solid, continuous policy which will result in building up such a reserve as we have always argued is the minimum with which we can rest content and secure against aggression. As we have said in another article, there is a powerful party in Germany which looks forward to revenge. Nothing could so encourage that party to persevere in its aims and to make the attempt to achieve them by surprise as the know- ledge that this country was unprepared either to resist aggression or to punish it with interest. Noth- ing, on the other hand, would act as so powerful a deterrent as the knowledge that the game was not worth the candle, and that any attempt to break the peace would be visited with punishment instant and adequate. Mr. Harper, who acts as technicalsecretarv to the Civil Aerial TransPort Committee, is doing excellent propa- ganda work in the columns of the Daily Mail, particularly in relation to the question of the car- riage of mails by aeroplane. In a recent article he points out that as a result of the international postal conference in Madrid there is strong reason for the belief that before long it will be announced that international postal charges, so far as concerns the Continent of Europe, will be increased to 5^. per letter. He goes into figures to show that—the aeroplane now having proved itself safe and reliable— the Post Office should force all first-class mail matter into the air. This is a text which we ourselves have been preaching from for a considerable time past, and we are thus exceedingly pleased to see that so powerful an organ of opinion as the Mail is taking the same line. The article to which we have referred shows that the average weight of first-class matter conveyed JULY 15, 1920 between this country and Paris represents a load of from 800 to 1,000 lbs. daily. Assuming it at the former figure, and sending it by air at the rate now quoted for bulk goods, viz., is. 3d. per lb., and reckoning, as the Post Office does, that 35 letters go to the pound, the charge for air transport works out at less than \d. per letter. This argues that the Post Office should be able to send all first-class matter by air from London to Paris at a cost well within the present fee of z\d. per letter, including all costs of despatch and handling. All the charges for boat and train would be saved, and even after paying for aerial transport at 100 miles an hour, with its consequent saving of time, and incidentally the encouragement of the aircraft industry which would accrue, there would still be a margin of -zd. per letter to pay for connections between aerodromes and cities and for costs of delivery. All the facilities exist. The machines fly regularly day after day, and all the Post Office has to do is to send its vans to the air port to deliver or pick up the mails. Mr. Harper asks the very pertinent question : If it pays air transport companies to carry goods in bulk at the reduced rates they are now quoting—and it is to be assumed that it does—why should they not be given G.P.O. mails to carry in bulk at the same rates ? If this were done we could have air-mail transport to the Continent without any extra fees or formalities at all. Mails in bulk at the ordinary postage rates would simply be taken and put into the aeroplane as being a faster vehicle than the train. This is what is being done in America to-day. We confess we cannot give the answer. We our- selves have been hammering away at the self-same problem for a very long time past, but, like all Government Departments, the Post Office is hard to move. The official method is to find a comfortable rut and proceed along it, deviating neither to the left nor to the right. Change of outlook, or alteration in method, is an abomination, and thus we see that nothing is or can be done except under the heaviest pressure from outside. When the business community insists that the mails shall be carried by air, and the P.M.G. is told by his Cabinet colleagues that unless his Department does something there is danger of the Government losing votes, we shall get the mails into the air. That is the way we are coming to regard the matter. African Flyers Honoured ; IT was announced in a supplement to the London Gazetteon July 13, that the King has been pleased to approve of the following rewards in recognition of the valuable servicesrendered to aviation in the experimental flight (Vickers-Vimy- Rolls machine), organised by The Times newspaper, in anattempt to fly from England to South Africa. The flight com- menced at Brooklands, Surrey, on January 24, 1920, andended at Tabora (2,628 miles from Cairo) on February 26, 1920, at which point the attempt to continue the flight toCape Town had to be abandoned. The Air Force Cross Capt. FRANK CROSSLEY GRIFFITHS BROOME, D.F.C., late Royal Air Force. Capt. STANLEY CoaKERELL, late Royal Air Force. The Air Force Medal8085 S./M. 1 JAMES WYATT, late Royal Air Force (Engineer).Mr. CLAUDE CORBY, Aeroplane Rigger (Messrs. Vickers, Ltd., Aviation Department). The R.A.F. in Mesopotamia and Persia IN the House of Commons recently, Mr. Churchill gave the following figures regarding the Royal Air Force inthe Middle East:— . : Mesopotamia. N.W. Persia. On March 28 -.,»>. • ^. 49 officers 4 ; 548 other ranks 13 318 natives -.•.:.'• ^Sf, • On June 14 (latest return) 75 officers -^ "5 : ; - .„_..: :::y..--:,.• 562 other ranks 26 "•* ' • ••- "-•• - 307 natives 6 These numbers do not include followers.. .n ••, , u< ..--.>, ..„--^i,--V- The Gift to South Africa - T ?• •;•••• THE aircraft presented by the Imperial Government to the Union of South Africa, comprises one hundred and twelve aeroplanes and four airships of which the aggregate value is given as £1,750,000, together with aeroplane material and accessory vehicles. Italy's Share of German Aircraft OF the German aircraft to be handed over to the Allies under the Peace Treaty, Italy's share of them are two Zeppelins, 100 aeroplanes, and 300 motors, loaded on 50 wagons, to be delivered by the Germans by the end of July. 74S
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