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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0826.PDF
of the " Baby " type is far and away greater than that which will look to the high-powered aeroplane as a means of personal travel. Without the slightest desire to belittle the performances of the bigger machines, we cannot help regarding Saturday's race as a triumph for the " little fellows." There is another aspect of the race to which, with the indulgence of the reader, we cannot help referring once more. We cannot estimate the numbers who actually saw the machines in flight, but we do know that every vantage point on the circular course had its crowds, every individual of which was intent upon the doings of each machine and who followed the event with intelligent interest. If there is anyone who had doubts as to the measure of public interest in aviation, he had only to betake himself to any of the chosen viewpoints on the course and he would have been converted instantly. As a matter of fact, we believe the public takes a great deal more interest than is generally believed by many inside the movement. It is true that the attendances at the recent Show tended to an opposite belief, but it should be remembered that to the man in the street an aeroplane standing inert under a glass roof has no particular appeal. The science is too new for the lay mind to properly appreciate the methods which are adopted to " make the wheels go round," and it will be a long time before the public understand as much about the aeroplane as they do about the car. The former is still, in spite of the War, something of a scientific curiosity— a practical one, it may be, but still a curiosity. It is quite different in the case of the machine in the air. Then it is in action—pulsating with life and possessed of all the appeal which is absent when it is merely figuring as an exhibit at the Show. That is why such events as the Aerial Derby have such an enormous propaganda value. They show actual performance, which is all the average person is able to appreciate as yet. He is scarcely concerned with the why and wherefore, which is beyond his ken. Later he will know and then Shows will interest him more. As it is we believe profoundly in the value to the movement ot the?e circuit races, and wish sincerely there were many more of them. The Post Office Coining into Line A most welcome announcement was made recently, by the Postmaster- Generdl, to the effect that as and from Monday last the extra postage for letters carried by the London-Paris air mail would be reduced from 2S. to 2d. per ounce. The fee of 6d. per packet in respect of letters designed for express delivery will still be charged. We congratulate the postal authorities on this evidence of enterprise and appreciation of the real possibilities of aerial mail transport. Doubtless the decision noted is mainly a result of the' recent report of the Advisory Committee on Civil Aviation, which urged that "the comparative failure of the aerial mail service had not resulted from any defect of the service as such, but because of insufficient advertisement; the inconvenience experienced by the public in being unable to post air mail letters except at certain certified post offices, and the prohibitive charges made. We are also inclined to give some of the credit for this more progressive policy to the Press, which has con- sistently urged the Postmaster-General to adopt a more enlightened view of the possibilities of the new JULY 29, 1920 transport. The plain fact of the matter is that public opinion has been moved to an extent which has made the Post Office authorities " sit up and take notice." However, we are not so much con- cerned now with motive's as with policy. For the latter we have nothing but praise. There is not the slightest doubt about the financial side of the matter when the Post Office adopts such rates as these new ones. The business community is only too anxious to take every advantage of quicker communications, but it cannot be expected to pay prohibitive rates,, for the convenience. A point which does not seem to have appealed to the authorities until just now is that a business house having relations with France does not send one letter a week—the number may run into hundreds. Even a small surcharge may .• make a very substantial addition to the year's /•' postage bill, but when it comes to such charges as --•- half-a-crown per letter the proposition may easily ;";••' mean an addition of many hundreds per annum and be quite impossible. |-:" We must be thankful for the mercies which are vouchsafed to us, but without any desire to appear -. ungrateful lor what is' really a very handsome Ic~ concession, we still look forward to the time, in the •;. very near future, when all first-class mail matter -:- between England and France, Belgium and Holland, 1 as well as between the more remote cities of the ^ United Kingdom, will be automatically carried— .•;? at the present fees it should be so carried now— by airship or aeroplane at ordinary postal rates. On the figures which are available there is no reason • in the world why it should not be and pay a sub- stantial profit into the bargain. However, we cannot . ;\ have everything all at once, and must rest content ":;•; with what we have for the moment. The matter, - nevertheless, must not be allowed to drop out of • sight, and those who are anxious for progress must :"., continue the mild agitation which has had its first result in the reduction of the Anglo-French postage rates. - ..•..•.... -•:;-_.:•••-~'~.:-v- . .•• • -.-'.• -r: .•"•-..:.' American Air Mail Contracts The Washington Government Printing Office has sent us the conditions on which the United States' Postmaster- General is inviting tenders for the carriage of mails by aeroplane or seaplane. These conditions strike us as being eminently reasonable, and might well be taken as a pattern by our own authorities. They do not, for example, contain such stipulations as those governing the tenders for the Dutch service, in which the postal authorities insist that, in case of failure of machines, the contractor must hire other means of transport, and in addition be penalised for lateness of arrival. The American Post Office appears to be actuated by a sincere wish to encourage and foster civil aviation and to work on the assumption that, in the case of a new transport, some latitude must be allowed in the initial stages. It will not pay for uncompleted trips. That is logical and not unfair. It allows 15 per cent, of uncompleted trips without extra penalty, and for each failure in a month over that percentage it exacts a penalty of twice the pay for a completed trip, which does not strike us as being outrageous. But the condtions are even better than they appear in this direction, for the Post Office will pay, in the case of an uncompleted trip, pro rata for the air-line distance between stated stations provided that the mail reaches the post 828
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