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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0966.PDF
a sincere desire to do the best possible for aviation in all its branches. Moreover, the Air Minister himself is no mean judge of the Value of publicity. We look forward, therefore, to a large measure of success in connection with the Congress. As we said must undoubtedly be the Petrol case, the recent increase in the price Prices of petrol has proved to be a very severe Aviation blow to aviation. It has fallen at a time when aviation is just beginning te emerge from the pioneer stage, and is being carried on under conditions which are not, and have not been, at all favourable to its development. If we take the case of the services operating from London, we find that they have been conducted on a very small margin of profit, yet if they are to keep going they cannot increase their charges for passengers or freight except as a very last resource and when they are absolutely compelled to do so. What the new prices mean to aviation companies is shown by figures given by Messrs. Handley Page in connection with the London-Paris service. The increase of yd. per gallon, quite unjustifiably added by the petrol companies, means an addition of over £8 to the cost of the return journey. Other companies suffer in proportion, and it is difficult to see how ' their enterprises are to be carried on without an increase in charges. The latter have been made as low as possible in order to tempt travellers to take advantage of the facilities offered by aerial transport, and just as the public were getting used to it the petrol companies have chosen to throw this latest bomb into the camp. Unfortunately, the industry is helpless in the hands of the Trusts. We do not and cannot for years to come produce even a moiety of the fuel we require to keep our transport services in being, and must, as a consequence, con- tinue to be dependent upon overseas supplies, which are controlled at their source by aliens who care for nothing but their own pockets. It is of little avail to talk about alcohol as a substitute for petrol. The plain truth is that we cannot produce it commercially at all, and when overseas supplies are developed we shall be very much in the same case as we are to-day in relation to petrol—dependent upon the grace of those who con- trol the sources of supply. So far as we are able to see, our only hope in the meanwhile is to accept the suggestion ol our sister journal, the AUTO, and promote immediate legislation for the compulsory carbonisation of every ton of coal brought up in order that the volatiles may be recovered instead of being dissipated irtto the atmosphere through a million chimneys. If that were done, we could produce the greater proportion of the fuel we need, so long as the coal measures last, and by the time these are exhausted it is quite possible—even probable —that science will have discovered some new source of power which will render us completely independent of all outside supplies of fuel for power-raising. In a leading article The Times recently Open formulated the suggestion that the timeE ^ntory ^a~s CQme wlien machinery should be Accidents created for carrying out proper en- quiries into the cause of accidents to aircraft and for the publication of reports thereon. We agree generally with the view,- though we cannot say we are exactly in accord with The Times' sugges- SEPTEMBER 9, 1920 tion for giving force to it.. This suggestion is that the work should be done by the Ministry of Transport. " We should be reluctant," says The Times, "to.pro- vide a pretext for the creation of a new Government Department, with a new army of officials ; but there is no need for this. The Inspectors of Railway Accidents, now passed from the Board of Trade to the Ministry of Transport, have full experience of the kind of enquiry that is useful, and the machinery for making it exists. At the most, a single new assistant with some knowledge of motors and aeroplanes is all that is required. His business will not be to suggest improvements in construction, but to observe, classify and report." In so far as the question of enquiry into accidents is concerned, The Times does not appear to know that much better machinery already exists than it advocates, in the Accidents Investigation Committee of the Royal Aero Club, to say nothing of the expert knowledge available at the Air Ministry, which has an Accidents Investigation Branch. Nothing that seems desirable to The Times is lacking but -the statutory power to make public reports. The Air Navigation Bill, which should pass through both Houses before the end of the session, can easily, if it be thought desirable, be amended by the addition of a simple clause giving the same statutory authority to publish reports on accidents as was given to the Board of Trade by the Regulation of Railways Act, 1871. It should be said that The Times, in the • article under discussion, included in a common . category accidents to both road and air transport. As to the former, we have a perfectly open mind in the matter. If it should be generally agreed'that every accident on the highways should be made the subject of enquiry, then the Ministry of Transport is the proper authority to conduct such enquiries. It may be remarked in passing that if this is the idea, the " single new assistant with some knowledge of motors " is likely to be a very busy person indeed. So far as aerial accidents are concerned we entirely disagree with the idea that the inspectors of railway accidents, even with the assistance of the new single assistant aforesaid, should hive anything to do with" enquiries. They are experts in railway matters, and may have a very sound knowledge of road trans- port vehicles and conditions, but they are very Jar from being experts in aeroplane or airship construc- tion or navigation. We have not yet arrived at the stage of development in aerial navigation when the unquestionably valuable quality of the judicial mind and the ability to weigh up , witnesses is all that is necessary to arrive at proper conclusions regarding accidents. Something much more is re- quired, which can only be supplied by a close and really expert knowledge of aircraft construction and flying conditions. That, we submit, is only possessed by those who are already charged with enquiry into accidents to aircraft.' Moreover, we are most absolutely opposed to the idea of the Ministry of Transport having anything to do, directly or in- directly, with aviation. To bring the new transport under its plighting influence, in any shape or form, would be the last straw. It has made a mess of" everything that has come within its scope, and nobcdy has the smallest faith in its capacity to do anything but collect statistics. It is not as though aviation had no department of its own. The Air Ministry exists to, among other duties, administer the laws and regulations under which aerial navigation i-s 968
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