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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 1106.PDF
Suggestions for Future Development of Air Services In the third and last part of his paper, Sir Frederick Sykes said :—• " In urging the establishment of air services within these islands we must face the fact that commercial aviation cannot enter into competition by day only with an efficient day and night express railway service. Possible exceptions might include amphibian services between London and Dublin, accelerating the delivery of mails five or six hours ; or between Glasgow and Belfast, where the Clyde and Belfast harbours could be used as the terminals." " In Continental countries also air transport has to compete against railway systems, but the distances between centres of population and industry are more suited to the operation of air services and the railway network is less perfect than in England. The position of Germany and Austria is very favourable to the development of air services. Berlin is within a 350-mile radius of Copenhagen, Cologne, Munich, Vienna and Warsaw, while Vienna is in an advantageous situation as the junction for a south European system extend- ing to the Balkan States and the Near East. In the United States the distances are such that aeroplanes, flying by day only, can in many cases effect considerable saving of time. The New York-San Francisco mail service, for instance, should save about two days in the delivery of letters. But though the area of the United Kingdom does not allow of internal long distance flights essential for obtaining the full value from aircraft, its insular position is by no means un- favourable to the establishment of air services to the Continent, whereby the sea passage and the loss of time entailed in changing from ship to train can be saved. Until night flying is safer and longer distances can be flown continuously, we must ensure the maintenance of the existing services to the Continent and promote others on the same lines. Not only Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam but the Scandinavian countries and the north German ports, and to the south, Spain and Portugal, should be linked up with England by British air services." " We have, however, to consider commercial aviation, not only from the Continental, but from the Imperial, point of view. Here we have the long distances favourable to aircraft, but England is detached, either by the ocean, or foreign territory, from the nearest dominion or possession. In the one case the range is too great for aeroplanes, in the other they are dependent on foreign landing grounds. The key-routes in the Imperial system are those from England to Egypt, and Egypt to India, and we should see whether the airship is capable of running a commercial day and night service on the former." (' When the political difficulties of Syria and Mesopotamia have somewhat subsided, we shall be able to complete the preliminary organisation of the route from Egypt to India which has recently been checked." " The onus of linking up the Empire by air must not rest upon Great Britain alone. Each dominion and colony must form its own nucleus of air development and thus help gradu- ally to build up the complete system." " Large rivers are adaptable to flying boat services, especi- ally as they have the great advantage of visibility by night, and the consideration of a project for such a service on the Nile was only given up owing to the disturbances in Egypt. A practical scheme is also under consideration for an air service from Melbourne to Sydney, Adelaide and Hobart in Tasmania. The distances between the various stopping places are not 30 great as to overtask the capacity of modern aircraft, and should afford an excellent criterion of the value ol aircraft as a mail and passenger carrier." In conclusion, General Sykes said : " Let us have no illusions about the difficulties confronting civil aviation. Never has the need of national retrenchment been greater, and it is clear that financial stringency will increase rather than diminish. But economy which is blind to the demands and possibilities of progress is no true economy, and I firmly believe that a reasoned policy of financial encour- agement toward productive services will in the long run prove an infinitely more profitable investment than others which have taken place. Without such encouragement, the air transport industry, which is yet in its infancy, may wilt, and by reason of the unimaginative correctitude of British policy, not only may one of those opportunities which do not recur be lost, but we will have to face the almost complete disintegration of the expert designing and con- struction staffs built up during the War, and the potential loss to the Royal Air Force of what the Mercantile Marine is in emergency to the Navy." " Progress has never yet been effected by a policy of/i ca' canny,' and it is of small avail for us to mark time on the OCTOBER 21, 1920 off chance of being able to profit by the experience of more imaginative countries. We are in many ways in a better position than any other country in the world. We possess the best pilots, designers and constructors, the highest tech- nical skill and the most practical authorities, and, if I may say so, a Department of Civil Aviation which could hardly be more economically run. We have carriedout the great pioneer flights of the world, and in the Empire as a whole exist the most favourable field for the development of air transport. What we still need is visible and public support; the imagina- tion to take a bird's-eye view of the future blended with the British characteristic to persevere in the present." THE DISCUSSIONA number of speakers contributed to the discussion which followed the reading of Sir Frederick Sykes' paper. • Sir William Joynson- Hicks said he would like to see the Postmaster-General ask for a tender from aircraft firms to carry the whole of the country's first class mail by air. In his opinion it would be a sound form of subsidy to concentrate on the carriage of all mail by air. There was another point that he would like to emphasise, i.e., the importance of Egypt. He thought that in the future the centre for air lines to Africa, India and Australia would be Egypt, and for that reason, as well as from an Imperial point of view, he would like to lay stress on the importance of maintaining our control of that country. - «\. ,_. ... Lieut.-Col. Moore-Brabazon put in a plea for greater development of and assistance from meteorology. He said it seemed to him that the weather was the function of an unknown variable, and pointed out that it appeared extraordinary that we were able to forecast an eclipse of the moon 40 years ahead, but were unable to say if it would rain this afternoon. In his opinion not enough attention was paid to electricity in its relation to the weather. We all knew that it was not until the apple dropped on Sir Isaac Newton that he thought of the force*of gravity. Pro- - bably our meteorologists would not think of electricity until one of them was struck by lightning. He said that he had no doubt that some day we should be able to use aircraft to control weather* Experiments on precipitating rain by means of dust had already been tried, and although success had not yet attended these experiments, he thought that before long it would be possible to do so. Sir Alan Anderson (Chamber of Shipping) ""** * said he thought one of the reasons for commercial aviation not paying was that most of the work accomplished up to the present had been done with military machines, and that to run services with such types was not a commercial pro- position. He also pointed out that it was not reasonable to expect shipping firms to take an interest in aviation until they could be reasonably sure of it promising to pay. He called attention to the possibilities of airships for commercial air services over sea routes or over land routes of long duration. Mr. Holt Thomas expressed the hope that one result of the Air Conference might be that the Cabinet would support civil aviation. He pointed out the attitude in France where recently a high authority had said that the master of the world will be he who is master of the air. Personally he was opposed to subsidies, he said, and much preferred a system of " Payment for services rendered." He felt sure that if the Government could be persuaded to send all mail by air this could be done for a surcharge of no more than \d. per letter. To do so. however, was a matter for a Cabinet decision. Mr. Iwstone said that commercial aviation had had much nursing from the Air Ministry, but that it also needed a tonic from the Govern- orient. As representing a commercial firm, free to buy its machines in the open market, he had had some experience of commercial aviation, and his experience led him to regard it as a commercial failure. Even if- the machines always carried full load, arid in practice this ideal was seldom attained, the services did not pay. "He would suggest that as machines can be converted into bombers, the greatest problem was that of trained personnel, and that the Government could render assistance by farming out its pilots to transport companies. He also thought it might be possible to give commercial aviation companies the free use of aerodromes. With regard to insurance, he thought it might be possible for the Govern- ment to arrange to insure aircraft at a figure which, while being reasonable, would just pay the Government without leaving a profit, somewhat after the fashion of the Govern- ,tnent insurance of ships during the War, except that in the latter case he thought the Government made a handsome profit out of their insurance. Finally he emphasised that the II08
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