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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 1142.PDF
we should allow Germany to pioneer the movement towards established commercial services. One of the main essentials to the success the of civil aviation is> as we nave ^ways Airways insisted, good propaganda. The need for the proper kind of advertisement was well brought out at the recent Air Congress, and we are exceedingly glad to learn that the suggestions then made are likely to bear much good fruit. To begin with, it is fact that the existing aerial services are not as well patronised, either by the travelling public or the business community which conducts its affairs by letter, as we have a right to think they should be. The main reason for this is, we are convinced, a want of general knowledge of the facilit es available. In a casual sort of way a great many people know that such services exist, but the knowledge is not what we may, for want of a better term, call automatic. That is to say, the busy man who desires to get into communication as rapidly as possible with his client in Paris writes a letter which he " expresses " in the ordinary way. When he has left his office for the day it occurs to him that he could have got his letter to its destination sooner if he had sent it by air mail, but that he had quite forgotten such things are. The air mail has not become such an established part of our communi- cations that everybody can think of its advantages unless there is something to remind the individual of its existence. This is a temporary and passing phase, which will disappear in time, and the task which NOVEMBER 4, 1920 lies before those associated with the movement is to hurry on the time when it will no longer be necessary to employ the special reminder, so to say. As an outcome of the discussion which took place at the Congress, we are glad to learn that it is being arranged that experts in civil aviation shall pay a round of educational visits to business houses, get into touch with the heads of firms, and point out personally the advantages to be secured from a consistent use of aerial transport. There will be no attempt to solicit business either for individual air transport companies or for air transport at all. It will simply be that the expert wall sit by the desk of the head of the firm and explain to him how the use of the aeroplane and the airship must lead to increased business by reason of the shortening of the time necessary for inter-communication. The scheme is to be developed immediately, and the experts to be employed are to carry on with their task until every business house of importance has had a short verbal exposition of the important part which aerial communication is able to play in the relations between this country and the outside world. We are in the most cordial agreement with the scheme, which seems to us admirably conceived. If it is properly worked it cannot fail to produce the best of effects, for the reason that it will bring home to the business houses of the country, as nothing else could do, the wonderful speed and certainty with which air transport is now worked, and the enormous saving of time—which is money—to be effected through its use in commerce and travel. League of Nations and Aviation AFTER hearing M. Bourgeois' report on the work of the Permanent Advisory Committee on Military, Naval and Air questions, the Council of the League of Nations, at the concluding meeting of the Session at Brussels on October 28, admitted the necessity of watching, with special attention, for the possible transformation of commercial aviation into a system adapted for war. It was insisted that investigations in this matter must be made by experts. Air Work in Mesopotamia THE communique issued by the War Office on October 25 stated : " On the 21st ... a hostile force in position S.E. of Musaiyib . . . was bombed by aeroplanes and lost heavily." The communique of October 27 stated : " LOWER EUPHRATES.—On the 23rd aeroplanes bombed and fired on other concentrations with good effect, and they appear to have dispersed, as on the 24th aerial reconnaissance reported nothing of note in that quarter. " MIDDLE EUPHRATES.—Our aeroplanes successfully at- tacked enemy bands west and south-west of Hillah on the ' 23rd. Our picket at the Kufa Aerodrome was sniped on the - same date. The entrenched positions held by the insurgents on both banks of the river between Hillah and Jerboia were bombed by our aeroplanes." "•;.•.••.•.," The communiqut of November 1, stated : " Our aeroplanes have been active against hostile gatherings in the area S.E. of Kufa." A Model for the Prince THE model of a Handley Page, which won £2$ in the , junior section of the model-making competition organised by Messrs. Parsons and Sons, in connection with the War Seal Foundation, was on October 28 presented by its maker, Master J. R. Baker, to H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. . Aircraft Carrier as a Trooper -* A PEACE-TIME use for aircraft carriers is suggested by the announcement that the aircraft carrier " Vindictive " is now taking out to Gibraltar relief crews for the light cruiser " Ceres," the depot ship " Cormorant," the gunboat" Thistle," and other Naval units. She will bring back the relieved crews, and will then rejoin the Portsmouth reserve. The Seaplane-Carrier " Eagle" ON completion of her trials, the seaplane-carrier '' Eagle " is to proceed to Devonport, where she will be berthed pending arrangements for her to be taken in hand at a Royal dockyard. On arrival at Devonport she will be paid off in charge of a care and maintenance party and placed under the orders of the Rear-Admiral, Reserve Fleet. German Aerodromes to be Retained THE Berlin correspondent of Handley Page, Ltd., reports that the Inter-Allied Aviation Commission, appointed under the Treaty of Peace, has consented to waive the destruction of the following military aerodromes : Breslau, Gandau, Brunswick, Fuerth, Grossenhain, Hamburg, Paderborn, Schleissheim, and Deveen, near Konigsberg. The following seaplane stations are also included : Kiel-Holtenau, Norder- ney, Warnemuende, and Lift, as well as the airship harbours of Nordholz, Seddin and Friedrichshafen-Lowenthal. Fifteen per cent, of the privately-owned aviation buildings which were used for military purposes during the War are also to be left standing. With very few exceptions, the airship halls are to be pulled down in accordance with the provisions of the Treaty of Peace. The Wright Patents in France THE French aviation industry seems to have its fair share of troubles. Now that the "joy stick" litigation is settled, at any rate for the moment, the owners of the French Wright Patents have secured from the Courts a' writ of attachment on some 3,000,000 francs, owing by the Minister of Finance to one of the French Constructors. The writ has since been modified as regards 300,000 francs of the total which the firm requires immediately for development purposes. A Hitch Over the Riga Service FROM Konigsberg, according to The Times Berlin corre- spondent, comes a report that the German aeroplane D 43, while making a trial flight between that place and Riga, preparatory to being employed in civil ^aviation service by the Deutsche Luftreederei, has been detained at Konigsberg by an officer of the Inter-Allied Control Commission, on the ground that it is really a war machine falsely described. The company is reported to have lodged a protest to the German Government. Poles Bombing Lithuanians r - • -..-•• ., . ;• A PRIVATE report from Vilkomir, 40 miles north-east of Kovno, states, according to The Times correspondent at the latter place, that a Polish aeroplane on Oct. 31 dropped two bombs on the town, killing and wounding 25 persons and destroying two houses. •.:»• -,._'..- - 1144
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