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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0153.PDF
MARCH 3, 1921 serious, yet the record of commercial flying is surprisinglygood. For 17 months up to September, per 1,000 people carried last year, the percentage of fatal accidents for aircraftwas .08, or one in 12,500, and the injuries .15, or one in 6,500 people. The chief difficulty to be solved is that of fog ; air navigationinstruments and wireless telephones are being developed, and directional wireless improved, permitting of the navigationof aircraft out of sight of landmarks and guides, equally well above the clouds or in a fog ; engines are being provedand developed for commercial work; stability is being studied, so that there will be a steady progress in safety andalso in reliability of aerial services. 5. Economy of Working. Lowest Possible Price for the amountof Service Rendered We next come to the very important question of the costof operation and its effect on efficiency in transport. As regards economy of working in the air, the war experiencewas purely retrograde, and so far from helping to develop economy, that quality had to be completely disregarded,and the first and only consideration was necessarily efficiency in air fighting. We still have hardly shaken off this warinfluence, but with the past two years there has been a steady improvement in the design of commercial aircraft, productiveof economy. For instance, in the paper which I read before the Air Conference you will see, on reference to the detailedstatements of costs, which I then presented, that war machines such as the Airco 9 and the " Bristol " Fighter cost to operateper ton mile about 85., whereas today there are machines available, such as the Airco 18, the Handley Page W.8, andthe " Bristol " io-seater, by which the cost has been reduced to about 3s. (id., that is, less than half. In considering the question of economy in operation wemust have regard to the effect of speed. In all forms of transport there are speeds which are economical, and anymcrease on these speeds means increase in cost of operation. The same applies in the air. The economical air figure isthe high one to which I have already referred of about 100 m.p.h. To examine the comparative cost of transport by air,land and sea, I have set out a short table which shoe's what it will cost to transport a ton of cargo on two journeys, oneshort, London to Paris (240 miles), the other longer, London to Marseilles (700 miles). I have also shown the cost perpassenger and the time occupied by the various modes of transport. London to Paris. 240 MilesGoods Passengers Method of Transit Cost perTime perCwt. Time Cost Train and boat . . — — 9 hrs. £3 16s.Do. Grand Vitesse .. 4 days us. gd. — — Do. Petit Vitesse . . 10 days 6s. gd. —• —Boat only . . . . — — — — Motor transport . . 30 hrs. 25s. — —Air transport . . .. 2J hrs. 55s. i\ hrs. £6 10s. London la Marseilles, 700 MilesTrain and boat . . — — 22 hrs. £- -is. Do. Grand Vitesse .. 8 days iys. bd. — —Do. Petit Vitesse .. 14 days gs. gd. — — Boat only .. .. 10 days 4s. 6d. 10 days £22 05.Motor transport . . 5 days 525. 6d. — — Airtransport.. .. 8 hrs. 1575. 8 hrs. £17 05. At a first glance it will be said that the cost of air transportis high, but you must consider cost in relation to the time occupied. That is, in the case of passengers, time is money,and the business man has so much time saved to devote to other business activities ; incidentally he reduces hisexpenses for hotels, meals, etc., by means of the shorter time used for a journey. It is important to bear in mind that whereas the older formsof transport have reached a point at which very little reduc- tion in cost of operation is possible, we are only at the beginningwith aircraft, and it should be possible to effect a gradual reduction. Take one item alone, the chief item, the cost ofrunning aircraft, that is the bill for petrol. This represents approximately one-third of the total running cost. Everypenny reduction per gallon in the price of petrol, or every point that can be saved by improvement of engine or aircraftdesign, will help towards reducing this very expensive item. The City and Aerial TransportI have addressed my remarks to the business man with the object of trying to show him that the air is an efficient modeof transport—if not at present the most efficient, and that »t is to his advantage to use. I do not suggest that aerialtransport will displace other forms of transport. Generally 153 speaking, the newer forms of communication have not dis-placed the old, but have become additional and complementary to them, and I think this will be so with the developmentof aerial transport. The business men in my audience may say : " Yes, weagree with all that you are saying : aerial transport has dis- tinct advantages over other forms of transport, and we shouldlike to use it. How can we do so ?" This brings us to the present-day position of British aerial transport, which, Imust frankly say, is regrettably unsatisfactory. What is the present position ? During the summer of last year it reallyappeared that aerial transport was getting firmly on its feet and that British aviation was leading the world. The firms who commenced operations immediately afterthe war and have been courageously carrying on up to the end of last year have had, with one exception, to drop outof the business. The financial reasons for their so doing arose mainly from matters other than were connected withthe carrying on of the aerial transport business. Last year two British companies carried on a regular service to andfrom Holland, and British material and pilots were exclusively employed. This year, so far as is known, no British companywill operate the service to Holland, but it will be carried out by a Dutch company using Dutch-built Fokker aeroplanes. Difficulty of Raising CapitalThe difficulty today is that of finding capital ; to find companies or people who will take a long enough view of thematter, and who can, and are prepared to finance the operation of the services. The Government has, very late in the day,promised to subsidise up to a total of £'60,000 for this year, but, while this would materially assist if firms were actuallyoperating, it is essential that capital be found to purchase the up-to-date commercial aeroplanes, which are necessary,and the designs of which are now ready for production, to run the services efficiently and economically and on a profitearning basis. In this connection, on behalf of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, of which I have the honour tobe Chairman, I have submitted a proposal to the Air Ministry that the Government should come forward at this junctureand place orders with our constructing firms for up-to-date commercial aircraft and engines, and that these aircraftshould be hired out to the operating companies on a basis to be agreed. The operating companies would naturallybe responsible for the full insurance of the aircraft, and the hire payments would no doubt give such a return to theGovernment as to protect them against loss on the transaction. In addition to this, the Government could have a call onthese machines for military purposes. Another advantage of such a step at this time, when unemployment is so wide-spread and the aircraft industry and its workers are so needful of support, is that it would create employment for aconsiderable number of workers not only in the construction of the aircraft but in the supply of the materials and com-ponents by other trades. This proposition appears to me to be practical and at the same time far better than payingdoles to unemployed, and also gives promise of placing aerial transport on a sound basis. Such a constructive step shouldbe handled boldly ; that is, enough machines should be purchased to enable British transport companies to enterafresh on the London-Paris and London-Brussels services, and also to open up the air routes to Copenhagen, Berlin,Marseilles and Madrid. If. say, 100 aircraft were ordered from several constructors at a cost of, say, £650,000, a largesum by way of wages will radiate through a number of trades, and a bold bid would be made for the maintenance of oursupremacy in the European airways. I would strongly urge that it is time that not only theGovernment, but the man with shipping interests, bankers, merchants and manufacturers should get down to this questionof aerial transport and see whether there is not good ground for their taking an active interest in it, not only from thepoint of view of the user, but from the point of view of the capitalist who is prepared to assist in its development. Commercial Aviation and National DefenceThere is an important national aspect to this question of commercial aviation which deserves the consideration of theBritish public and the Government. In times of peace it is obvious that we, as a nation, cannot afford more than acomparatively small standing Air Force. It follows, there- fore, that the only way in which we may have a reserveof air power is by the creation of commercial air fleets. A most important feature of maintaining a strong mercantileair fleet is the demands that will be made on our constructors for the design and supply of aircraft which can be continuallytried out by practical operation, and concurrently a steady development of the power of aircraft production, combined
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