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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0789.PDF
NOVEMBER 24, 1921 THE REQUIREMENTS AND DIFFICULTIES OF AIR TRANSPORT [UNDER above title a very able and instructive paper was read by Colonel Frank Searle, before the Royal Aeronautical Society on November 17. Unfortunately, lack of space prevents us from publishing the paper in full, as we should have liked to do. It is hoped, however, that the following abstracts will give the main points of the paper and enable those who were unable to attend the reading of the paper to follow the reasoned criticisms, and the suggested remedies for such short- comings as we have to admit are still hampering the progress of commercial aviation.---ED.] In his introduction, Col. Searle stated that, after three years of peace, we have sorrowfully, and perhaps shamefacedly, to acknowledge that we have not yet overcome and mastered the problem of serving mankind by air transport. It is, he said, our business to end this failure, and he suggested that the best way to begin is by visualising, as clearly as we can, what are the essential characters of the problem. The lecturer divided the requirements into three groups, the technical, the organisation, and the economic, and expressed the opinion that all these requirements can be met. " The ideal aeroplane," Col. Searle said, " must consist of an engine on which the undertakers of the transport service can rely, not only for steady work, but for long work, at a reasonable maintenance cost. The vehicle it propels, must take the maximum load, with the maximum comfort, the limitation in each case being the speed, certainty and safety, without which air transport can never become a commercial success. And the cost of both must be reasonable." After pointing out that at the moment there is not in universal use today, an engine which meets the requirements outlined, the lecturer called attention to the state which existed after the War, when firms were staffed by men whose training had been a War-time and War-conditions training, in which the question of cost did not arise, or did not, at any rate, assume the importance which it has in peace-time. The tendency of designers themselves, quite naturally, was also influenced b^ their experience having been gained in the design for Wai" purposes. Col. Searle referred to the conditions obtaining when he went into the business (which was about 12 months after air transport had been established). He was then told by an authority that an aeroplane could not fly for more than 250 hours a year. This would mean approximately 70 miles per day. Therefore, on a 50 per cent, load, a four-seater machine charging is. 6d. per mile per passenger could not possibly earn enough to pay its overhead charges. Firms employed a far greater number of machines than was necessary to obtain even the above unsatisfactory figure, and yet but scant provision was made for spare parts and spare engines, with the consequence that machines were lying idle while their engines were being repaired. This meant that they were not only losing their earning capacity, but that the overheads of about £4 per day per machine were going on for two or three weeks. In addition, the facilities for carrying on work at Crpydon were very poor, many machines having to be constantly moved about in one shed in order to accommodate others arriving at odd times. No bulk storage of petrol existed, and in the opinion of the lecturer an expenditure of £500 on such an installation would have saved the firm ^75° the first year. With regard to the problem of getting passengers to and from the aerodromes, Col. Searle drew a parallel of the procedure in the case of travel by train and boat. At Liver- pool the train from London runs alongside the steamer. " You can hardly," he said, " expect the air service to be as comfortable as the train service until some such amenities as these exist. .-At present, there is no means of getting to the aviation grounds at Croydon, except by car, and, arrived there, there are neither waiting-rooms nor conveniences of any kind for the comfort of the passenger, and he has to walk many hundreds of yards, often through slush and mud, l»'fore he reaches the vehicle in which he is to spend two hours nursing his sodden feet to Paris. It is, in my opinion simply absurd that there should not be a regular service ot fains to a platform running alongside the 'plane at the •"•rodrome, so that within a quarter of an hour of saying U<>od-bye to his friends in London, the traveller should De ••*nted in his aeroplane, and ready to start." The lecturer suggested that if an aerodrome mustibe isolated, the Govern- ment must subsidise some railway company to provide tne necessary connection. , . , On the question of the economic side of flying, the lecturer pointed out that this is obviously a question of balance» *-* \JMt lllttL CiiJ-O 1O \Jls V ^WUJJJ ~i -, between receipts and costs. The speed must be such as TOgive an overwhelming advantage over any other torm locomotion, but it must be speed consistent with carrying a considerable load at a running cost which is not excessive, and it must be speed that does not demand either excessive first costs either of engine and aeroplane or excessive upkeep. Col. Searle then continued :—" The position of the Air Ministry in air transport is a most important question, and one which ought to be cleared up at once. At the present moment it combines the equivalents of Municipal Authorities, Trinity House, the Board of Trade and Lloyd's, and I will deal with the analogous functions in this order. " In my opinion the Air Ministry must for the time being continue to act as Municipal Authorities in the way of develop- ing aerodromes, and as Trinity House in regard to navigation, but in carrying out these duties every effort should be made to improve the foreign liaison with our neighbours and per- suade them forcefully to provide the same facilities on their customs' aerodromes as we provide on ours, as well as equal lighthouses on the routes. France has had far more money voted to civil aviation than we. and yet Le Bourget and St. Inglevert are disgracefully organised. The London aero- drome should be at least 1,200 yards square, and the adjoining land should be acquired and let out for grazing so as to provide a good take-off in every direction and provide good re-landing possibilities during that period of flight just after taking off. The sheds should be on the lee-side of the aerodrome to prevailing winds so as to minimise taxi-ing, which is a serious cost, and one which was given very little consideration during the War by reason of the fact that it was not necessary to count the cost ; but I have no hesitation in saying, that five minutes of taxi-ing does more damage to a machine than ten hours' flying. Separate accommodation should be provided for each company, with a common shed for ' casuals.' " If the Air Ministry are to continue to act Trinity House, as they must, they must accept the responsibility for persuading adjoining countries to do likewise, so that night flying may be made as safe as daylight flying. On the Paris route there should be two lighthouses between Croydon and Lympne, and three or four between Paris, La Plage and Le Bourget. " In regard to the Air Ministry acting as the equivalent of the Board of Trade and Lloyd's in marine matters, 1 have no objection to their doing the former's equivalent duties, but with regard to the latter 1 do feel that the time is here for owners, builders and underwriters to get together and form some sort of Lloyd !s Committee so as to keep the Air Ministry advised of their requirements. The question is one of the utmost importance. The Air Ministry has not yet the complete confidence of business-men, and it is necessary for them to have some reliable source of information as to what regulations are necessary for the protection of all their interests. There are some very brilliant young men at the Air Ministry, who are most thorough and conscientious in their work ; but when one deducts their negative commercial and economic experience of the War, one finds that experience with them cannot be expected. And in a few cases, after deducting their negative War experience, they could not have had more than the meagre engineering or technical training of an apprentice or pupil. " These men in man ' cases have the power to dictate as to design and details of operation, and companies have no appeal from their considered opinions, which are invariably based upon war experience and R.A.F. training. Every official in the technical branches of the Air Ministry should be an engineer of good training and undoubted experience, excluding his war service. '' I should also like to mention the examinations for ground . engineers. These are verbal examinations, and are therefore the most difficult to organise, and from what I have seen, they have a tendency to follow that unsound policy adopted temporarily years ago in some of the Board of Trade exami- nations for the marine engineers' tickets—it is that of trying to ' catch ' the applicant by trick questions instead of thoroughly ascertaining his education, experience and know- ledge. I consider that the examination papers for the applicants for these tickets should be laid down by the committee to which I have referred. " The wireless on this side is good, but stronger liaison is required with the Continent, where the wireless service even yet, after two years, is still practically useless, and direction finding must be developed to perfection along the whole of the Paris route without delay. " Some organisation would appear to be necessary for flying in mists and clouds, in that on the organised routes machines flying in opposite directions should have different ranges of altitudes. This, I think, is where the Committee previously referred to should make some recommendations, and it is 789
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