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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0794.PDF
required to reach South America from London, according to whether the traveller elects to proceed to Seville by air or by the more orthodox methods of travel. That will of a certainty ensure that a good deal of passenger traffic will be available, as soon as the service has been demonstrated to be safe and reliable. As to that we have no doubts whatever. , Then, the mails from Spain to the Argentine alone average from seven to eight tons weekly and, assuming that the Spanish postal autho- rities have more imagination than our own, which is scarcely to be doubted, the revenue accruing from the conveyance of mails ought to be very sub- stantial. The news that this Spanish-German line is to be inaugurated seems to have given a fillip to French airship enterprise. The aeronautical section of the Council of National Defence has approved the pro- gramme of the Air Ministry for the construction of airships. This provides for airship centres at Paris (Orly), Marseilles, Algiers, Tunis, Casablanca, and Dakar in Senegal. The aerodrome at Orly will constitute the main base, and the installations necessary for constructive, work on an extensive scale, as provided for in former Budgets, are already practically complete. These include large workshops, a gasometer, control and Customs-houses, and two Zeppelin sheds nearly 1,000 feet long. The air ports at Marseilles, Algiers, and Casablanca are to be completed by 1923. The route over which it is intended to operate the first services will eventually serve as a basis for a Transatlantic service to South America, with Pernambuco as its terminus. • • • It is almost idle to ask what we are •.«^h^t .are, doing while all these activities are inWe Doing ? ° r ,. „, , . course 01 preparation. We are doing much worse than nothing at all, since we are allowing to slip away all the accumulated knowledge and ' experience we acquired during the War at a cost of £40,000,000. We are scrapping material, costly material, which could be turned to good account in gaining further experience of the commercial operation of airship services overseas. Worse than all, we are allowing the keen, experienced personnel of our airships service to drift back to other occu- pations, disgruntled and discouraged by the treat- ment it has received at the hands of a Government which has not known its own mind for ten minutes together. As The Times aptly said a few days ago, in dis- cussing this same question of airship services, today the air policy of the Government appears to have only two objects in view—the scrapping of both airships and airship enterprise, and the strengthening of the military air force at the expense of civil and commercial aviation, because these have not as yet proved to be paying concerns. There can be no escaping the conclusion that either this policy is extremely short-sighted, or that France and Germany, :" and now Spain, are making a capital mistake in back- ing airship enterprise in the way they are preparing to do. France, as we have insistently urged in these pages, is backing commercial aviation almost literally for all she is worth and believes in its future wholeheartedly. Our own Government seems to be completely at variance with this ideal. Obviously, both cannot be right. If France is right—as we are convinced is the case—then we must be wrong, in which case we are losing valuable time which in all .'..•'••• . •:.,..• ?;,--- •7,-":.."." DECEMBER I, 1021 probability we shall never be able to regain. At the end of the War we had attained a hardly-won supre- macy in the air. To claim that we still possess that supremacy would be to assert an obvious falsehood. The question which has to be answered is whether it is worth while or not to endeavour to regain it ? We, and others who think with us, are most absolutely convinced that it is. . . ; «•• • An The Postmaster-General, in reply to aAerial question by Mr. Raper, recently made Postage the following reply, which is well worth Stamp ? quoting here iirfun ._ " I am considering how far wider publicity can be given to existing air mail services with a view to increasing public interest in the traffic ; but, as at present advised, I do not think that the issue of a special postage stamp would have the effect desired by the hon. member. A blue air mail label to be affixed to air mail correspondence is already issued on application at all head and branch post offices. Letters can be posted for the air mail in any letter-box, and at any time : and it would obviously hamper the free use of the service if only air mail stamps could be used." Considering the common agreement that seems to exist to the effect that such special stamps as those suggested would be a valuable aid to the develop- ment of the air postal services, we are quite at a loss to understand the point of view of the Postmaster- General. It would be interesting, and a great deal more convincing, if he had told the House why he thinks the effect would be otherwise than everybody but the official of the Post Office thinks. He might also have thought that, even if such special air post stamps were issued, it would be possible to arrange that letters which bore the ordinary postage stamps to the proper value and which were clearly marked for transmission by air post could still be sent that way. It is a wonder the official mind does not boggle at a i^d. and a \d. stamp being placed on a letter to make up 2d. ! The one objection would be as logical as the other. It seemed to come rather as a shock to the Postmaster-General to be told that the French Government had already issued special aerial postage stamps, and remarked that he would consider that! Surveying by Aeroplane We have had occasion to record several instances in which aircraft have been used for the survey of proposed roads and railways in undeveloped country, but something quite out of the ordinary has been inaugurated by the Ministry of Transport, in the shape of an aerial survey of the route of the proposed new road between London and Southend. As the Ministry points out, it is purely an experiment, but it is hoped to obtain in thirty minutes a series of photographs which, laid side by side, will give a complete bird's-eye view of the proposed route. If the ordinary methods of ground survey were adopted the work would take two or three weeks to complete. WTe need hardly say that we shall await the results of this really interesting experiment with a good deal of pleasurable anticipation, because we believe in its success and that it will open up a great field of aerial activity which has hitherto been unexploited save in countries of great distances and which are sparsely populated. If it does give the results anti- cipated, aerial survey work will receive a wonderful impetus, since it will have been demonstrated that there are practically no limits to the uses to which aircraft can be put in such connections. 794
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