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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0080.PDF
mean a certain fairly fixed income for the companies operating, and would go a long way towards minimis ing the losses which are now incurred owing to the failure of the Government to guarantee a certain load—which has resulted in the necessity for heavy subsidies. With regard to Lord Gorell's views upon What of Imperial air services, and his opinion ? that it is best to let these be established by the R.A.F. for linking up its various centres, we are not inclined to quarrel with this. As things are at present, this is probably the best policy, and, as the Under-Secretary stated, the time may be nearer than one is inclined to think when the establishment of Imperial air services, with aerodromes adjoining, or forming part of, R.A.F. stations will enable such services to be operated with some prospect of com mercial success. We should like to point out, how ever, that this day might be brought appreciably- nearer if we paid more attention to the aircraft which should be to us, as essentially a maritime nation, the most natural, indeed the most obvious, type of aircraft of all, i.e., the seaplane with its latest development the amphibian. By utilising seaplanes Imperial air services could be, in many instances, established with a very small outlay of money, as no prepared aero dromes are required, and floating repair and fuel depots could be established and maintained at relatively low cost. If the country cannot, or is unwilling to, find the money for Imperial airship services, we would urge that the possibility of em ploying seaplanes in conjunction, possibly, with existing routes now covered fairly regularly by the R.A.F. be given full consideration. The seaplane offers many advantages over the land type of machine in many respects, although it may be admitted to be inferior in certain others. For instance, it does not, as we have already mentioned, require specially prepared aerodromes costing a lot of money to establish and maintain. The problems of flying at night or in a fog are far less serious where the seaplane is concerned than they are to land machines. It is quite a simple matter to provide instruments which will indicate to the pilot of a seaplane when he is 30 or 40 feet above the sea, and as he has only altitude and wind direction to worry about—and is not faced with the further problem of finding a comparatively small piece of specially prepared ground on which to land—his problems are greatly simplified. It is generally alleged that the seaplane, and by this we mean both twin-float machines and flying boats, is inferior to the aeroplane in speed and load carrying capacity. If we compare the two for any given route, there may be a certain amount of truth in this allegation, although not, we are certain, nearly as much as generally imagined. But it should be borne in mind, and this fact is, we fear, universally overlooked by the advocates of the aeroplane as against the seaplane, that whereas the aeroplane has to compete against fast trains and, possibly, motor road transport, the seaplane has nothing worse to beat than a speed of, say, 20 m.p.h. Thus if a seaplane will do 70 m.p.h. cruising speed it is in an excellent position to compete for speed with any surface craft, while, her usefulload can then, owing to the relatively low speed required, be increased to exceed that of FEBRUARY 9, 1922 the aeroplane of the same power. Thus the main, indeed the only, objection raised against the seaplane falls to the ground, and we frankly confess that we are very greatly disappointed at the way in which the seaplane has been practically ignored at the Air Conference. Not a word is mentioned about it in Lord Gorell's paper, and it remains to be seen whether this subject is brought up during the discussions. We sincerely hope it is. The valuable pioneer work done by such firms as Shorts, Supermarines, Avfos, Faireys, Vickers, etc., surely merits some mention. Even apart from commercial air lines, the seaplane is capable of very great services. This statement is not based upon conjecture, but on accomplished facts. For assisting out fisheries, for sealing, whaling, etc., for forest patrol and for surveying tracts or otherwise inaccessible land the seaplane can do and has done extremely valuable work, and it has done it in districts where the aeroplane would have been useless, owing to the absence of suitable landing grounds. Why, at a conference which is generally supposed to have been called to bring the various business interests into contact with the aviation industry and to show them the advantages which aviation can offer them, has the seaplane been left so severely alone ? We hope that it is merely due to an over sight and not to any failure on the part of the Air Ministry to realise its possibilities. Lord Gorell's announcement of the The Civil establishment of a bodv to be known as Advisory the Civil Aviation Advisory Board, and Board including representatives of the Air Ministry, the Controller of Civil Avia tion, the D. of R., the G.P.O., the Associated Chambers of Commerce, Lloyd's, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Air League, the Royal Aero Club, and the S.B.A.C., will, we feel sure, cause immense satisfaction. The greatest difficulty at the present time is not so much one of technical problems as it is one of bringing together the various institutions upon whose colla boration the rate of progress will mainlv depend. If properly administered such a body as the new C.A.A.B. cannot fail to be of the greatest assistance to the industry, and, we think, through that to the country and Empire in general. We recommend to the C.A.A.B. in dealing with the first subject to be referred to them, to give due consideration to our remarks relating to the sending of all first-class mails by air, and the use of airships and seaplanes in addition to that of aeroplanes. Finally, the opening pessimistic views of Capt. Guest at the Conference, as to home and European aerial routes, are not very re-assuring as to his being the right man in the right place as Secretary of State for Air, although his optimism upon the possibilities and necessities of Imperial air communications in a measure redeems the value of his opinions. But for the sake of our industry and aircraft generally there is one fact in the position which he and a good many are inclined to either ignore or wilfully to forget, and that is that the pace in aviation progress will not be confined to the pace set by our " ostriches " —our pace, presently, will have to be a bit better than that of some very lively nations who have very firm and advanced ideas of the future' of aircraft. And thank God for it! 80
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