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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0105.PDF
FEBRUARY 16, 19221 rnd he did not, of course, use the regular air lines for his trip. (Laughter.) He would like to associate himself with some, but not all, of Gen. Brancker's remarks. With regard to development, he thought that experience of a useful nature could only be got by actual flying under commercial condi- • tions. He was sorry to see the fashion adopted in some quarters of belittling what had been and was being done by other countries in the matter of civil aviation. Certainly their manner of doing things and their types of machines might not conform to our own pet theories, but much useful work was nevertheless being done, notably in America. He did not think that lines abroad should be established by the R.A.F., but by commercial subsidised lines. Imperial air lines could not, he thought, be expected at once, and to him it seemed that a more likely development was the establish ment of smaller local lines throughout the Empire. Later these would link up to form a long-distance Imperial air line. Turning to the question of goods-carrying by air, he pointed out that great reductions had already been found possible, and that this year the charges would be but very little higher than those of the railways. Sir Samuel Instone said he had been shocked by some of the remarks made by lecturers and by the Secretary of State for Air. He was beginning to wonder, he said, whether he had come to the funeral of civil aviation. He was sorry to hear that Lord Gorell did not think that there was any future for civil aviation in Europe ; personally he thought that there was a very good future. He was pleased to learn of the establishment of the new Civil Aviation Advisory Board, but he greatly regretted that the operational com panies had not been included, and hoped that it would be found possible to include their representatives on the Board. He had stated at the last Conference, and he would state so again, that civil aviation did not pay, and that subsidies were necessary. Our personnel and machines, etc., were not equalled abroad, and people preferred to travel in British machines. That was a position which we should at all costs strive to maintain. He pointed out that out of a total Vote of £18,000,000, £200,000 was spent on civil aviation, and out of that half was to go to the purchase of machines. One could not, he said, help wondering a little as to how the remaining £17,800,000 was being spent, and he thought that some of it ought to go to civil aviation. The Government attitude reminded him, he said, of a play he.saw some years ago entitled "Brewster's Millions." Unless "that gentleman could spend his millions he would lose his job. As civil aviation would provide the reserves for the R.A.F., why not give half of the money to civil aviation ? Sir Samuel then proceeded to indicate certain economies which, he thought, could be effected elsewhere so as to leave more money for aviation. For instance, he said, are we not outgrowing the use of coast-guards as at present established ? There is, on an average, a coast-guard stationed every three miles along our coast, looking out to sea through such an antiquated instrument as a telescope. He thought that the work could be much more efficiently done by amphibian machines, which, when they saw a ship on the horizon, would go out, circle around it and, if necessary, alight by its side. He pleaded for greater use of aviation by the business commu nity, and pointed out that, before establishing an air line, his firm had their own machines and were very frequently able to beat competing firms by being able to get contracts signed long before rival firms could do so who were not using this speedy means of transport. His firm would, he stated, establish an air route to India as soon as the necessary aerodromes were available. Regarding the carriage of news papers by air, he was pleased to announce, although he would not divulge the name of the paper for fear of giving information to competitors, that he had a contract with a certain well-known newspaper for the carriage of it by air. Sir Charles Bright thought the general lack of sustained interest was most remarkable in view of the work done by the Royal Aeronautical Society and the Air League. On the question of airships, he was glad the decision to scrap was due to economic reasons only, as he considered the airship specially suitable for long-distance work. He called attention to the necessity for research if progress was to be sound. He had personally tested the air mails, and regretted to say that three times out of four the ordinary mail beat the air mail. This was due to faults in the terminal connecting links and not to the aircraft them selves As regards the greater use made by Berlin of the air mail, this he thought was due to the German Government doing more to popularise aviation and the use of air mails. Sir Charles thought that the objections raised by Gen. Williamson to the air mail stamp could easifv be got over. The advantages of using the air would, he pointed out, be greater over long distances, and he pleaded for the estab lishment of Imperial air lines. For the sake of economy he would suggest that aviation matters should be dealt with by a ministry of transport. Mr. G. F. Luke said that, as a member of the Federation of British Industries, he would like to associate himself with the views expressed by its President (Col. Armstrong). The success or failure of aerial transport is largely dependent upon the support which industry in this country gives to it. Two of the main sources of revenue of an air transport company should be mails and freight, and he thought it could hardly be disputed that, except for a few devotees, the facilities offered by existing air mail and transport services are unknown to the great majority of industrial Britain. With reference to air mails, he stated that in the provinces the post officials were frequently as ignorant as the inquirer. As regards transport of goods by air, he thought that what was wanted was the inauguration of some system of payment of freight and charges on delivery, so as to avoid the delay that now takes place between the delivery of goods in London and their forwarding to the consignees. By way of an example Mr. Luke took a consignment of goods from Paris to Glasgow. The consignment leaves Paris and is delivered to the transport company's forwarding agent in London on the same day. The latter then writes to the consignee stating that on receipt of the amount of freight and charges the goods will be forwarded. The result is that the consign ment takes about 72 hours to do the journey from Paris to Glasgow, whereas on a payment on delivery system it would only take about 24 hours. Commercial aviation, Mr. Luke said, if it is to pay its way, will require the support of the whole of Great Britain, and not of its Capital only. Canvassing for freight should be undertaken in all the big industrial centres by agents of the air transport companies, and special arrangement should be made with the railway and express companies so that goods destined to be forwarded by air would receive preferential treatment. He thought it was abnormal that our conti nental services should end at Le Bourget, and that we should be dependent on French lines to carry our passengers, mer chandise and mails from there to the four corners of Europe. He suggested that we should attempt to get an agreement with France whereby Le Bourget became an international air port. Similarly with regard to Amsterdam, some such arrangement would facilitate opening up of British air routes to Scandinavia and the Baltic States. Mr. Luke pointed out the importance of Egypt as an aviation centre, and said that, even if we could not at present afford to establish Imperial air mail lines, we should take steps to ensure that we had a right-of-way over Egypt in the future. The Chairman (Lord Weir) then read a communication from the Chinese Charge d'Affairs, in which were outlined the progress made already in that country and the air lines already established (with Vickers-Vimy aeroplanes). China fully realised the possibilities of air transport, and when the time came that British lines ran to her borders she would be ready to link up with them. At present, the communication stated, the Trans-Siberian Railway is out of working order, owing to the conditions in Russia, and it was suggested that aeroplanes might be employed at once to secure a better communication with China until the railway is again running as it used to do. The Agent-General of Tasmania (Mr. Ashbolt) said that so far all the talk had been about the aeroplane, and he now proposed to say a few words about his pet, the airship. He was sorry to hear Capt. Guest's pessimism, and thought his statements did not and could not represent the British spirit. He repeated that commercial interests are prepared to find money for airship services, and only a reasonable subsidy would be, required. The Government organisation of the routes must, however, come first. Technically the airship is ready for commercial work, and the only obstacle is the financial difficulty of ground establishments. He pointed out that in two or three years' time, owing to the general progress made the world over, we shall be forced to take action whether we like it or not. He very much regretted that New Zealand and South Africa had turned down the airship proposition, and if India turned it down also it would seem to be the end of the matter. He had, however, a proposition ior establishing airship routes, but it was not one with which he was particularly in love, and he only would suggest its adoption if all else failed. Briefly it was this : that Germany should supply the airships, whose value should be deducted from Germany's war indemnities. It would not, he explained, mean any hardships on British workmen, as if the whole J05
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