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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0210.PDF
one has proved that thare is any other way of estab lishing and maintaining such a defence than the " striking force " advocated by Gen. Groves. Rear-Admiral S. S. Hall, in a letter to the Press, makes some stringent remarks about our Naval Staff and its doctrines, and he emphasises that the reason why he considers the building of two battle ships a waste of money is that close blockade is dead, and there is no one .we can distantly blockade. It is not, he points out, a question of one aeroplane being only able to sink an old battleship in shallow water, but of future air attack when clouds of 'planes will attack at dusk, dawn, or by moonlight the ships before they go to sea. A trenchant contribution to the controversy is that of Mr. T. G. Tulloch in The Times, who calls attention to the seemingly obvious fact, which is nevertheless often lost sight of, that a three-dimensional weapon, such as aircraft and, to a somewhat more limited extent the submarine, must defeat two-dimensional weapons, such as surf ace-vessels. This writer con cludes with the following very telling paragraph : " Having regard to aerial warfare, Great Britain is no longer an ' island * ; therefore why try and defend it as if it were ? " Precisely. That is the whole crux of the matter. As to how many bombs it would take to sink a battleship, and how many machines would be shot down in the attempt, these are merely inci dental problems which do not greatly affect the argu ment one way or the other. The defence against aircraft attack on cities, factories, shipyards, camps, etc., is the problem with wrhich we are faced, and certainly for that purpose the Navy is useless. That the air arm can also by itself protect us against naval attack we are not so convinced, although we fully realise the help which the air can, and should to a vastly greater extent than has hitherto been the case, give to the Navy in this respect. We are rather afraid that some of those who have contributed to the controversy have been carried away by their enthusiasm and belief in the air, and led to claim for the air arm feats which it has not yet been proved capable of performing. We fully believe that some day, and probably not so far distant as might be imagined, the air will be able to do all these things, but that time is scarcely yet, and possibly a certain amount of harm has been done to the cause of the air by these somewhat extravagant claims. • • • The airship scheme proposed by Corn- Air mander Burney, details of which were th™ ACU h"d Pubusned in FLIGHT last week, has now, Scheme & *s announced, been considered by the Air Council, but it is stated that in their original form the Air Council regarded the financial conditions as imposing too severe a liability on the Government. Commander Burney has since sub mitted certain modifications which are now being considered by the Air Council. These include an offer to repay the whole of the money advanced as subsidy at the rate of £25,000 a year as soon as the company is in a position to relieve the Government of liability under the interest guarantee. This certainly appears to be a very fair offer, and^as it is understood that the Air Council's refusal to accept the original scheme was based upon financial considerations, and not on any doubts as to the feasibility of the scheme, there is, perhaps, a possibility of the revised offer being accepted. The potential value of the scheme to Imperial defence is such that we sincerely hope that the Air Council may regard it favourably. APRIL 13, 1922 The mid-air collision which occurred in The Air France last week is a most regrettable .accident, the more so in view of the recent inauguration of one of the services involved, viz., the Daimler Airway, to which reference is made below. It is, however, an accident-which is not very likely to occur again, even if the somewhat elaborate schemes that have been suggested are not adopted. The probability of two machines meeting nose-on in this fashion is very remote. At the same time we cannot afford not to take every precaution which tends to make flying safe, and the recent accident points to the desirability of making provision for the pre vention of a recurrence. It has been suggested that machines travelling in one direction should fly at one altitude, and those going the opposite way at a different height. Also that each should keep a mile or two to the right of the general route. Both plans are open to objections.on the part of the pilots, who usually like to follow a certain route, especially in thick weather. It might, however, be found possible to combine the two ; that is to say, the machines going in one direction flying slightly to the right of the route and at a certain altitude, while those going the opposite way fly also to the right and at a different altitude. This arrangement would, however, necessi tate an almost complete duplication of emergency landing grounds, while pilots might object to being restricted to certain altitudes, owing to the difficulties which would be encountered in the matter of flying by landmarks. It is true that wireless direction finding is now proving very useful to pilots flying out of sight of the ground, but the fact remains that most pilots are averse to flying above clouds, out of the sight of'the ground. That may be mostly prejudice, but until confidence in the wireless has been firmly established, it is a very easily understood prejudice. We think that, as a matter of fact, no such altera tion in the arrangements is necessary, at any rate for some time. It should be comparatively easy to provide machines with short-range transmitting and receiving sets, all tuned alike, by means of which, in thick weather, a pilot could be apprised of the approach of another machine while still some miles apart. In most cases this would probably be found sufficient to ensure that the pilots of approaching machines would see one another while there was still plenty of time to alter course and avoid collision. The Commencing last week, the air services to Paris have been augmented by the Services new service established by the Daimler Airway, and by accelerated services by the older companies. In addition to the usual air mail leaving Croydon at 12.30, there is now a morning service leaving at 9.30. By the new service letters posted in London too late for the ordinary night mail dispatch to Paris, but in time for the last night collections, will normally be delivered in Paris on the following afternoon. In addition to the increased activity on the London- Paris route, it is rumoured that a London-Manchester service is a probable starter soon, and it is stated that other lines radiating from Manchester are in contem plation—for instance, one linking Manchester with Dublin. Altogether, therefore, it looks as if civil aviation is to have a busy season, and signs are not lacking that we are now over the worst difficulties and that henceforth commercial aviation will develop fairly rapidly towards that importance which it is destined ultimately to hold. 210
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