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Aviation History
1922
1922 - 0224.PDF
would have wished to die, if the end had to come so soon—fighting to the last to master his machine. As regards the cause of the accident, this is abundantly clear from the accounts of expert eye witnesses. The machine got into a spin, from which it never fully recovered, at any rate not until it was too late to flatten out and effect a safe landing. As to the reasons for the machine getting fhto a spin, we can never know for certain. But it appears ' probable that lack of experience on this particular type of machine may have been a contributory cause. To begin with, we believe we are correct in saying that Sir Ross had not done very much flying on any machine during the last few months. All pilots of experience will agree that being away from regular practice for even a few weeks, results in a familiar machine feeling strange. How much more so when the machine is of an unfamiliar type. No two machines, even of the same model and identical to all appearances, -feel exactly alike. Further the flying boat type of machine has little idiosyncrasies all its own. It requires different handling and different control from a land machine of the tractor type. It is therefore in no way casting the slightest slur on the skill of Sir Ross as a pilot to assume as a possible explanation that the machine felt more strange to him than he had expected, and that indecision at a critical moment^-an indecision which may have lasted only the shortest of times—may have lost him his chances of recovery. It appears quite certain from the evidence given at the inquest that no part of the machine broke in the air, and that to a pilot familiar with the type and its construction, the machine was in perfect flying trim and behaving splendidly. One is therefore forced to the conclusion, as the only logical one, that some error of judgment was the cause of the spin which ended so sadly. Beyond that it is not possible to go, and at that we must be content to leave it. It means that two more valuable lives have been sacrificed in order that the linking up and binding together of the Empire by the ways of the air may be found. It behoves us to carry on in the same spirit, that the lives of these two pioneers, and the many that have preceded them, may not have been sacrificed in vain. It is by now fairly common knowledge n T.J?e . that a great portion of the Directorate D. of R. and , „ 5 , . p. ,, . , , , Farnborough °* Research is, in the interest of economy, to be transferred to Farnborough. That is all to the good, and, on the face of it, would appear to be a very sound, common-sense decision, and one which will result in economy as well as tending towards a closer co-operation between the D. of R. and the Royal Aircraft Establishment. We sincerely trust, and have no intention of denying, that this, and this only, is at the back of the decision. But it should be borne in mind that " Research " as now understood is a somewhat elastic term. The D. of R. himself stated at the recent Air Conference that a large proportion of his department was engineering. That being so, it appears to us that the removal of the department, or the bulk of it, to Farnborough, may carry with it the danger of a return to the old evil days, when the- R.A.F., as it then was, grew to be in direct competition with private designing and construction firms. We do not for a APRIL 20, 1922 moment suggest that there is any danger of "The Factory " resuming manufacture on any large scale. The results of that policy are still too fresh in mind to allow of that possibility being even contemplated. But it does appear to us that the transfer from Kingsway to Farnborough may give rise to the danger of the Department of Research becoming even less of what its name suggests it should be, and more of an engineering department than those who believe in the value of pure research as distinct from ad hoc experiment like to see. We may be wrong—we sincerely trust we are—and there may be no such intention behind the move, but the danger is there, and we have thought it our duty to sound this note of warning. We certainly do not want to see our private designing firms reduced to the level of war time sub-contractors building machines to other people's designs. * • • The air racing of the season opened on The Racing Easter Monday with a series of short ^Season contests, the competing machines during Waddon the whole time being in sight. This is an admirable scheme, and helps to sustain the interest, which would be apt to lag were the competitors out of sight for long periods. In our report on the races we have advanced certain criticisms of the arrangements, which were certainly not all that they might have been. We are offering these in no carping spirit, but merely because we wish to see air races and air competitions of all sorts becoming one of the most popular features of the London summer season. In the main the Royal Aero Club is doing well with the sporting side of aviation, and it is in the minor incidentals that shortcomings are most noticeable. These can, we feel sure, be remedied with a little goodwill, and if that is done we are certain that the public response will be such as to recompense the organisers for the extra trouble taken. We have previously questioned the wisdom of the decision to transfer the scene of these com petitions from Hendon to the London Terminal Aerodrome. We are still very much in doubt, and still consider Waddon but ill-suited to the holding of race meetings where really fast machines are to be flown. In its present form and state Waddon is a very poor aerodrome for a racing machine, and we would suggest that, until the present offices, sheds, and other buildings have been transferred from Plough Lane across to the buildings occupied by the A.D.C., the holding of pure speed races should not be organised at Waddon. Secondly, arrangements could surely be made, even now, with the railway companies for running more trains to Waddon station, thus saving visitors the journey on the trams from Croydon to the aerodrome. These trams must easily be the worst in London, and if a frequent direct train service were run (and made known) to Waddon station it would be a great gain. Later on, when the main buildings of the air station are at the A.D.C. premises, it will, of course, be possible to run trains direct to the aerodrome itself. But even without that, much might be done to facilitate and render less irksome the journey to and from the London Terminal Aerodrome. We would suggest that the Club take the matter up seriously with the remnants of the Department of Civil Aviation. 224
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