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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0168.PDF
MARCH 19, 1925 the Air Ministry'and a private company respectively, every- thing possible was being done to pool the available expert knowledge, and^the freest possible scope was given to experi- ment. During the last few weeks he had set up a technical committee composed of three of the best-known aeronautical experts in the country, none of whom were officials of the Ministry, to whom technical questions could be referred for impartial decision, both by the Ministry and the construction pe The question of a more mobile defence of the Empire, by means of which large sums of money now tied up in immobile defences could be saved, was being carefully investigated. He was not going to say that some time or another the country would not have a single Ministry of Defence, but he had always taken the view that a great change of this kind would come about as a result of better co-ordination between the three Departments rather than by suddenly creating a new superman or a new office of supermen. The right course was to take every step to bring the three services more closely together, and he had done all he could to carry that policy into effect. There was now a certain number of Army officers and Naval officers working at the Air Ministry. He was not giving away any confidential information when he said that on more than one important occasion the three Chiefs of Staff had taken collective responsibility for the advice on some big strategical questions that they were offering to the Government. As to the standard up to which they were building, he said that they were not attempting to set up actual numbers against actual numbers. They were trying to set up an Air Force adequate to protect the country against the strongest Air Force within striking distance. If there was going to be an absorption of service departments as Commander Burney had suggested, it should come when we had, if ever that was possible, a single department and a single Minister dealing with the various questions of defence and strategic policy. This year he was going to try to start certain long- distance nights within the Empire. It would take some little time, but he hoped to be able to organise during the year flights from Cairo to Cape Town and from Cairo to Lake Chad. This was only a beginning, and he hoped that it would be possible to make these Empire flights year by year and show the flag in the air over a great part of the British Empire. The Secretary for the Colonies and he wore shortly going to take a flight to Iraq, and hoped to do in the course of eight or nine days a series of journeys which before the invention of flying would have taken as many months. The object of his journey to Iraq was to see on the spot how far the experiment cf garrison by air was succeeding and, where it was possible, to make any saving in the very large expenditure which the taxpayer had to bear in that connection. The question of shelters for the civilian popula- tion in time of emergency was being considered by the Air Ministry. The Report of the Vote was agreed to. The Reports of the Votes for pay, works, supplies and transport, and technical and warlike stores were also agreed to. On the last of these Sir S. Hoare, replying upon a short discussion, referred to the reasons for building two airships. A double experiment would be much safer than a single experiment ; also, he was anxious to test some of the potentialities of the airships to the full. The actual amount to be spent under the present scheme was about £1,250,000, out of which only about /200,000 to /250.000 will be spent upon the Government airship, the rest of the money, or a greater part of it, " would be usefully spent." The bases in India had been sleeted on commercial and not on military grounds. The Government had offered to refer Commander Burney's designs to the Technical Committee, and if the designs were considered practical every facility would be given for their adoption. THE NAVY ESTIMATES AND AIRCRAFT IN the Navy Estimates for the year 1925-26, issued on March 14, the following statements relating to aviation matters are made by the First Lord of the Admiralty. In reference to the inclusion in the Navy Estimates, for the first time, of a charge of £1,320,000 in respect of the cost of the Fleet air arm :— This sum is credited in the Air Estimates as a grant in aid of the expenditure for which provision is made in those Estimates. The reason for this arrangement appears to have been misunderstood, but it is quite simple. It has been formally laid down, on the recommendation nf the Committee on the Relations between the Navy and the Air Force, that it rests with the Admiralty to formulate requirements for the Fleet air arm. It is obvious, therefore, that it must also rest with the Admiralty to justify those requirements, whether they are challenged from the point of view of adequacy or of economy. It is this Admiralty responsibility that is duly recognised by including the charge in the Estimates for which the First Lord has to answer. The report further states :— (a) Fleet Air Arm.—In accordance with the decision of H.M. Government in 1923-24 on the manning of the Fleet air arm, a commencement was made in June last with the training of naval officers as pilots for service in the Fleet when 50 officers were sent to No. 1 Flying Training School at Netheravon to begin their training. After about ten months on shore—which includes six months' elementary flying training at Netheravon followed by a period at coastal stations, where training is continued on machines of the naval service type and instruction is given in naval air work—these officers will be appointed to relieve an equivalent number of RAF. officers as pilots for service in units of the Fleet air arm. There will in future be four courses a year. Thirty officers were appointed to the second course beginning in January last. With a view to accelerating the permeation of the more senior ranks of the Navy with practical knowledge of air matters which will come about when naval officers trained as observers and pilots reach these ranks, it has been arranged for a few officers of the rank of commander to undergo short courses of flying training. One such course is now in progress. The training of naval officers for observer duties continues, and the syllabus of the Observers' Course, which has recently been revised, includes training to qualify these officers to undertake reconnaissance observation (hitherto performed by R.A.F. officers) in addition to gunnery spotting observation. Progress has also been made in the substitution of naval ratings for certain of the R.A.F. personnel serving in the Fleet air arm, under the Government decision above referred to, the number of naval ratings so substituted to date being 250. (b) Airships.—The Admiralty are greatly interested in the development of airships in view of their possible value for the purpose of naval reconnaissance in great oceans. They are engaged in concert with the Air Ministry in studying the designs of mooring masts in ships, which are an important development and, if successful, will enhance the value of airships for naval purposes, reduce base expenditure, and render bases mobile. The report also states that :— The work of reconstructing huriow: as an aircraft carrier is well advanced and will be completed earl - in the ensuing financial year, and good progress is also being made with other ships in hand for reconstruction. R.Ae.C. Banquet to Sir Sefton Brancker ON March 23, a banquet will be given at the Savoy Hotel,by the Royal Aero Club, to Air Vice-Marshal Sir Sefton Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation, and Mr. Alan J. Cobham,on the successful completion of their flight from England to India and back. London-Berlin Air Mails THE Postmaster-General announces that the letter Air Mails from London to Hanover and Berlin will be resumed on March 13. The Mails will be closed at the General Post Office, London, at 6 a.m. each weekday as before, and will be due to reach the Hanover and Berlin Post Offices at about 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively the same day. These mails offer, for express letters, delivery in Hanover and Berlin the same afternoon or evening, and for non-express letters accelerated delivery next day at most places in Northern Germany beyond Hanover, e.g., Berlin, Hamburg, Leipsic and Dresden. The special fee payable in addition to ordinary foreign postage is, as before, 3d. per oz. The letter Air Mail to Cologne, closed at the General Post Office, London, at 6.45 a.m. each weekday and due at Cologne at about 3 p.m., offers advantage for letters to places in South Germany (at a special fee of 3d. per oz.), as well as to places in the occupied areas (at a special fee of Id. per oz.). 168
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