FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0812.PDF
NOVEMBER 4, 1926 IMPERIAL AIR COMMUNICATIONS Sir Samuel Hoare's Speech at the Imperial Conference ON the occasion of the tenth meeting of the Imperial Confer- ence held at No. 10, Downing Street, on October 28, Mr. Baldwin presiding, the Secretary of State for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare, opened an important discussion on Imperial Air Com- munications, in which the Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and Newfoundland, and Mr. Havenga (South Africa), Mr. McGilligan (Irish Free State) and others took part. Unfortunately, we have not the space available to give the Air Minister's "address in full, and can only give a general outline of his speech, with extracts dealing with the more important points. In his opening remarks, Sir Samuel said he proposed to deal with this subject from the Civil as distinct from the Military point of view, although he pointed out that the civil and military aspects were inextricably connected, and that the development of Imperial airlines—aeroplane or airship— were a vital factor in the problem of Empire Defence. There were at the start, he said, two broad propositions— firstly, the Empire was in urgent need of better communica- tions ; secondly, if these were to be improved, a sustained and united effort would be required. We had now, he proceeded, reached a most important turning point in the development of airways and air communi- cations, and if we looked back over the 23 years of flight— or only as far back as the last Conference of 1923—one must be struck by the speed and the extent of the progress that had already been made. Wider and wider use was being made of civilian air transport, and technical improvement had been made with machines, engines, wireless, and meteor- ology. As regards safety, what better record could there be than the five million mifes flown by British services for four fatal accidents, and the million miles flown in Australia for a single accident ? These results, continued Sir Samuel, seemed to him to show that after years of research and experiment and adventure we had reached a definite stage in the development of flying, from which we could in the near future make progress altogether out of proportion to anything that had been achieved during the last few years. There was to-day no technical or operational reason why by aeroplane or airship London should not be brought within a fortnight of the farthest cities and territories of the Empire. He proposed, therefore, to suggest to the Conference different ways in which we could make fuller use of this new instrument in the near future. He would deal chiefly with the British routes and policy because he was for the moment taking London as the terminus of the principal Empire air routes. Hitherto, whilst certain European services had been safely and punctually operated for several years, there had been no civil air services plying between one part of the Empire and another. In theMiddle East an air route between Egypt and Iraq had been regularly flown by military machines carry- ing mails and]ofncial passengers for five years, and it was now proposed to substitute in its place a regular civil line for the carriage of freight and passengers, not only between Cairo and Baghdad, but between Cairo and Karachi. Sir Samuel then gave details of this service, references to which have already been made in FLIGHT. Would it be possible, added Sir Samuel, for the Government of India to consider the question of extending the service across India from Karachi to Bombay or Calcutta ? And similarly, for the Government of Burma to carry it a stage farther, to Rangoon ? It might then be practicable to link with the civil line experimental flights of the R.A.F. flying boats that it is intended to station in the Far East, and again with the occasional service nights of the R.A.A.F. from Australia ? If in the not remote future links could be in- serted in some such way, a long chain of great tensile power would be forged across the Empire's framework. So also with Africa. Just as there must be an Empire Air route to the Far East stretching to Australia and New Zealand, so there must be an Empire air route from London to the Cape with branches diverging to the West African Depend- encies. Here again a beginning was being made during the next few months. An enterprising pioneer, with the help of the Governments of Kenya, Uganda and the Sudan, had organised an experimental service covering 1,400 miles between Khartoum and Kisumu. As the route followed the course of the White Nile the machines would be hydroplanes. If this service was successful, from 10 days to a fortnight would be saved in the journey between Khartoum and Uganda, and eight days between Khartoum and East Africa. Why, therefore, should not the Northern and Southern links be forged in this African chain, and a through aeroplane service run at least experimentally between Egypt and Cape Town ? The R.A.F. was prepared to arrange for a certain number of flights, in the course of the training programme, carrying mails and official passengers, linking up with the civil machines at Khartoum. Could not the S.A.A.F. make a certain number of flights linking up with the route at Uganda ? It would be seen, proceeded Sir Samuel, that he was pro- posing for their consideration the creation of these two long- distance air routes on a " mosaic plan." We were all too hard up for anyone to undertake the heavy cost of an air route to Singapore or Cape Town, and he had suggested a way, by each inserting their particular stone in the design, in which this might be accomplished. Once the pioneer services started, the formation of regular civil lines would follow. Sir Samuel said he wished to draw attention to another very important field where the co-operation of Dominion Governments was needed, and that was the provision of landing grounds at proper intervals. Would the Govern- ments of the Empire take their share in providing suitable landing grounds upon the great Empire routes, and keeping them in order ? Sir Samuel then passed on to the question of Empire airship routes, upon which subject he dealt very fully. It might be asked, he said, why should the Empire require both airship and aeroplane, and how could airships ever be immune from the catastrophies that destroyed the R.38, the Dixmude," and the " Shenandoah " ? As to the first, airships would carry out the long-distance non-stop air journeys of the future. The two airships that were being built should, with a normal load of freight and 100 passengers, be. able to fly without refuelling in good weather a distance of some 4,000 miles, and being of great size, and practically silent, would be much more comfortable. The aeroplane and the airship were really complementary to each other, and it was necessary, in his view, to organise both aeroplane and airship lines. " Then," continued Sir Samuel, " there is the objection, and a very serious objection, raised on the ground of danger. There is the danger inherent in so large and fragile a structure ; there is the danger of storms of unexpected and incredible ferocity ; there is the danger of conflagration in a ship com- posed of highly-inflammable material. How can dangers such as these be ever surmounted ? I would like the Con- ference or the Committee to examine my experts as fully as possible upon all these points. I need not tell you that, being a very cautious person myself, I have examined them again and again upon them. They and I are very far from being reckless optimists. Indeed, our attitude towards this great problem has been well described by a well-known Cambridge scientist as an attitude of ' healthy cold feet.' What I would say without fear of contradiction is that great progress has been made both on the theoretical and practical side during the last two years, and that we can claim to have made the fullest possible use of scientific theory, of full- scale and model experiment, of the testing of materials, and, by no means least important, of the study of meteorology. We believe that he have discovered many of the weaknesses and surmounted many of the difficulties that occasioned the failures in the past." After referring to certain structural features of the two new airships, and to the meteorological aspect of the case, Sir Samuel pointed out, in regard to the danger of fire, that the airship being built at Cardington would be equipped, not with petrol, but with heavy-oil engines, which showed a great advance in the way of safety, particularly in the case of airships operating in tropical climates. In all these directions, then, proceeded Sir Samuel, they had made a serious and scientific effort to avail themselves of the lessons of the past, and to avoid the dangers that had hitherto been so formidable. Slowly but surely our programme had been developing, and in a year's time the two great airships should be completed. It was then proposed to carry out adequate home trials and subsequently to fly at least one of the airships regularly to and from India for a full period of trial in tropical conditions. When these trials were com- pleted, it was hoped, if the Dominions so desired, to make 720
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
