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Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0828.PDF
NOVEMBER 11, 1926 by their working parties in a part of the world where aircraftwere in most cases, strange to the inhabitants, and which was shortly, they hoped, to be part of the route of one of the midwaylinks between England and Australia. It was the three years during which this mileage had beencovered without a single accident that told, and the people among whom they had worked in the East now expected thisreliability from aircraft, whoever they be operated by, a most hopeful sign for the future of commercial airways. Col. Edwards, C.M.G., who spoke in the unavoidableabsence of Sir Sefton Brancker, said the gathering marked a new stage in aerial development, it being the first luncheonto celebrate Air Survey pure and simple, proving that it had got through its teething stage and was well on to adolescence.He believed the air could solve their difficulties of colonisa- tion. In Canada, Australia and our other Colonies it mustbe realised there were vast regions entirely unsurveyed and un- mapped, to which all classes—professional or otherwise—musthave access. The Company had surveyed 600,000 square miles, and made a reconnaisance of 14,000 square miles, andSir John Eaglesome, the engineer, had told him that had our early engineers only had air services, what vast expenses andtime might have been saved in unknown territories. In regard to communications by air, at present we thought intime, not distance—the only thing that mattered and the only thing that brought about time saving was air transport.The amenities of civilisation were thereby brought to the backblocks of our Colonies, rendering life absolutely differentin those districts. Col. Edwards instanced the Northern part of Central Australia, which was without any means ofcommunication, consequently, with no womenfolk there, without whom colonisation could not go on. Again, airtrans-port enabled them to get medical aid to those parts in reasonable time, rendering it possible for people to live inthose areas who would never otherwise have gone there. In conclusion, he said, infinitely more people had been savedby civil aviation than had ever been killed by aviation. Lieut.-Colonel J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon, ParliamentarySecretary, Ministry of Transport, said that eight years ago he considered himself one of the greatest experts upon avia-tion alive, and yet now none here was more profoundly ignorant upon the subject than himself. The Air Survey Co. required,he thought, all the encouragement it could get. When anyone introduced a new thing it was only under the mosturgent pressure that the man in the street would support it. By way of instance, he recounted some of the difficultiesthat had to be overcome by the Air Force in the early days of the war. " Anybody," he said, " might have imaginedthat photographs of the enemy line of trenches would have been a welcome contribution to the General Staff when anattack was contemplated. But we could not get the staff to accept our photographs, and it was not until GeneralBrancker became a sort of peripatetic picture postcard seller that any impression was made. After the photo-graphs were accepted nobody ever thought of making a map of the enemy lines, and the Royal Flying Corps did a mostirregular thing in making maps themselves. I did that, and I was nearly shot at dawn because it was not in the book.Later on the same thing occurred with regard to the interpre- tation of photographs. There were many things there whichone could read if one had experience. The Flying Corps published a book on the interpretation of aerial photographs,and there was another row because that was the business of Intelligence, G.H.O. That shows the difficulty of introducinga new thing. You who are engaged on aerial survey have got a good thing which you are trying to give to the Govern-ments of the Empire, and although you are not paying a dividend, it is pleasant to see that you are not going intobankruptcy." Sir Alan Cobham emphasised that aerial survey andtransport would be a huge benefit to the country, and it was up to the Governments of the countries concerned to see thatthis company was adequately supported. That would be no philanthropic move when it was realised that the opening upof the countries \>y that means would enormously increase the values of the districts served by these air lines, paying thecountries 10 times over. But it was necessary to influence public opinion to appreciate that. General J. H. McBrien (Chief of the Canadian GeneralStaff) mentioned that in Canada considerable progress had been made on both the commercial and military sides ofaviation. Through the co-operation of the old ground survey system and the newer aerial methods they were surveying atthe rate of about 50,000 square miles a year in Canada. From the military point of view, they were well advanced, andthey used British equipment as far as possible in all their aerial work. His Government were anxious in every wayto work with Britain in developing this great air work for the general benefit of the Empire. Amongst the invited guests, besides those already men-tioned, were The Hon. M. W. Elphinstone, Sir Francis MacLean, Captain F. Tymms (Air Ministry), Flight-Lieut.H. Edwards (Canadian Liaison Officer), Mr." F. D. Thomson (Secretary, Prime Minister's Department, New Zealand), theHon. W. J. Higgins, K.C. (Minister of Justice, Newfoundland), the Hon. A. B. Morine, K.C. (Newfoundland), Major C. G.Lewis (Survey of India), Mr. H. Wyndham Jones, Dr. Charles Hose (Council, Government of Sarawak), Mr. J. F. Hunter,Mr. C. Morrell, Mr. H. O. Short, Mr. C. R. Fairey, Mr. Campbell Hart, Mr. Hugh D. P. Francis, the Hon. A. G. Bell, Mr.Laurence Pritchard, Mr. F. P. Raynham, Mr. \V. P. Kemp, Mr. J. W. L. Kemp, and Mr. C. Acton Dodds. New Ulster Air Squadron Headquarters THE new city headquarters of the Ulster Air (Bombing)Squadron at Donegall Square South were opened on October 30 by the Duke of Abercorn. The squadron, which is for home defence, is stationed at Aldergrove, and at full strengthnumbers some thirty officers and two hundred men. It will be under the command of Wing-Commander A. C.Wright, A.F.C. THE "HAMPSTEAD'S " NEW POWER PLANT : Two views of the three-engined Handley-Page " Hampsteadairliner, for Imperial Airways, fitted with three Bristol "Jupiter " Series VI engines. 736
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