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Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0966.PDF
satisfaction the prospective opening of a regular air service between Cairo and Karachi and of an experi- mental service between Khartoum and Kisumu ; also the decision of the British and South African Governments to carry out a series of experimental flights to connect as far as possible with the latter ser- vice ; and the decision of the Australian Government to arrange for flights by the Royal Australian Air Force from Australia towards Singapore to link up with similar flights of the Royal Air Force from Singa- pore towards Australia. The Imperial Conference recommends that the development of other air services should receive the early consideration of the Governments concerned, and that in this connection particular attention should be paid to the maintenance of existing, and the construction of new, aerodromes as far as local resources permit, with a view to the ultimate creation of a complete system of Empire air routes. In view of the great potentialities of the airship and the present lack of constructional and other facilities it is recommended that the Governments of the Dominions concerned and India should examine the possibility of erecting nucleus mooring-mast bases to be available for demonstration flights in 1928-29 by the two airships now under construction, and of instituting such preliminary meteorological investigations as may be necessary to facilitate these demonstration flights ; and that His Majesty's Govern- ment in Great Britain should consider the erection of a second shed at the Royal Airship Works at Carding- ton. It is further recommended that an Imperial Air Conference should be held in 1928 or 1929 at some suitable Imperial centre, to report progress and to consider what further action can be taken for the development of Imperial air communications. The conference notes with appreciation the invitation of the Dominion of Canada that this conference should take place in Canada. Finally, the sub-committee expresses the opinion that the present system of communicating information in regard to civil aeronautics should be continued, and that exchanges should be made from time to time between the civil aviation officials of Great Britain and the Dominions and India, as far as the limitations of staff and local considerations permit. The recom- mendations made in the report of the sub-committee were unanimously adopted by the Imperial Conference at its fifteenth meeting on November 19, 1926. The statement on Imperial Air Communications made to the Imperial Conference by Sir Samuel Hoare has already been given in abbreviated form in FLIGHT. The Memorandum by Sir Samuel Hoare, under the title " The Approach towards a System of Imperial Air Communications," deals in four sections, with the rise of air transport during the years 1920-26, the first Imperial aeroplane services, progress towards the establishment of Imperial airship services, and the future of Imperial air transport. Six appendices contain information of a very detailed nature relating to the aeroplane transport development of the principal nations ; the regulation and administration of civil aviation ; aeroplane transport operating costs ; the organisation of the cross-Channel aeroplane services ; notes on the organisation of airship services ; and some special uses of aeroplanes. The statistics contained in this volume, and par- DECEMBER 16, 1926 ticularly in the appendices, provide fascinating read- ing. Unfortunately there has not been sufficient time in which to go through these, much less to con- sider their significance, for us to be able to comment on them in this week's issue of FLIGHT. We hope to return to the subject in detail in subsequent issues. .. .. The subject of airships in connection with Imperial air communications forms a fairly large proportion of Sir Samuel Hoare's Memorandum, and even a cursory glance through the publication appears to indicate the importance attached by governments to this branch of civil aviation. FLIGHT has, on the subject of the new five million cubic foot airships, expressed some doubt in the past as to the wisdom of launching out with such an ambitious programme, and we have pointed out that Great Britain's previous experience of airship design and construction was barely sufficient to make the undertaking of building airships of this size more than a gigantic experiment. We have also repeatedly pointed out the need for the very greatest caution, and for as thorough experimentation as the time and capital available would allow. In this connection the statement made in Sir Samuel Hoare's Memorandum under the heading '' The Progress of the Experimental Programme, 1924-26," is fairly reassuring. The state- ment points out that " work under the experimental programme has now been proceeding for about 18 months, and that the varied and complicated problems of airship construction and operation have been approached by a cautious and scientific method, and that a considerable amount of practical progress has been made. Important investigations into the principles of airship construction have been carried out and submitted successfully to the test of full-scale experiment." So far so good. What the Memorandum does not point out, but which is by now a secret known to everyone, is that the constructional work has been handed over to a private firm which already had established a very high reputation for its work on all-metal (and more particularly all-steel) construction of aeroplanes. It is believed that this firm has been given a fairly free hand, and although one may not go into detail at the moment, we personally regard this fact as a happy augury. A thorough knowledge of the constructional material—in this case steel—its treatment, peculiarities and application is an essential factor in the equation of success, and the fact that the firm in question has the entire handling of the steel, from the raw material to the finished components, should make for that close co-operation between design office and shops which is so important in all engineering but probably nowhere more so than in the case of a new airship of a somewhat experimental character. The Memorandum admits that much yet remains to be done, but one can at any rate agree cordially with the remarks of the Secretary of State for Air when he concludes this section of his Memorandum by saying : " When this experimental programme has been successfully completed there can be no doubt that airship design "and construction will have been placed upon an entirely new and more practical basis ; and the way will then be clear for carrying out the further experiments which are required to establish the practicability of regular airship operation through- out the Empire." 822
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