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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 0734.PDF
AUGUST 2, 1928 CIVIL AVIATION IN PARLIAMENT SOME interesting points were raised in the House of Commonson July 30 during the discussion on the Vote of -£415,000 for civil aviation. Capt. Guest, who opened the discussion,said while the attitude of the Air Ministry was now decidedly friendly towards civil ^viation, there was still little to showin results, and other countries were doing far more. He held that the development of civil aviation was essential fordefence, and the cheapest defence would be the stimulation, side by side with the military effort, of a large developmentof civil aviation as a potential reserve in war.' Capt. Guest pointed out that the prospect of linking up North and SouthAfrica by air with all its British Dependencies, was likely to be filched from us by another country, and referred to theactivities of Belgium in the Congo, and to the proposed agreement, between that country and P'rance, to link upthe Mediterranean with Central Africa. In the opinion of Mr. Garro-Jones, Great Britain had byno means secured her proper place in regard to civil aviation, and had to take the seventh place in the development ofcommercial aviation—even smaller countries like Holland being ahead of Great Britain. That civil and military aviation should be kept separatewas the opinion of Lieut.-Col. Moore-Brabazon. The ques- tion of war coming in connection with civil aviation, hethought, prevented many potential friends giving it the sup- port which they would otherwise do. Mr. L'Estrange Malone said that more money ought tobe devoted to experimental work in aeronautics, and encourag- ing our aircraft constructors to try out new designs, whileMr. Hore-Belisha thought the reason why the development of civil aviation was so slow in this country was that, likebroadcasting, it was in the hands of a monopoly. A passenger and mail air service between Southampton,London, Liverpool, Glasgow and Belfast was suggested by Sir R. Lynn, and another suggestion, put forward by Rear-•. Admiral M. Sueter, was that the Secretary for Air should organise a big aviation exhibition, together with an ImperialAir Conference, in London next year. Sir Henry Brittain asked the Secretary for Air to see thatwe were put in our right place on the map and in the air in the future—it was, he said, a farce that we should possessso few machines in comparison with France and Germany. Sir S. Hoare, Secretary of State for Air, replying, saidthe Air Ministry had three aims which they were trying to achieve in the development of the civil side of aviation—one, to diffuse over the country a knowledge of air questions and a general interest in flying ; another, to make the civilair lines economical and self-supporting ; and thirdly, the development of Imperial air communications. Regardingthe first, the country as a whole was much more keenly air minded now than it was four or five years ago, as was demon-strated in the development of light aeroplane clubs, which had done more to stimulate interest in air questions thananything else. They had created a demand for light aero- planes, and several members had made distant and adven-turous journeys to Australia and South Africa, whilst the number of civil pilots had greatly increased. It was the Government's aim, he said, to make civilaviation economically self-supporting, and while civil avia- tion could be of great use in various ways, whether self-supporting or not, it was essential that sooner or later it must be free of Government subsidy. During the last three years the actual tonnage carriedby the Imperial Airways Company had ri%en by 66-3 per cent., and the load factor had risen from 60-23 per cent,to 66-27 per cent., whilst the insurance premium paid in respect to Imperial Airways machines had fallen from 20per cent, to 10 per cent., even under the worst conditions. British civil aviation had been making quite definite progressduring the last three years, and, so far from being criticised, was being held up as an object of admiration. We wereon the high road to making civil aviation self-supporting. As regards long distance Imperial air routes, he had beencriticised for going slowly ; he pointed out, however, that <$> <•> Australian Aerial Services' Good Record ON June 4 last the air mail and passenger serviceoperated by Australian Aerial Services, Ltd. (" Lasco "), whose headquarters are situated at the Melbourne Aero-drome, completed its fourth year of operations. Inaugurated in June, 1924, the service was increased in July, 1925, bytwo " feeder " routes (one from Melbourne to Hav and one they would have had the London-India route in actual opera-tion months ago, but for difficulties that had arisen between one or two foreign countries. During the past 12 monthshe had given considerable and careful attention to the diffi- culty which had arisen with the Persian Government inconnection with the right to fly over the Persian section of the route. He was in constant conversation with the PersianGovernment, and he saw no reason why the route should not be running to scheduled time next April, and was hopeful thatan arrangement would be arrived at equally satisfactory to Persian and British interests. He had made a start with theIndia route, but once that was in full operation they would turn their attention principally to the Cape to Cairo route. Already Sir Alan Cobham had been asked to present pro-posals, and he was also in touch with the Colonial Office and the Governments concerned on the route, and as soon as hehad got the data he would see whether before the end of this Parliament they could not make a start with that greatImperial route. On the question of subsidies, Sir Samuel said it was betterto subsidise one company rather than a number of companies, and progress had been much quicker by that method than itwould have been under the scheme of subsidising numerous small companies which existed before Imperial Airways cameinto being. He was, however, prepared to consider the best proposals from whatever source they came, but the bestcourse in his view was for the various interests concerned to get together and put up a concerted proposal, and hewould then see whether he could obtain the necessary subsidy. Should, at any time in the future, the British taxpayer becalled upon to pay a subsidy for an Imperial air route, then the Governments concerned along the route must take theirfull share and only call upon the British taxpayer to make up the deficiency—he hoped, a small one. Referring to the airship programme, Sir Samuel said thiswas an integral part of the civil aviation problem. Should the airships prove successful they would have gone far tosolve the long-distance non-stop Imperial air routes, and would avoid certain difficulties which had held them up onaeroplane routes. The airship programme was developing not unsatisfactorily, and the two airships (R.100 and R.101)would be ready for flight at very much the dates he had pre- viously given to the House. As soon as they had done theirhome trials they would start trials to more distant places. Regarding an air service in the West Indies, Sir Samuelsaid he would like to see one started, but the expenditure for such a service should fall mainly on the West Indian Govern-ment. He would also be glad to look into the suggestion of a flying-boat service between Southampton and Belfast, andshould such a service be established, it was reasonable to expect some financial assistance from Belfast and theGovernment of Northern Ireland. If a proposal for this service were put forward, he would be prepared to lay itbefore Imperial Airways or other suitable organisation. In his concluding remarks, before the Discussion wasadjourned, Sir Samuel said, although he would have liked to have seen larger sums devoted to civil aviation duringthe last three or four years, we had not done so badly. We were now going to emerge on a period of definitely greateractivity- We had the data on which we could base our plans for further progress. The agreement which he hadrecently signed with the Imperial Airways Company was based on the data of the experience of the last three or fouryears. The first of the main principles on which the agree- ment had been drawn up was a concentration on long-distance Imperial lines rather than short-distance European lines. A very important point in the new agreement was thatthe Air Ministry stipulated that the company should have an obsolescence clause under which its machines would becomeobsolete at a much quicker rate than heretofore. We had now got to the point where we could say clearly that, afterpossibly two or three more changes from the present types of machines, the machines would be covering expenses and civilaviation would be actually self-supporting. from Broken Hill to Mildura), both time-tables interlocking with the through air line from Adelaide to Cootamundra. The company's fleet, comprising single-engined machines of post-war design, has now flown 600,692 mileswitb 9,287 passengers, without a fatality. This distance is equal to 24 flights around the world at the equator, or nearly three flights to the moon ! 678
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