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Aviation History
1929
1929 - 0486.PDF
MARCH 7, 1929 AIR COMMUNICATIONS An Informative Address BRIGADIER-GENERAL P. R. C. GROVES, Hon. Secretary General of the Air League of the British Empire, gave an address to the London Chamber of Commerce, on February 27, on " Air Communications." In the course of this he gave some illuminating air statistics. The length of the world's air routes in actual operation now totalled 76,000 miles, he explained. The air route mileage of Europe (including Soviet Russia and the French extension to Senegal) totalled 49,000 miles, an increase of 33£ per cent, over 1927. Of that air route mileage, Germany had 18,000 miles, France 12,500 miles and Great Britain 1,080 miles. Even if we included the Cairo-Basra service our total air route mileage was only 2,200 miles. German Development Nothing was more remarkable in the history of aero- nautics than the development of German commercial flying. In 1923 German commercial aircraft carried 8,000 passengers ; in 1924, 13,000 passengers ; in 1925, 55,000 passengers ; in 1926 the whole svstem was reorganised, which involved stopping flying on many air routes for a considerable period, and the increase was therefore small; the total number of passengers carried being 56,000. But in 1927, the total number of passengers was over 102,000 ; in 1928 it was 111,000. Thus, within a period of six years, there was roughly a fourteen-fold increase in the number of people who travelled by air. The increase in freight and mail was even more striking. In 1923 it amounted to 44 tons : in 1927 it was 1,843 tons, and in 1928, 2,385 tons. The lecturer then traced the advan- tages Germany had gained by the development of commercial flying. It was true, he said, that it had its great lead largely as a result of State subsidies. But the total amount from the Government had averaged less than /1,000,000 a year—a mere bagatelle from a national point of view. The (ierman subsidy for the current year is /840.000, as against our £250,000 French and American Aviation Turning to France, General Groves said that last year the French Government followed our example by setting up a separate Air Ministry, and announced a considerable pro- gramme of expansion. The new Air Minister had asked the Chamber of Deputies to increase the civil aviation vote from £1,755,000 for the current financial year (finishing April 5) to £2,555,000 for 1929, with a further substantial increase for 1930 and subsequent years. He proposes that the annual subsidy, which amounts for the current year to £997,000, should be increased to £1,375,000 for 1929, and to £1,500,000 in 1930. Judging by the reception given to these demands by the French press there seemed but little doubt that the increase would be voted." In America he said that the Government led the way by laying out the New York-San Francisco airway and operating it as an air mail service. That line was inaugurated in September, 1920, and was confined to a day service only until July, 1924, when the lighting of the line was completed and a day and night service was inaugurated. The route has developed into the most completely-equipped airway in the world. The distance between New York and San Fran- cisco was now covered in 29 hours as against nearly four days by the fastest train A standard of 93 per cent, of efficiency •was maintained throughout last year. The great success of the service, which was put out to contract and taken over by- civil enterprise in 1927, led to a public demand for feeder lines, with the result that there were to-day some 12,395 miles oi air routes in regular operation, most of which carry passengers in addition to mails and freight. Of that total air route mileage some 8,000 miles are lit for night flying. A recent survey had shown that the average daily transfers of funds and securities between New York and Cleveland amounted to $1,300,000, and between New York and Chicago to $5,000,000. In fact, the majority of those transfers were now sent by air, and the daily interest saved was very considerable. The boom in commercial flying in America during the past few years had been very remarkable. There were now 2,000 cities and towns which were either equipped with airports or had allotted space for the purpose. In six years the capital investment of the aircraft industry had increased from $5,000,000 to $100,000,000. In addition, over $50,000,000 were invested in air transport enterprises. Successful Unsubsidised Air Lines Last May, Mr. Hoover, then American Secretary of State for Commerce, now President of the United States, made the following statement :—" Two years ago civil aviation, which is under a branch of the Department of Commerce, -gave evidence that a time-saving element would soon make it self- supporting. To-day a third of the existing lines, although they are wholly unsubsidised. pay a fair return on invested capital, despite the pioneering period, and others are near that goal. " Civilian contractors have now taken over from the Govern- ment the operation of these air routes at competitive rates, less than half those authorised by law. Routes covering 3,300 miles flying daily have been authorised, an increase of 340 per cent, in two years. The Government lights the air- ways, provides intermediate fields, beacons and radio com- munication ; examines the craft, licenses the pilots, maps the airways, distributes weather reports, encourages the establish- ment of municipal air ports, but does not subsidise. Of $4,360,000, this year's appropriation, more than three and a-half millions are for increasing facilities. There are now almost 6,000 miles of lighted airways ; by J une there will be 7,500 miles. March saw 5,055 applications for aeroplane licences, 3,925 pilots' licences, 1,322 students' licences and 2,294 mechanics' licences. Two hundred airports have been established during the year. The Government participated in the tours of Byrd, the North Pole flier, Colonel Lindbergh and others." The British Empire Coming to the British Empire, General Groves said that as an indication of the position which we now occupied he would mention that last summer Germany was flying com- mercially some 45,000 miles a day on an average, as against our daily average of 3,000 miles. Our total air fleet consists of but 21 commercial machines while both France and Ger- many each have several hundreds. We were now about to extend our Cairo-Basra service to Karachi and connect London by services (partly by air and partly by train) with Cairo. That would be a great advance but for the fact that we were only adding four machines to our air fleet. That was not the fault of the company concerned, but was due to lack of official and public support. During the past three years Imperial Airways, our only air transport company, had flown a distance of 3,283,000 nules and carried 87,600 passengers without injury to any onr of them. There was a conclusive answer to the very common question : Can commercial flying be made safe ? As regards regularity, during the summer months of 1928, Imperial Airways completed 98-8 per cent, of their scheduled flights. For the whole of 1927 the percentage was 92-5. By far the greatest factor in the question of reliability was that of nights cancelled owing to bad weather. But for that Imperial Airways' standard of reliability for last summer worked out at 99-8 per cent. On the Cairo-Basra weekly service, a distance of 1,135 miles, 100 per cent, regularity had been maintained for months together. In conclusion Gen. Groves discussed the scope for air com- munications from Great Britain, and appealed to the London Chamber of Commerce to form an aviation section. Performance Tests ON March 14, Wing-Commander G. B. Hynes, D.S.O., will lecture before the Royal Aeronautical Society at 6.30 p.m., in the Lecture Hall of the Royal Society of Arts, 18, John Street, Adelphi, W.C.2, on "'Engine Performance Tests." In the course of his lecture, Wing-Commander Hynes will draw comparisons between bench tests and full performance tests of engines, and describe methods of testing. The Wrong Pilot " IN our account of the christening ceremony of the West- land " Wapiti" for Australia published last week, it was stated that the two " Wapitis " were piloted by Mr. Brunton and Mr. Penrose respectively. It has been pointed out to us that this was not the case, and that the two machines were, in fact, piloted by Flight-Lieut. Paget and Flying Officer Brunton. 194
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