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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0044.PDF
FLIGHT, JANUARY 16, 1931 of the air route from Karachi to Australia, the conditions, political as well as geographical, of India, must necessarily play an important part. His stay in India will have given Col. Shelmerdine a very good insight into Indian affairs, and his " local " knowledge of people and conditions should be of inestimable value to the new D.C.A. in dealing with the numerous problems which are bound to arise. At present, India is the " missing link " in the chain. Australia already has some extremely useful internal air lines, and the Imperial Airways route from London to Karachi is probably running with as good results as any obtained anywhere. But the two cannot link up until the question of the Indian sections has been settled. Col. Shelmerdine knows, none better, what obstacles will have to be over- come. But overcome they must be. It is intoler- able that the air route from which the Empire has, probably, more to gain than from any other, should be hung up because agreement cannot be reached. Hitherto there have been two fairly good excuses for the delay : the difficulties of coming to an agree- ment with India, and the hope that airships might, with one blow, so to speak, cut all Gordian knots by making very long non-stop stages possible. The deplorable calamity which resulted in the loss of K 101, with a number of valuable lives, has postponed indefinitely this second possibility, and we can no longer afford to wait for airships to prove their worth. Whatever airship policy Great Britain may ultimately decide upon, we must go ahead planning our immediate developments, using as a basis for the planning not such aircraft as may exist in ten years' time, but such as we already have available, or which are technically within sight. The lamentably slow airship progress of the last few years has already set us back a good deal, but if action is taken immediately, we still have time to retrieve the lost opportunities. But action must be taken at once. Holland has set an example which should make us, as a great nation, ashamed of ourselves. While we vacillated and held conferences which never produced anything beyond verbiage, Holland acted. While we hung fire, in the hope that the airship might one day prove capable of doing our long- distance air-mail work, Holland made use, and right good use, of such heavier-than-air equipment as she had, and the capabilities of which were known to within a very little. The benefits which Holland will derive from her linking up her East Indian possessions with the motherland are, proportionately, smaller than those which Great Britain and Australia would enjoy if linked together by an efficient air service. Yet Holland has not hesitated to venture forth. And the irony of the situation is that, if Great Britain does not bestir herself very soon, it will be Holland or France, and not Great Britain which will provide the " missing link " in the British chain to Australia. If Col. Shelmerdine is a good enough " smith " to forge that link during the next year or two, he will have done more than any single man towards establishing real Empire aviation. One may, or one may not, regard the Italian flying- boat squadron flight to South America as having been justifiable. That depends upon how large a percentage of casualties one would regard as " reasonable " for a flight of this the nature- But of the impression which Flag " the flight has created in South America generally there can be but one opinion. It should be borne in mind that we have here Latin " showing off " to Latin. We, with our more phlegmatic temperament, might be less enthusiastic. We might say, and with a great deal of truth, that some of the British flying-boat cruises to the East have been as meritorious. So they have. And. from a technical point of view, probably a great deal more instructive. But there is no gainsaying the mass-effect which the large number of machines has upon the general public, nor the convincing quality lent to that effect by the fact of crossing the breadth of the South Atlantic. And as a daring gesture, a " do or die " piece of showmanship, the flight has probably been worth while. To British aviation, the significance of the flight lies in the nearness of the opening of the Buenos Aires exhibi- tion. That the flight has set the whole of South America talking aviation there can be no doubt. That a great admiration for Italian aviation has been aroused by the flight is equally certain. And as the Buenos Aires exhibition is entirely a British affair, the fact that Italy should have, so shortly beforehand, made such excellent aviation propaganda cannot but be of benefit to those British aviation firms which will be exhibiting and demonstrating aircraft at the show. And so, once more, British aviation will owe a great deal to that most picturesque of all air ministers, General Italo Balbo. Likewise will British aviation circles sympathise sincerely with General Balbo, and with Italian aviation in general, in the loss of some of the gallant personnel who took part in this memorable flight. Spain's Air Force SuppressedAs a result of the recent revolt at the Cuatro Vientos aerodrome, a Royal Decree, dated January 8 and signed bythe King of Spain, suppresses the Spanish Air Force as at present constituted, and within a month all officers and menwill cease to wear the aviation uniform, and will be returned to their regiments. The air force will then be completelyreorganised. Changes in the Command of France's Air Forces ONE of the first acts under the new French Air Minister, M. Painleve1, has been a reorganisation of the High Command of France's Aerial Forces. Byr a new decree issued by ^Painleve the system hitherto in force of having two Inspei tor- Generals, one for the naval air force and one for the milit iry,one official will in future be in charge of the inspection of material for both army and navy. Another innovation 1Sthe creation of a new post under the title Chief of Stan of the Aerial Forces. The appointment to this post has f: Meiito General Bares. Under him the new Chief of Staff >vl'' have two sub-chiefs, one of whom will deal with the n. valsection and the other with the army section. Time alone :an show whether the new system will work better than did <l'icold. i 46
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