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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0452.PDF
FLIGHT, MAV 15, 1931 engine. The Horsley, with " Condor " engine, survives still in the Royal Air Force as a torpedo- bomber. As a two-seater day-bomber it is obso- lescent, and is being replaced by another Hawker- Rolls Royce machine, the " Hart." Still, lessons could be learnt by trying out the Horsley, which is a very fine flying machine, with a different type of engine. Waghorn was engaged on trying this com- bination, and he was accompanied by one of the engine experts of the R.A.E., Mr. Alexander. What went wrong we do not know, but the machine became uncontrollable and both men had to take to their parachutes at a height of about 500 feet. Alexander jumped first, Waghorn probably hung on to his machine till what he considered the last pos- sible moment (again we are struck by a resemblance to the case of R 101) before he jumped. A strong wind blew him violently against a building, and this inflicted injuries which caused his death. If ever a man died as a martyr to the cause of science, it was Waghorn. Other pilots engaged on test work have been killed before now, and it is only when tragedies happen that we stop to marvel at their rarity and still more at the courage of the pilots who constantly risk their lives on test work. In spirit they are one with the scientists who experimented with X-rays on their own bodies and paid a terrible penalty for so doing. Waghorn was, of course, a national hero. The winner of a Schneider contest always seems a national possession. There has never been a more modest hero. During the training for the Schneider in 1929 our special correspondents at Calshot came in contact with all the members of the High Speed Flight, and in Waghorn they met a man whom to know was to like. At this moment of public sorrow at the loss of a great pilot, it is the personal memories which come to the mind. In offering our sympathy to Mrs. Waghorn, we can assure her that in a different degree we too share her sorrow. We do not profess to be experts on the questions involved in the Government's proposals to tax the value of land. FLIGHT is not a political paper. It is concerned with the air and the craft which fly _, . in the air. In the philosophy of this Aerodromes PaPer- land does not exist except as a basis for the taking-off of aircraft and the landing thereof. It is of no concern to us, editoriall)7, if the Government contrives by means of taxation to cover every piece of land between Land's End and John o' Groats with large and pos- sibly hideous blocks of tenements, provided only that space is left for aerodromes and landing grounds which aircraft can use at a not-prohibitive cost. But a suggestion that aerodromes may be taxed on their value as building land becomes a matter for protest. Capt. Harold Balfour, M.P., raised this point in the House of Commons on May 7. Around London, he said, there are something like six privately-owned aerodromes. The closer to the Metropolis the greater is the value of an aerodrome to the aircraft industry, and the closer it is, the more valuable it is, and the more taxation the Government are going to put on aerodromes if owned by private enterprise. This step, argued the honourable and gallant member, would put a crushing burden upon an essential pos- session of the aircraft industry. It was a new in- dustry, and we had to look to new industries to supply the place of some of the older industries which were dying or dead. Capt. Balfour presumed that every supporter of the Government would say that this new form of transport was all-important ; yet the Government was, nevertheless, going to tax the site value of aerodromes. We will admit that there are certain pieces of land which, if they are to do the greatest possible service to the community, ought not to be aerodromes. We have never been able to sympathise with the demand that Hyde Park should be converted into an aerodrome. Our editorial disregard for land as land will not carry us so far as that. We can even believe that some local bodies would be ill-advised to spend the substance of the ratepayers on acquir- ing an aerodrome which may never be of any prac- tical use to the flying movement, and so will not give the ratepayers a return for their money. It would be just as foolish for a little fishing village which can never hope to become the terminus of a great steamship line to construct a huge harbour with docks and quays. But if authorities whose judgment is above question, and we gather that the Government valuers will be men of that authority, decide that a certain piece of land ought to be an aerodrome, then we consider that the land should be taxed (if at all) at a low rate on account of its utility to the public. Whether the aerodrome is owned privately or by a public body should be of minor importance. The question is whether that piece of land ought to be an aerodrome or not. We confess that we should not like to have to undertake the task of deciding whether an aerodrome at Upper-Slocum-super-Mud was likely to become a vital link in the future network of air lines or air- tourist routes in this country. There are many other duties of the land valuers which we should not care to undertake. But there must be, and in fact there are, plenty of cases in which an aerodrome is clearly of importance and ought to "be regarded as ful- filling the best purpose to which that particular piece of land could be put. To tax the value of that piece of land as a possible building site appears to us i-."1 be against all principles of equity and common sensr. No. 43 (Fighter) Squadron gats its " Furies" FOR the past fortnight No. 43 (Fighter) Squadron atTangmere has been in possession of its full complement of Hawker " Fury " interceptor fighters, in which theRolls Royce " Kestrel " engine is installed. The complete number of machines, of which a fighter squadron has 12in addition to reserves, was delivered to the squadron within 10 days. This, it will be generally agreed, is avery smart piece of delivery work by the H. G. Hawker Engineering Co. Ltd., of Kingston. Nothing is better calcu-lated to deter a hostile nation from sending its bombers across the narrow seas than the knowledge that a vervheavy toll 4s sure to be taken of the raiders before the get back. We have waited a long time for a squadrcrof interceptor fighters to be located in our defence run The expected day has now come, and citizens may sle<-,sounder in their beds for the knowledge. The " Fury could be in no better hands than those of Squadron-LeaotSlatter and the pilots of No. 43 (Fighter) Squadron. v ( have met them, and photographs in our issue of Se tember 19, 1930, show to what a pitch of perfection fighter squadron can be trained. 420
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