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Aviation History
1932
1932 - 1164.PDF
FLIGHT, NOVEMBER 17, 1932 and climate of the United Kingdom, coupled with the short distances and superabundance of existing means of land communication, preclude any domestic development on the scale which will be possible for the principal nations of the Continent. Our aircraft, the majority of which must necessarily be overseas, could not get back to this country in the event of war and, accordingly, the United Kingdom would be placed in a position of permanent inferiority in the air ; and London and these islands left exposed to overwhelming air attack without any means of defence. (3) No safeguard would be afforded by schemes for the internationalisation of commercial air transport. The internationalisation of commercial air transport would merely, without producing any useful result, cripple British enterprise, which has made a most promising start in this, the newest, field of world communications—and one which may in the future prove as valuable an Imperial asset as is the mercantile marine to-day after long centuries of development. (4) The internationalisation of commercial air trans port would, further, leave the aircraft appertaining to internal flying, whether for business, sport or pleasure, un touched ; and these aircraft already largely outnumber those employed in connection with commercial air transport. (5) Any restriction on these latter categories of flying would be a measure of reaction and interference with the legitimate advance of the science of transport and the im provement of international communications which is one of the greatest forces making for mutual understanding and peace between the nations. Indeed, it would be as reasonable to curtail the development of commercial and private flying as to restrict bacteriological and chemical research on the grounds that these two fields of scientific progress can equally be misemployed for war purposes. (6) Aircraft, judiciously employed in our Overseas Empire, have proved the most practicable means of pre serving peace over large areas of the world's surface without an incalculable expenditure of blood and treasure. All political authorities of standing are agreed that ex perience has finally established the humanity, efficacy and economy of the use of aircraft for police work in the Middle East, on the North West Frontier of India and AIR MINISTRY ~j|j~ ACK of space has prevented us, until now, from II ^ publishing further letters concerning A.N.D.ll, III J about which we published opinions from many correspondents in our issue of November 3. Below are some which were held over last week. An aircraft designer whose name is a household word, but who prefers to remain anonymous, writes: — " I read your article on A.N.D. 11 with limited interest because I know little about regulations. " If a designer, old or new, studied all the regulations which exist or are imminent he would never design any thing worth producing. He would be well advised to forget that any official regulations existed and to let his design be governed by practical experience. He should then construct and test his machine, and face the con sequences." Another well-known aircraft engineer, whose intimate knowledge of Government restrictions might have been expected to fit him for understanding the regulations, seems to entertain some doubt. He writes: — " If your reading of A.N.D.ll is correct so far as the flying of aircraft produced by " non-approved " firms or persons is concerned, the new direction would seem unnecessarily to stifle enterprise. " Some of the most interesting developments have emanated in the past and certainly will emanate in the future from " non-approved " sources, and the extent to which everything connected with flying is already sub jected to official control might well daunt the experimenter. If it now comes to writing for official permission every time he wants to try his product in his own field, only the bravest of these experimenters will ever experiment, and I think it is probable that those who do will face the police court as the less worrying alternative. " There is also the rather disquieting fact that an impor tant new regulation affecting the liberty of people to do as they please with their own property suddenly appears complete and, so far as I know, unheralded. No one seems to know why it has appeared or who initiated it. elsewhere where they have saved many millions during the past decade. (7) For example: (a) the evacuation from Kabul by the Royal Air Force of 586 men, women and children of 11 different nationalities in the winter of 1928 is held by those most competent to judge to have averted another Afghan war ; (b) in the Aden Protectorate aircraft alone have been able to eject the Imam of the Yemen from the territory of tribes whom Great Britain was bound by treaty to protect and of which he had for many years been in wrongful and oppressive occupation ; and the withdrawal of aircraft from Aden would inevitably result in the immediate renewal of his incursions ; (c) aircraft have been used with equal effect to check the turbulence of the desert and mountain tribes in Iraq, on the North West Frontier of India, in the Sudan and elsewhere. (8) It is therefore evident that the abolition of military and naval aircraft, coupled with the internationalisation of civil aviation, must alike endanger our national security in these islands and render impossible, unless at a prohibi tive cost in terms of life and money, the discharge of our Imperial responsibilities. (9) It would seem, therefore, that until international morality has reached a stage when there is no possibility of breaches of the Kellogg Pact, and the march of civili sation has brought about the reign of law and order in primitive parts of the world, only the possession of adequate air forces can give us a reasonable measure of security at home and overseas and enable us to seek world peace and ensure it. (10) It is therefore our earnest conviction that His Majesty's Government should not countenance any pro posals for the abolition of military and naval aircraft or the internationalisation of civil aviation which we regard as impracticable, undesirable and contrary to the national interest. Great Britain has for years past adopted an air policy which virtually amounts to unilateral disarmament. It has profited us nothing. The principal air powers of the world should disarm to our level when it may be that we can, as a next stage, effect some further reduction, in unison with other nations, to as low a point as our national and Imperial responsibilities permit. RESTRICTIONS " I have accepted your interpretation of the direction, as I do not feel specially competent to go into the matter myself, having only just emerged from an attempt (starting with the Airworthiness Handbook) to find out whether a six-passenger machine must carry a drift indicator to qualify for a Certificate of Airworthiness. I have obtained a solution to this problem almost unaided, but it would be interesting to see if everyone would arrive at the same result. These problems vary in difficulty and reach a maxi mum just before the issue of a new edition when there are plenty of amending leaflets to the last editions of the documents concerned." A pilot and constructor who may be classed as an- " amateur " (because he designs and builds aeroplanes mainly as a hobby, and not because of any amateurish ness in his products) deprecates the criticisms so often made of " Farnborough." It has been his personal ex perience that whenever he has been in trouble or in doubt about any obscure point in design, he has only had to go to Farnborough with his problems, and has there always been able to get hold of a man who could, and would, help him. (That merely supports our view that, generally speaking, officials individually do all they can to help, but they are as hampered and worried by the restrictions as are the builders of aircraft.—ED.) For the rest, our " Amateur " designer says he is quite capable of looking after himself, and he does not expect to be severely inter fered with in the future pursuit of his hobby. In the House, on November 9, Sir P. Sassoon, Under- Secretary of State for Air, said, in reply to questions, that A.N.D.ll contained no new departure of principle, but was designed to clarify the regulations, and had been drawn up in the interests of the safety of the general public and of pilots. Another A.N.D. publication seems necessary for "clarifying" the clarified A.N.D.ll! At any rate, the Air Ministry has been acting upon A.N.D.li as if it did mean what it says.
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