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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0430.PDF
FLIGHT, AUGUST 31, 193a In the early post-war days an Air Conference was held every year at the Guildhall, which was always attended by Brig. Gen. Williamson on behalf of the G.P.O. In all his speeches at those conferences the gist was this—: " Aircraft may fly faster than trains and steamers can move, but they are not yet reliable ; achieve reliability, and then come and talk to us." It was made perfectly clear that a slower, reliable, mail service was considered by the G.P.O. far prefer able to a faster, erratic service, and this attitude was doubtless the result of long experience of the needs of the business community. Suggestions that the G.P.O. should help air transport were lightly waived aside, with the remark that air mail subsidies were the affair of the Air Ministry. The G.P.O. could only consider the interests of its own clients, the letter-writing public. It is very difficult to find any fault with that attitude of the G.P.O. The position now is different. Air transport was then not entirely reliable. Now, thanks to technical advances, it ought to be as reliable as any other form of transport. If a mail aeroplane does not arrive up to time in these days, one may fairly conclude that something is wrong with the organisation. It may not be the fault of the pilot or the ground staff on the aerodromes, but still something is wrong which ought to be put right. Perhaps a new route has been opened before the aircraft specially designed to work that route are ready, and it may have been held better policy to take a risk and open the service than to wait for the delivery. In that case the flying company may have done the best in the circum stances, but still something is wrong. Our conten tion is that at the present stage of development air transport ought to be able to offer the G.P.O. the reliability which it has always demanded. The operators ought to be willing to sign an agreement containing a strict penalty clause to deal with cases of late arrival. In that case, it does seem to be time for the G.P.O. to make far more use of the air mail than it has done in the past. There are various ways in which the G.P.O. can patronise the air mail. At present it leaves to the letter-writing public the decision as to whether a letter shall go by air mail or not. That is not done in all countries. Another system is for the Post Office to take the responsibility itself of deciding whether the mail is to go by air or otherwise, without additional charge to the correspondents. In that case the G.P.O. bears the extra cost, which means that public money is used to pay a form of subsidy to the air transport company. It is paid for definite services rendered, and for that the system is to be approved. In that case there should be no need for a direct subsidy from any other Department of Government. Our British G.P.O. is a profitable concern, and of late in these days of financial stringency the Govern ment has warmly welcomed its profits as a useful contribution to the revenue of the year. Well, of course, we have to pay our way, and if the money cannot be found in one way, then it must be found in another, and then perhaps the income tax might go up another 6d. or so. Even in these days, however, it behoves Govern ment Departments to look ahead. If it is apparent, as some believe, that our future interests and profits are being risked by lack of support now for our air services, it would seem to be the duty of the G.P.O. to take the lead in, demanding the right to give those services a helping hand out of its annual surplus. To do so would be helping the public, the letter-writing public, which we commenced by saying was the first duty of the G.P.O. The assistance to the flying companies would be merely a means to a public end, not a bowing down in the house of the great god Aeronautics. It is a recognised principle of the Government (in fact of all our Governments for a good many years past) that at least one flying company must be helped out of public funds. We can hardly complain if that assistance comes only out of one set of Estimates, the Air Estimates, and not out of two. It seems reason able now to inquire whether the time is not approach ing, or even if it has not already come, for the Post Office to take over from the Air Ministry the duty of assisting air transport. Of course, it would have to be expected that the agreement would be inspired more by a businesslike concern for the public interests and less by sympathy for aircraft than the old arrangements have been, but the time has either come or is soon coming when such an arrangement should be welcome to air transport companies. An air mail contract, even including a stringent penalty clause, should be a very profitable affair. Such mail contracts have been the rule in the United States and Canada. The Dutch East Indies service has also worked on that basis and has been very well satisfied with it. On that service the Post Office pays for 500 kg. of mail matter to be carried on each trip. If less than that weight is forthcoming, then the Post Office bears the loss. Above the 500 kg. the Post Office begins to make a profit. The latter therefore has every inducement to advertise the air mail and to persuade the public to use it. The public still decides whether each letter is to go by air or not. An im provement on that would be for all first-class mail matter to be sent by air at the cost of the G.P.O. without further reference to the public, as a substitute for the unpopular subsidy system now in force in this country. We understand that the Australian Govern ment intends to subsidise the Singapore-Australia service on a mail basis only, passenger accommoda tion being provided at the contractor's own risk. This should give useful experience to guide us in oui future policy. Very good accounts have reached us about the new programme for training the Reserve of Air ^orc^ Officers which came into force last April. Each officer now does 20 hours' flying p.a. instead of U, which is a great improvement, and doe R.A.F.O. them on very good types of light aero; Training plane, the " Cadet," " Tiger Moth , Blackburn B2, and " Cutty Sark- The chief improvement, however, is that mere aim less putting in of flying time has been abolishet1, an now every flight has a definite object, cross-country. photography, bombing the camera obscura, irtb r ment-flying, and such like. The course has^now become much more interesting to the Reserve oflice and the instructors alike, and the Reservists are Ke^ in much better form as pilots who can take places in squadrons in a time of emergency. SjjK mt -•t 860
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