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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0444.PDF
FEBRUARY 20, 1936. FLIGHT. 191 The Outlooks A /3 The Scandinavian Airway A NEW and important, though hardly epoch-making, f\ step has been taken by the Air Ministry in deciding to give a subsidy to British Airways, Ltd., for a service from Croydon to Sweden. At the same time, the Post Office has granted -to the same company a contract to carry air mails on the north-bound journey. In the last report of Imperial Airways it was noted that the Air Ministry had asked that firm to absolve the Ministry from its undertaking to give no subsidies for air services in Europe to any other firm but Imperial Airways, and that the proposition had been accepted. A new subsidised air service was then foreshadowed, and it has now come into being. Four foreign companies and another British concern, British Continental Airways, are already flying over most of the route, while a third com pany plans to reach Sweden by a northerly route, and the subsidised firm will therefore have to work hard to secure its share 'of the traffic. A British firm will natur ally be supported by British travellers and letter-writers, and in Denmark and Sweden, too, there is a pro-British sentiment which should help it. Still, a subsidy was obviously a necessity if the com pany was to have any chance of holding its own, and the one-way mail contract will also help. As a matter of general principle, it is better to encourage air transport by mail contracts than by subsidy; but if the former plan is adopted it is necessary that the terms of the contract should be very attractive. At the moment a subsidy, however much we may dislike that expedient, is inevitable. The Precedent r HAT controversy should arise out of the granting of the subsidy to one company was inevitable, and in our Correspondence columns this week there appears a letter which complains bitterly that both subsidy and mail contract should have gone to the same concern. Another company, the writer considers, ought to have had the mail contract. Might is perfectly impartial and holds no opinion as to which company most deserved the patronage of the Air Ministry. But. the suggestion that official favours ought to have been distributed between two companies instead °' being concentrated on one is not easy to support. Imperial Airways was brought into being as a result of the report of the Hambling Committee set up by Sir sarnuel Hoare in 1922-23. It must be presumed that the Present action of the Government has been governed by the principles laid down in that report, which governed ™ original grant of a subsidy to Imperial Airways. it will be remembered that before 1923 there were wc subsidised companies flying across the Channel. .The ambling Committee pointed out that under that arrange- «nt the Government was, in effect, competing with itself. ne report went on to say: " There was not sufficient ^mand for air traffic, to offer the conditions essential ,rt'al competition, and the result of the permanent aerf "aS> tneref°re> to increase, the number of British , planes on the London-Paris route, with consequently c: , ease(l expenditure on flying costs, insurance and depre- • and to reduce the number of passengers per e while the unnecessary cost of separate organisa-« independent management was maintained. The |ion and - competition under these schemes was therefore ty. and until civil aerial transport has become more nearly self-supporting we do not think competition can be relied on, unless at an unnecessary cost, to stimulate its development. So far as efficiency of service is con cerned, adequate incentive should be provided by the direct competition of foreign countries with large Government resources behind them." Though some conditions have changed since 1923, the principles laid down in that report still hold good. It would be wasteful to dissipate Government help between two companies. If, however, those companies could see their way to join forces, as the cross-Channel companies did when Imperial Airways came into being, the British effort on the service to Sweden ought to be, on the face of it, appreciably strengthened. Lord Rothermere Tells the World / N an open letter appearing in various journals Lord Rothermere declares that British warships now lying in the harbours of Alexandria, Haifa and Aden are at Italy's mercy. They are as defenceless against the Italian Air Force as sitting rabbits against hawks. . . . " The latest Italian aeroplanes have a range of a thousand miles out and a thousand miles home. They carry two tons of bombs and fly at 250 miles an hour. Moreover, the time required in Italy to build an aeroplane is, accord ing to my information, ten weeks. It takes much longer in England. Of these formidable instruments of warfare Italy is building between seven and ten daily. And in the Eastern Mediterranean at the present moment Italy has an immensely powerful force of aeroplanes, a high proportion of which are of great speed, range, and bomb- carrying capacity." . . . and, as if this so-called revela tion is not sufficiently disturbing, Lord Rothermere actually goes on. to say, and presumably believes, that .".. . " These magnificent Italian aeroplanes, manned by pilots like those who flew with Balbo to Chicago, and equipped with engines such as gave Italy the world's air speed record, are the masters of the Mediterranean, dominating everything that floats or flies. While some of them were destroying the British Fleet at the eastern end of that sea, others could be raiding British shipping 200 miles west of Gibraltar out in the Atlantic." The Schneider contests (as a result of which the Trophy remains permanently with Great Britain) have certainly taught us a wholesome respect for Italian aircraft, engines, and pilots, but we must admit that aeroplanes which can carry two tons of bombs at 250 m.p.h. for two thousand miles do fairly make our flesh creep. The Italians must have discovered some form of solargetic or lunargetic construction to produce such a performance. The Nimrpds and Ospreys of our carriers, to say nothing of other forces which Sir Samuel Hoare hinted had been sent to the Mediterranean, would naturally be quite unable to protect our fleeL And, by the way, it is certainly interesting to learn from an authority who must not be doubted that the vexed question of whether air power can sink a fleet or not has at last been settled in favour of the air. Obviously, Sir Samuel Hbare was quite wrong when he said that if Italy should attack us we should retaliate, and probably with complete success. With such a force at his command, Signor Mussolini can feel nq anxieties about the safety of his large army separated from its supply base by the Suez Canal, for, of course, British bombers would be powerless to damage the Italian supply ships on their way to the port of Masawah. It is so nice to think that worries on that score do not keep the Duce awake at nights.
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