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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1154.PDF
MAY 7, 1936. FLIGHT. All The Outlooks A /a In the Irish Free State / T seems that Mr. Eamon de Valera's Government is cogitating an Air Transport Bill for the Irish Free State. Hitherto that Dominion seems to have man aged without one, not because the Irish railways are so overwhelmingly efficient that no other form of transport would have any chance of success, but for other reasons. One of them may be that the climate of Ireland is even wetter than that of Great Britain. Something or other has now jogged the Government of the I.F.S. into an approach to airmindedness. It is not impossible that his something may be the prospect of Imperial Airways' trans- Atlantic service using a terminus in Ireland. It will be remembered that Alcock and Whitten Brown ended the first flight from Newfoundland in a Cormemara bog, but it is not the idea that all trans-Atlantic flights should copy this precedent too meticulously. Lindbergh also might have come to rest in Ireland. He said that he planned his navigation across the Atlantic so that even if he made an error he would hit Europe somewhere between Ireland and Portugal. Nothing definite has yet been published as to the western terminus of the coming service with America, and sites in both the I.F.S. and Northern Ireland have been considered. Plans are in hand for an airport at Cork. The Irish Press, which is Mr. de Valera's organ, says that the national air transport company which is to be estab lished will finance or hold interest in air transport com panies operating between the IJF.S. and other countries. It may be presumed that this does not imply an attempt to drive a hard bargain with Imperial Airways over the use of the Atlantic terminus. If there were any suggestion of this, it would be a reason for choosing a terminus in Northern Ireland, which is still enthusiastically part of the United Kingdom. Falling Like a Sohn \A/E must confess to some disappointment on wit- Vy nessing Mr. Clem Sohn's "human bird" stunt— probably a result of believing too large a fraction of what the popular Press had been promising. Remembering the loading which the man and his two parachutes must give the two bat-like wings and tail- between -the-1 egs, one always doubted the five-mile glide claims; yet, even so, one was not prepared for quite such a plummet-like dive as followed Mr. Sohn's departure, at 9,oooft., from a B.A. Swallow piloted by Fit. Lt. J. B. llson. True, his smoke trail showed a distinct departure jrom the vertical, and even a few odd twists and turns, H,t by no stretch of the imagination could the descent «ave been considered a flight or glide. -Nevertheless, there can have been very few among the »uge crowd, flying folk included, who did not miss a "eart-beat as the plucky Mr. Sohn streaked towards the sh0UfUf' pullin§ his rip-cord with only another 800 to £°- Tne cheer which saluted him was as Pontaneous as any we have ever heard. this t n! b<3 a .magnmcent stunt for air circuses, but all talk of seriously developing it (and even of carrying me°v! lpaCt and hght batteries' to actuate wing-flapping before th"^ merel>T suggests a return to the dark ages "•j-,rc 5e dawn of aeronautics; as Francis Bacon wrote: man ^ cacians in ancient time did use to precipitate a bod i°m a high cliffe into the sea . . . fixing into his y fivers feathers, spread, to breake the fall." Still Cheaper Flying r HE scheme drawn up by the National League of Air men to encourage business houses to subsidise mem bers of their staffs who are keen on learning to fly has a good deal to recommend it. Briefly, this scheme is intended to encourage a number of "staff clubs" made up of employees of one or more business houses. Each member pays 5s. a week in the first year and 3s. a week in the subsequent four years of membership. Since each club is to be composed rvf fifty members, and will be expected to purchase two aero planes (at £400 each) in the first year and one in every succeeding year, it is obvious that the employers must foot the bill to some extent. However, until the present subsidy agreement expires the clubs should obtain £25 for each licence and £10 for each renewal, so that the costs will be kept down and the employers' subsidy is expected, in fact, to work out at £19 for each member during the first year. As a method of getting more people into the air the idea is good, but it is doubtful if the scheme can be con sidered seriously as a means of creating a "pilots' pool" for any possible national emergency. A thorough course of training on a low-powered ultra-light aeroplane might save a few hours of ah initio service instruction on much larger and more powerful machines, but mere ability to fly, in any case, forms but a small part of the Service pilot's experience. Exit the Area r HE Royal Air Force is organised in Squadrons (sub divided into Flights), Wings, Groups, Areas, and Commands. A Command, however, is an indefinite term, and up till the present both the Inland Area and the Coastal Area constituted Commands. On the other hand, the Fighting Area, the Western Area, and the Cen tral Area were not in themselves Commands, but formed parts of what is known as the " Command, Air Defence of Great Britain." That Command also included one Group, No. 1 Air Defence Group, which controls the units of the Auxiliary Air Force. In this country Wings have of late been only temporary assemblies of Squadrons for such purposes as the Hendon Display, but there are three per manent Wings in India. The expansion scheme has called for a good deal of reorganisation in the R.A.F., and the latest example of this is set forth on the Royal Air Force pages of this issue. Briefly, the term Area disappears for the time being from the organisation of the R.A.F. The Inland Area becomes the Training Command, which in the main gives a better indication of its functions ; though it will not be logical to keep the army co-operation squadrons hi the Command any longer. The Coastal Area likewise becomes the Coastal Command. The three subordinate Areas inside the A.D.G.B. Command are now graded down to Groups. As other Groups of bombers have to be formed to absorb the newly raised squadrons, this is a sensible step. The idea may be that the term Area is a very dignified one and should not be made too common. An Area has always been commanded by at least an Air Vice-Marshal, and soon there may not be enough officers of that rank to give one to each new formation. But a Group can be commanded by a Group Captain. The result of all this is that the Area has now become such a dignified affair that it has vanished altogether.
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