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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 2323.PDF
AUGUST 19, 1937- FLIGHT. 199 PRIVATE FLYING Topics of the Day These Subsidies THIS is an age of subsidies. In the bad old days a business which could not support itself was, ipso facto, considered to be insupportable. In these good days the shareholders scream loudly for help; exercise a little political influence ; supply a little disguised palm oil—and duly receive some of the taxpayers' money for the manufacture or support of shoes, ships, sealing- wax, cabbages or kings. We can hardly grumble. Without assistance in some form there might not have been very much private flying in this country. Only those who were fairly wealthy or very enthusiastic would have troubled to learn to fly at unsub- sidised rates, but the majority of these would undoubtedly have bought their own machines because ownership might have been less expensive than charter—beyond a certain annual hourage, anyway. By logical deduction it may even be supposed that there might even have been more owners, with cheap aeroplanes, still more owners and still cheaper aeroplanes. Dear me, I have almost convinced myself that even our subsidisation was and is a bad thing. Certainly, I have always felt that it would be more logical in many ways to subsidise owners rather than clubs, since the average owrner is a better all-round pilot than the average Service pilot, and what's the use of an "A" licensed, three-hours-a-year pilot, anyway? Altruism LI OVVEVER, while we are all waiting to hear the full * * details of the new subsidy arrangements for flying clubs tb^-re has been a certain amount of fluttering in the gliding dovecotes. The Times has been suggesting that the gliding clubs should be given a good deal more than the £5,000 a vear which thev have been receiving. My faith in the essential decency of the human animal, and in the almost godlike enthusiasm of the gliding animals in particular, was immensely strengthened when I discovered that they, or some of them, don't want any more money (please). They feel that a subsidy increase on really generous lines would be bad for the movement. Imagine a financier refusing to make a handsome profit because the market wanglings involved would be l:ad for trade in general; imagine an industrialist refusing a speci ally cheap supply of raw material because it was obtained y sweated labour; imagine an advertising agency refus- SAFETY FIRST: The Fieseler Stork, which appeared at the Zurich Meeting, in a characteristic attitude With fixed, full- length slots and flaps, the Stork has a fully controlled stalled glide at an air speed of 24 m.p.h. and the under carriage is designed to take a vertical velocity of 15 ft./ sec. The standard power unit is the 240 h.p. Argus vee-eight, giving the machine a maximum speed of 130 m.p.h. The three occupants are seated in tandem. ing to run a campaign because the product concerned was not everything that the manufacturers claimed. Just go on imagining. These gliding people, like Mr. Deeds, will probably end up in a mental home if the authorities hear about them. Meanwhile, it can only be said that the power-flying people show, by comparison, about as much real enthu siasm as a team of professional footballers. Give us flying at is. 4jd. an hour and we. will blacken the skies, they say. Maybe. Anyway, it would be the wrong kind of blackness. The Real Thing IT might or might net be a good thing from the '' national * security" point of -riew if there were tens of thousands instead of a thousand-odd active gliding club members, or if the number of "A" licence pilots was increased in the same proportion. I doubt it. And if soaring has any real military or training value, then it is up to the Service to start a soaring research establishment. Air-mindedness alone (forgive the word) does not consti tute a strong reserve of pilots, and a sailplane pilot, how ever expert, is about a much use in the Air Force as a keen yachtsman in the Navy. The two sports have, in fact, a great deal in common. In each the pilot is using his very real skill in hoodwinking natural forces. Last week-end Mr. Wills flew from Dunstable to Dover, a matter of ninety-five miles. The journey took about three hours, and no doubt Mr. Wills enjoyed every minute of it. He had plenty to do. A fortnight ago I helped to sail a boat from Burnham-on-Crouch to the Channel Islands. The journey took five days and two nights. I enjoyed every minute of it. In a power aeroplane I could have flown from Dunstable to Dover in less than an hour; by Jersey Airways I could have flown from London to the Channel Islands in an hour and a half. If anybody asks me what is the good of soaring or sailing I shall commit a murder. What is the good of hitting a tiny white ball over a lot of artificial obstacles into small holes—and paying handsomely for the privilege? Don't ask me. I would rather walk round unencumbered by the bag of queer sticks and the little ball. Some people would prefer to go to Dover by train. I doubt if Mr. Wills expects to be paid for the fun of taking a sailplane to Dover; the golfer would probably be insulted if someone offered to pay him; and the owner of the sailing vessel concerned certainly does not expect to be subsidised for the effort involved in sailing to the Channel Islands. INDICATOR.
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