FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1378.PDF
FLIGHT. MAY 19, 1938. SIR KINGSLEY WOOD, our new Air Minister. • wood is being encouraged by the Department, and an order has been given to Messrs. Armstrong-Whitworth for a bomber to be made of this wooden substance." Flight has on many occasions expressed the view that certain types should be made of wood so as to speed-up production. One need not take the Noble Lord's words too literally. Mr. Lloyd would hardly build the entire bomber of com- pressed wood, but it is good news to learn that he is going to make use of it. When applied to fairly highly stressed parts, such as spar flanges, this material has considerable advantages, and may make the wooden aeroplane very little inferior to the all-metal one. Political Broadside FireT HERE was little evidence of I'Effet Cazaux in the broadside firing tactics employed in both Houses on Thursday of last week. Viscount Swinton and Earl Winterton did their level best to deflect the projec- tiles hurled at them by representatives of all parties, but even their greatest admirers can hardly claim that they were very successful. The tactics employed by the defence were perhaps at fault in that instead of dealing faithfully with the accusations of failure to secure production, the Government spokesmen tried to drag a very man-size red heiring across the trail—a herring in the form of an an- nouncement of an acceleration of the existing programme and a considerable expansion of the programme itself. Air Ministry critics were not slow in pouncing, and logically they had every reason to argue that if Scheme F was behind on production, Scheme L does not look like being any more successful. Earl Winterton, in the House of Commons, denied that Scheme F was behind schedule, but had some difficulty in agreeing with Mr. Attlee and Mr. Winston Churchill as to what constituted first-line aircraft stiength. He said that the scheme of 1,750 first-line aircraft with immediate re- serves would be ready by March 31, 1939. and he hoped considerably earlier. While one cannot claim that the Air Ministry defenders acquitted themselves very brilliantly, one may admit that they had a difficult time of it; and that, as Capt. Harold Balfour said, it is hardly fair to blame the Air Ministry for the fact that we have not to-day an air force on a parity with any air force in Europe. The blame for that, as Flight has pointed out repeatedly, must be laid at the doors of successive Governments, whose policies the Air Ministry had been carrying out. Quick ResultsA FTER last Thursday's debates there was little doubt that the almost universal dissatisfaction expressedL would result in considerable changes in the Cabinet. Thus it came as no great surprise last Tuesday when it was announced that Lord Swinton had resigned from the post of Secretary of State for Air and that Sir Kingsley Wood had been appointed in his place. During his term of office Lord Swinton has thrown him- self heart and soui into his work: Only those who have come into close contact with him realise to the full how hard he has worked. All of us, however, can appreciate the difficulties which he has had to overcome, difficulties which might well have daunted a less energetic man. It would be ungrateful indeed were we to fail to give due credit to Lord Swinton for the energy with which he tackled the expansion programme, or rather the different expansion programmes. Where Lord Swinton made his great mistake was in fail- ing to appreciate that the Cadman Committee were on the right track, although it just failed to put its finger on the right spot when it went outside its terms of reference to express the view that R.A.F. officers as heads of the Re- search and Development and of Supply and Organisation Departments were illogical. Lord Swinton should have seen that although the Cadman Committee did not quite hit the. nail on the head, what was wanted was a reorganisa- tion of the Departments, not a change of their heads. Instead, he flatly refused to act on the Committee's re- commendation in that direction. In saying this we are not forgetting that the decision was a Cabinet one, but we pay Lord Swinton the compliment of believing that had he insisted, the Cabinet would have followed his advice. From a Parliamentary point of view, and quite irrespec- tive of personalities, it is obviously an advantage to have the Air Minister in the House of Commons, particularly at a time like the present, when expenditure on the air force has reached astronomical figures. No Roman HolidayO VER-ORGANISATION is alleged by Service partici- pants to be cramping the style of individual station commanders in the preparation of flying pro- grammes for Empire Air Day. A tremendous amount of paper work has been done in the Air Ministry to ensure CAPT. HAROLD BALFOUR, the new Under-Secretary forAir, has practical piloting experience, and served in the Royal Air Force during the War. DIARY OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS—PAGE 500
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
