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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2005.PDF
JULY 14, 1938. FLIGHT. 33 COMBINED OPERATIONS : A Fairey Swordfish torpeao spotter reconnaissance biplane observes a singularly non chalant landing party during the recent combined operations on the South Coast. Manoeuvres on a much larger scale are scheduled for the later part of this month along the eastern seaboard. what an amazing extent present-day Central Flying School practice follows the fundamental principles laid down in 1917 by Col. Smith-Barry. In Service circles at home and abroad there is a vague sort of awareness that some time during the war, 1914-18, a special flying school was established at Gosport, at which certain rather unusual methods were adopted, leading to what became known as the " Gosport system." At Satur day's reunion there came to light many interesting and amusing details which help to explain how much modern flying instruction owes to Col. Smith-Barry and those asso ciated with him in the Gosport venture. For venture it was. The methods were unlike any which had previously been followed, but the pilots who were being sent to France had not the skill in handling aeroplanes which was essen tial, notably in getting out of spins and other unusual situations, and something had to be done about it. It is to the everlasting credit of Major-General Salmond, now Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Salmond, that he appreciated the merits of the Smith-Barry system and was willing to take a chance on it—a chance which, had his judgment proved wrong, might have caused him a great deal of embarrassment. That he was riot wrong was proved when the first batch of pupils passed their flying tests in twelve days! The tests included not merely '' straight'' flying, but loops, spins, rolls and such other evolutions as were necessary if a pilot were to survive the "dog fights" of those days. The Gosport system is the basis of all flying instruction all over the world to-day, so let us do honour to it and to its creator, Col. R. R. Smith- Barry. Brighter Aviation IAST year the Annual Report on Civil Aviation, which covered 1936, was published on December 20, and "4 Flight took the Department to task for its dilatori- ness, pointing out that at this rate the Report for 1937 would be published in the spring of 1939. We were wrong. The Report was published last Monday, and Flight is pleased to be proved wrong for once. To receive even the first half of the Annual Report on the Progress of Civil Aviation on July n was something of a shock. But to find it clothed in an attractive blue cover, with the Caledonia flying boat hastening across from Newfoundland to Ireland, instead of the drab cream paper cover in which the Report has always been dressed, made one wonder whether the Department had misread certain sections or passages of the Cadman Report. The explanation is found in the Foreword, which states that this year and in future years the Report is being divided into two separate publications, and that " the present volume contains information of general interest with regard to civil aviation in 1937, supplemented to some extent with brief indications of the problems which have presented themselves and of the policy which is being followed. The scope and style of this volume is intended to have a somewhat wider appeal for the general reader than has been possible under the limitations of the previous form of the Report." The italics are ours. One suspects that the prompt publication of this first volume is a deep-laid scheme to afford unlimited leisure for the production of the second and more "serious" volume. But no ; statistical information will be published separately, the Foreword states, in the "Civil Aviation Statistical and Technical Review," which will be issued shortly, and which '' will supply the additional data which are required by experts and the serious student of civil aviation." Good. Very good!
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