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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0811.PDF
MARCH 23, 1939 FLIGHT. 287 MORE ABOUT the AIR ESTIMATES Pertinent Questions Asked, but No Obstructionist Methods LAST week we recorded the speech with which, on March 9, Sir Kingsley Wood introduced the 1939 Air Estimates .j in the House of Commons. Space did not permit us to deal with the debate which followed. That is sum marised in the following pages. MR. DALTON covered a great deal of ground. So much so that it is impossible for us to do more than indicate briefly the subjects on which he spoke. He wanted to know whether the gap between the effective first-line air strength of this country and the first-line strength of the most powerful air force within striking distance was being narrowed. He would like to be reassured that.our Spitfire and Hurri cane fighters were as satisfactory as they could be made for the purposes they would pa required to serve. He believed there was a good deal of. controversy about them, and thought that the Air Ministry, Farnborough and the industry itself had not always agreed on this point. He asked whether the shortage of blind-flying equipment, de-icing equipment, guns, turrets, sights and sextants dis closed last May had been overcome. He would like to know how the McLintock agreement was going to be modified for the benefit of the taxpayer. Referring to the earnings of various aircraft companies, Mr. Dalton said that, taking a rough average, they earned 82 per cent, on their capital and paid in dividends 42J per cent. It was to be noted that this was after deduction of income tax and national defence contribution. He thought it was a very tardy act of readjustment that the McLintock agreement should now be under review. He recalled that the Royal Commission on the private manufacture of arms recommended in 1936 that all branches of the defence services should have some element of genuine State manufacture in order that the costs of production in private firms might be checked bj' comparable figures in a Government establishment. That had been put on one side and shelved by the Air Ministry. Mr. Dalton also wanted to know what progress had been made with the camouflaging of aerodromes. He had recently been invited to look at some of the aerodromes from the air and was not in the least reassured by what he saw. He believed the Under-Secretary of State for Air was not very reassured either. Here Capt. Balfour interposed the remark that the camouflage was so good that he (Capt. Balfour) could not find the hangars. Paper Maintenance His information was that the maintenance command existed on paper only and was not yet functioning effectively. That led him to the question o! the whole organisation of. the R.A.F. It was notorious that there had been . great differences of opinion within the R.A.F. He understood a Committee of Investigation was now sitting and hoped these problems would be worked out and settled in a way which would meet the views of officers of the commands. He hoped that the views of officers outside the Air Ministry, who would have to take command and make quick decisions in time of war, would be given at least as much weight as the views of those who had been for a long time secluded away at desks inside the Air Ministry. Turning to the subject of the balloon barrage, Mr. Dalton said if there was any value in the balloon barrage it was a serious thing that the greater part of the country was still without any protection from it. In the Midlands where the. Air Ministry had been adding target to target in a most terrible fashion it was a very serious thing that the balloon barrage was still not available. SIR HUGH SEELY said he would like to congratulate the Air Minister and the Under-Secretary on the industry which they had put into their work. He did not blame Lord Swinton for what had happened in the past. For that he blamed the Government, which started rearmament so late. But there was a lag between the time when it was realised that dangers had to be met and the time when something was done about it, and for that lag he did blame Lord Swinton and the Air Ministry. He was not impressed by the figure of 1,750 for our first- line strength. Anyone with a knowledge of the German figures knew that she was twice as strong as we. But Ger many's problems were different from ours. He warned the Air Minister to be careful in considering the fighter policy. Germany and Italy had been on active service during the last two years, and their views were, therefore, worthy of the greatest consideration. He asked the Minister to consider the policy of single-seater fighters with eight Browning guns, and whether the two-seater fighter with heavier guns would not have to be the policy in the future. From talking to German and Italian pilots he had come to the conclusion that to follow a bomber in a single-seater fighter was rather like firing on a retreating elephant with a .22 rifle. Sir Hugh Seely said that the accidents figures showed that last year 218 were killed and 166 injured in R.A.F. accidents. Bearing in mind the hours flown, those figures need not cause alarm. The best information he could get gave the accidents in Germany last year as 700. MR. O. E. SIMMONDS paid tributes to two who had done much to place air matters on the prominent footing they occupied to-day: Sir Murray Sueter and Capt. Guest. He slightly blamed the Air Minister for not having made the most of the Air Estimates. "I have always," he said, "looked upon my right hon. friend the Secretary of State as one of the best publicists and'showmen the Government have had, but I am not sure that in presenting these Estimates he has brought home to the country' exactly what it is that has been achieved. I take an example from p. 5 of the Memorandum. It says that during 1939 the strength of the R.A.F. is expected to rise to 118,000. That is true as regards Vote A, but there is the Vote for the R.A.F. Reserve and Volunteer Reserve, 77,000 men, and the Auxiliary Air Force and the A A.F. Reserve, 27,000 men, bringing the total up to 222,000-of all ranks. With the civil training schools and the university air squadrons we might have during this year 250,000 officers and men in all ranks of the R.A.F. and its ancillary services. That is something about which the country ought to be told." The McLintock Agreement MR. STOKES criticised the Air Ministry's system of profit control, and said he was staggered when told that Sir William McLintock had been asked to carry out investigations. His history in regard to profit estimating in the City had not been very good. He also criticised Imperial Airways and said they were unpunctual. He himself had been told that if the mail load taken on in the middle of the voyage to Egypt was too heavy he would be "jettisoned." SIR W. LINDSAY EVERARD did not agree with speakers who had said that time was not in our favour in the matter of production. German preponderance in aircraft built in the past was day by day becoming more obsolescent, and conse quently of less danger to this country. While admitting that the majority of municipal and other civil aerodromes were being used by the R.A.F., the A.A.F. and so forth, there were still many at which no service flying was being done. MR. ECKERSLEY expressed the hope that something would be done to provide for turning over to civil aircraft some of the thousands now working on military aircraft when the present expansion was over. He wanted more direct routes from the Midlands and the North, and suggested that a service might leave Glasgow at 7 in the morning, Manchester at 8.15, and arrive at Croydon about 9.45 in time to catch the European morning services. A return machine should leave Croydon about 6.15 in the evening and could reach Glasgow at nine the same evening. WING COMMANDER WRIGHT gave two reasons why he thought the immediate development of civil aviation of vital importance. The first was that he wanted to be able to absorb the skill and knowledge, and the expensive plant accumulated during the expansion; the second was that in civil aviation he thought we had to make up leeway. He went on to elaborate this by explaining that our ultimate aim should be the economical carriage of passengers and freight to time schedules in all sorts of weather by day and by night. The first essential to making that possible was the provision t f suitable airports. Next came directional control. And, finally, came the aircraft themselves. Here he wanted specialised aircraft: fast and comfortable for passengers; less fast, but suitable for carrying bulky loads, for freight. He did not agree that all external traffic should go through London. He asked the Air Minister to consider the establish ment of at least one internal bad-visibility route on which aircraft could operate in all weather conditions by day and by night. MR. J. RATHBONE joined with Mr. Stokes in criticising Imperial Airways. He said that those who had done the trip before regretted their inability to travel by some other line. At present the Empire boats were neither passenger-carrying nor mail-carrying boats. CAPT. CAZALET pleaded for specialisation in aircraft. He
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