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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0272.PDF
FEBRUARY I, 1940 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himselj responsible tor the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers. not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. THOSE OVERSEAS MARKETS The Civil Service Outlook LIKE Mr. Marendaz, I have been hoping that someone wouldback up the views expressed in my article in Flight of November 30, 1939, and I am most grateful to him for taking a hand in ventilating this most important subject. He and I, as he says, do not forget what happened to our motor industry in the 1914 war and hold that, unless something very drastic is done by those in authority, the 1939 war will be the cause of a similar disaster overtaking our aircraft industry. I have the keenest understanding of Mr. Marendaz's diffi- culties and know how the sense of frustration must irritate him because in so many respects my experience to date is similar to his, but I am not in any way discouraged or doubt- ful about the Tightness (from the national point of view) of the cause I have at heart. My life so far has. in the main, been one of pioneering in engineering field'; on what have proved to be well worthwhile projects, and always my experience has been that the more worthwhile the project the greater the moment of inertia of public reception This moment of inertia of public reception has to be appreciated and taken into one's calculation when trying to win favour for any idea with the public; and what we pioneers so often fail to do is to calculate its effects on our projects and allow for it; afterwards we feel disgusted and discouraged when we fail to win public support. In the curious design which we call democracy we find many items which seem neither logical nor sound. It may be that our judgment is sound, but it takes time to get these items modified by public opinion, and there is no other way to get needed changes made in democracy. The Other Side We should try to understand the problem of those in official public positions. One of the absurdities of our system is that a Civil Servant gets no thanks or credit for doing a creative action if it involves risk (and what creative action does not?), but he gets into great trouble over the smallest failure. So it becomes almost an inevitable part of the whole Civil Service system that action, if any, tends to be negative. Of this I am certain, the splendid men and women who serve the nation in the Civil Service are almost wholly unaware of this influence upon their state of mind, and that it becomes expressed in the actions of most, in spite of their obvious desire to be helpful. It is grimly humorous that so many of them are as impatient at the lack of action and results as those outside the Civil Service. In these circumstances how can we expect the Civil Servant to take the needed action to encourage the export of aircraft and foster the development of new designs for this purpose so early in the war, when they feel that all public opinion demands is that they deal with the war and its essential organisation ? Is it reasonable to expect that they should encourage enter- prise which brings special problems and may well bring criticism from the public ? Public opinion is still at the point where any foolish restriction and breakdown in private and public services are readily accepted as explained by such inexcusable clich6 as "this is inevitable in war" or "you must expect this in war." It is only after the hysteria of initial war panic has passed and the public are once again in possession of their critical faculties and a better sense of perspective that the need for action in directions that are appreciated as important will be apparent, and it is then that the Civil Service can be expected to act. Export Propaganda Because of this my company has made up its mind to be patient and quietly persistent, and to try to direct public attention to the importance of the export of aircraft. The whole of our advertising appropriation for the next twelve months has been earmarked for this purpose. This may help some of your readers to understand why. since the war, we have stopped advertising the merits of our excellent Cygnet aeroplane and taken them for granted and are directing the whole of our efforts to stressing the importance of the export of aeroplanes from this country to the Empire and other overseas markets. We hope that the advertising we are doing both in the domestic press of the Dominions and friendly foreign countries will influence their people to buy aircraft from those who buy largely from them and so help this country to win the war, the successful issue of which is so vital to our future well-being. We are greatly indebted to Flight for its leadership in this matter and we have no doubt that since Flight has so often pointed the way in the past in matters of importance, it is acting as a sure guide in this case and that in due time we shall, in spite of all present seemingly insuperable diffi- culties, official and unofficial, see a great number of Cygnets being exported to the wide world, with great benefit to our company, but with even greater benefit to the British aircraft industry and the British Empire. E. C. GORDON ENGLAND, F.R.Ae.S., Managing Director, General Aircraft, Ltd. THE NOT-QUITE-FIT A Plea to be Allowed to Help I DO not know whether, at the age of 26, I can be consideredto be a youth deserving an opportunity to do my '' share in adding to the strength of the R.A.F." (your leader, January 4), but it does seem to me that there is a marked lack of encouragement towards those who wish to join as volunteers. Before the war I was an amateur pilot—" A " licence and very amateur!—and joined a sort of musical comedy act called the Civil Air Guard, since that appeared to be a viaduct into .the R.A.F. should war come. It did come, and I broke off a holiday in America in the hope that I would be able to join up immediately. At home I found a document urging me to go for an interview and medical examination. Everything would have been lovely had I not, when three years old, pulled a ladder that was much too heavy for me, and bust up my inside enough to put me in medical Grade III. Result, no R.A.F., and all the money (mine and the tax- payers') and time spent learning to fly, and trying to improve, rendered useless. The understanding that alternative employ- ment would be offered was ignored. Although my defect was spotted at the time of my medical examination on joining the C.A.G., I was not told that I would be ineligible for service in the R.A.F. in wartime. Even assuming that I am unfit to indulge is aerobatics at great speeds, there are many piloting jobs which approximate clostly to those of a civil pilot, and which I could do perfectly well. Hence it is rather galling to see that such jobs are being given to women. I imagine there ,ire many men who feel resentment at the way their money has been wasted, and they have been thrown aside as useless without a word of thanks. It may be asked why should we alone receive special treatment. The answer is that we alone need it. The 100 per cent, fit men do not need it. To show that I am not entirely deformed, perhaps I might be permitted to mention that I play rugger, cricket, squash, etc. - M. JENNINGS. London, W.8. ROCKET EFFICIENCY The Neglect of Kinetic Energy AT the risk of being tedius I should like to reply to threepoints raised by Dr. Lanchester. In his reply to my letter Dr. Lanchester says: "When the rocket jettisons part of its mass and «is left with diminished energy, the energy lost is not destroyed, it.is made use of in propulsion. It is, in fact, this which supplies the energy to which is due the very high efficiencies represented by equation (4). ..." This is precisely the point I was trying to make, except that I would have said "apparent efficiencies," and I still think this is correct. The expression which most of the letters 2Wpublished give for the efficiency, i.e., -=r; ;- is the correct formula to use in order to calculate the amount of fuel re- quired for a given journey, for either a rocket or an aeroplane. If Dr. Lanchester's formula were correct for this purpose, perpetual motion would be possible, as is easily seen by imagining a compressed air rocket arranged to drive an air compressor. Secondly, with regard to the " djinn" inside the rocket, suggested by Dr. Lanchester in his reply to Mr. Lawrence. If this '' djinn '' has no knowledge of the velocity of the case, and takes the case as his datum, as Dr. Lanchester requires,
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