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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 0347.PDF
,*»• and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .• FOUNDED WO9 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices : DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., COVENTRY. • Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. 26B, RENFIELD ST.. GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. Home and Canada : Other Countries : Year, £1 13 0. Year, £1 16 0. 6 months. )6s. 6d. 6 months, 18s. Od. 3 months. 8s. 6d. 3 months, 9s.*Od. No. 1624. Vol. XXXVII. FEBRUARY 8, 1940. Thursdays, Price 66. The Outlooks Civil Aviation AgainL AST week we referred briefly to the plight in which civil aviation, and more particularly commercial aviation, finds itself owing to the preoccupation of everyone concerned with the more urgent demands made upon their time and efforts by the war. This applies to Government departments and to aircraft con- structors alike. The only people who have time to worry about commercial aviation are the operating con- cerns, who will, sooner or later, be faced with the pro- blem of getting replacement aircraft. There is not, in the Air Ministry, anyone with special interest in commercial aviation and with sufficient strength of will to make himself heard amid the clamour for military aircraft and equipment. It would need another Sefton Brancker to do that. It would need a man who was not afraid to make himself a confounded nuisance if by so doing he could obtain a square deal for commercial aviation. That war requirements must come first is obvious. But those in authority at Westminster are always very busy with references to the wonderful new world we are going to create when we have won the war. Do not let us forget that, after the war 1914-18 it became a trite saying that the Allies had won the war, but Ger- many had won the peace. It is not altogether unthink- able that, if we fail to look further than the signing of the peace treaty, we may be in no shape to create any- thing worth while at the end of this war. '' Keeping the home fires burning" and "Business at usual are all very well as slogans, but unfortunately slogans will not suffice. They must be translated into action. In the meantime, the members of the Air Council are, quite properly, devoting all their energies to the prose- cution of the war in the air. To them commercial avia- tion must of necessity be a subject of relatively small importance—more a nuisance than anything else, in fact Sir Kingsley Wood finds time to do an amazing amount of work. That he eats and sleeps with his job is literally true. But he has more than sufficient to do as it is, and he can hardly be expected to spare time for looking deeply into the details of the needs of commer- cial aviation. A Different Policy WantedW HAT is needed, and what the Civil Aviation Development Committee to which we referred last week should look into, is the possibility of getting some of our designers to work on types which, while capable of giving useful war service, shall be pri- marily designed for post-war commercial work. We all know that commercial aircraft can be converted into serviceable military machines. The De Havilland Flamingo is an example of a com- mercial aeroplane which can be, and has been, trans- formed into a troop transport. There seems to be a tendency to think that some of our existing bomber types might, when the war ends, be converted into commercial machines. That belief is fundamentally wrong, and if that policy were followed we should merely have a modern equivalent of the '' commercial aeroplanes of 1919-20, D.H. 4s and 9s with a "lid" over the cockpit, which did the earliest commercial flying after the last war. We suggest that this time the procedure should be reversed; a start should be made with designing the most efficient commercial aircraft possible, and then the necessary changes should be made to turn it into a usable military type. That there are difficulties in the way is obvious to everyone, but it should be the task of the committee to find ways and means to overcome them. Not the least is that of deciding upon the type of machine which may be expected to be in demand after the war. Here the Directorate of Civil Aviation can assist by obtaining the views of operators throughout the Empire. It is almost certain that two, or possibly three, different types or classes will be wanted if all needs are to be fulfilled. But operators in collaboration with designers should be able to get out reasonable specifications.
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