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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1564.PDF
MAY 30, T940 at least the rate at which the R.A.F. has been downing the Luftwaffe. Actually, the Royal Air Force has repeatedly Laken on fai greater odds than three to one. So much is this the case thai the Germans now hesitate to come to grips unless they are in very superior numbers. While we may admire and applaud the pluck of the R.A.F., we do "i eel that it is all wrong that the Service should be asked to face such odds. It the Government had shown its present initiative and drive from the very start of the war, theie would not by now have been any need for the Royal Air Force to take on the huge numbers ot German aircraft which it is tackling daily—and nightly. Let all of us resolve to do all we can to see that the dis- parity is reduced without any avoidable delay. That is the least we can do for our plucky youngsters in the air. " Looking Forward " "? I "^HERE can be no doubt that when a country is I righting for its life, its primary aim is to win the fight. That is not, however, our sole aim. It is generally agreed that we are fighting, too, for our civilisation. It would seem axiomatic, then, that we must preserve the means of civilisation, of which civil aviation is one." In this sentence, taken from the introduction ot his Wilbur Wright Lecture, Dr. Roxbee Cox expresses the complete justification for the decision of the Council ot the Royal Aeronautical Society to hold this year's lecture on the date decided, i.e., May 30. While the prospects o! reviving civil aviation may appear very slim at the moment, the day will come when we shall want to revive it, and it will be a poor outlook for us if we have made no provision for picking up the threads. No matter how hard we are fighting for our existence, it is foolish to take the view that we cannot spare a couple of dozen merr to specialise on the planning and design of post-war commercial aircraft types. Design- ing offices are not as hard pressed as all that, whatever may be the state of the works, and it is very essential that something should be done to organise such a development. The Wilbur Wright Lecture, a report ot which will appear in next week's issue, gives a great number of hints as to the directions in which designers should "look. InitiativeO N the subject of future success, Dr. Roxbee Cox pleads for technical initiative. "We must," he says, "have ideas, develop them and use them. Too often we seem to have had ideas and forgotten them until others have developed them. In the histories of, for example, flaps, metal construction, and retractable undercarriages, we made a creditably early appearance, but we only used these devices when their value had been proved elsewhere." Dr. Roxbee Cox might have included the variable-pitch airscrew. The Hele Shaw- Beacham was one of the earliest in the world, but for many years the Air Ministry failed to realise its value, and development lagged behind. But for the faith in the v.p. airscrew of a few individuals, and of the Gloster company, the Hele Shaw-Beacham, now become the Rotol, might have languished and died. EGYPT TESTS HER DEFENCES. Massed flights took place over Cairo last week, the population being greatly impressed byBritain's air strength. Here are three Bristol Blenheims flying over the pyramids.
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