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Aviation History
1940
1940 - 1659.PDF
JUNE 6, 1940 jdOT 511 LOOKING FORWARD (CONTINUED) the need for the civil aviation industry to take part inits own control, an appreciation of the need for co-ordination and col-laboration. .' E My discussion of future developments will assume the persistence of these ideas. There is little doubt that, had the war not intervened, these developments would have been directed by the Civil Aviation Development Committee, the Cadman and Brown Committees having made clear the need for a renaissance. If and when that Committee is formed, its task, already gigantic, will be still more formidable, for in the few months since the war started, the position of British civil aviation has seriously worsened. The Secretary of State has, however, announced his intention " to set up a strong Civil Aviation Advisory Committee to keep under review the position of civil aviation in the light of the present situation and to plan for the future." He proposed as the second step that "this committee should have associated with it a small body of experts whose task it would be to keep in touch with all phases of technical development in the field of civil aviation abroad." I assume that we want British civil aviation to be a great and successful enterprise. We want it to stand as a symbol for safety, for comfort, for speed, and for con- sistency. These are admirable but vague objectives. How can we be more precise? The Aims of British Civil Aviation For communications within the Empire the routes should be British and the aircraft on them should be British. Of the routes communicating with the rest of the world, it would appear just that half should be British, with British aircraft operating on them. It is worth while discovering how far we have got towards this goal. The Imperial routes are already extensive (see Fig. 1) and the total route mileage is impressive, though the traffic is not large. : TABLE I ROUTE MILEAGES AND PASSENGER TRAFFIC OF •;"LEADING COUNTRIES Country British Empire ... U.S.AFrance GermanyU.S.S.R Year ia:58 19381938 19371937 Route Mileage 89,077 71,19940,833 • 30,49058,036 Passenger Miles Flows 127,725,699 554,239,19838,847,041 74,924,40555,506,942 Density o! Traffic. Passenger Mils; per Mile of Route 1,435 7,650950 2,460955 The main lines joining the Empire to the rest of the world are given in Table II and Fig. 2. The Empire had a half-share in the first route, had none in the second, operated her half of the third largely with foreign aircraft, and had no share in the rest. So far the Empire main routes are purely British. But four years ago most of the national lines and the British-operated Continental lines were. The danger grows. And if ever foreign bodies get into the main arteries, our Empire routes, we may as well start to write the obituary of British civil aviation. TABLE IIMAIN ROUTES JOINING'THE BRITISH EMPIRE TO THE REST OF THE WORLD PRIOR TO SEPTEMBER, 19;i!t Countries joined Great Britain - U.S.A. Great Britain - U.S.A. Great Britain-Europe Airica-South Ameiica U.S.A.-Hong-Kong ... U.S.A.-Australasia ... Airports used Southampton - Foynes - Botwood -Montreal-New York. Southampton - Lisbon - Azores - New York. Various ... Dakar-Port Natal San Francisco-Honolulu-Hong Kong. San Francisco-Honolulu-Auckland Route normally operated by "Great Britain. U.S.A. U.S.A. Great Britain andEuropean countries. France.Germany. U.S.A. U.S.A. There are, then, 84,600 miles of airline in the Empire. There are 27,600 miles connecting it with the rest of the world. All of the first lot and half of the second should be British-controlled and operated by British aircraft, a total of 98,400. That should be one of our aims. There are routes still to be opened up, perhaps 12,000 miles in the Empire. We must see to it that these are all-British. There are countries with air routes, and countries need- ing air routes, with no national aircraft industries. We must study their conditions arid compete with the other great exporters of civil aircraft for the markets. It will be of no use to extend our routes unless we operate the most modern aircraft and equip them with the latest navigation and landing devices. We shall not pro- duce these modern aircraft without unremitting research, invention and development. We shall not be able to main- tain our standards of safety without accurate weather fore- casting and up-to-date regulation and control. None of these activities will be possible without a sane and gener- ous financial scheme. The Controlling Authority The main constituents of civil aviation are shown in Table III. Their co-ordination and direction along the path of progress and efficiency is the business of the con- trolling authority. The suitability of the Air Ministry for the task has often been questioned, mainly on the grounds that the Ministry's primary concern is the Royal Air Force and that in consequence the needs of civil aviation are always likely to be subordinated. The Government have resisted this view in the past, emphasising < the common interests of military and civil aviation. TABLE III THE MAIN CONSTITUENTS OF CIVIL AVIATION Constituent Operation Design and con-struction. Research anddevelopment. Regulation and safety. Accident investi-gation. Educationtraining. Finance .and Details Airline management. Develop-ment of aerodromes and routes. Radio communica-tion. Licensing of routes. Production o[ material—air-frames, engines, instruments and equipment. Theoretical and experimentalinvestigations. Codification of rules for safeflight. . Certification of air- craft. International agree-ments. Education of engineers andscientists, training of pilots, navigators and groundengineers. General and airmail subsidies.Insurance. Responsibility chiefly with Operating companies. Con-trolling authority. Constructing firms. Experimental establishmentsof the State. Operating companies. Constructingfirms. Universities. Controlling authority. Controlling authority. Controlling authority. Uni-versities. Technical colleges. Operating companies. Con-structing firms. Royal Aeronautical Society. Controlling authority. City. Those who would prefer civil aviation to be separated from the Air Ministry point to the mercantile marine which is in peacetime controlled by the Board of Trade and not by the Admiralty. Some of these separationists would prefer to see civil aviation under the Board of Trade, others would prefer the Ministry of Transport; some would like to see civil aviation with a ministry of its own. This last arrangement has been found the most convenient in the United States, where the control of civil aviation was removed from the Department of Commerce and placed iii the hands of the Civil Aeronautics Authority, a council of five men responsible directly to the State and employing large administrative, technical and executive staffs. The Government's last published word on this question was in 1934 when they had " no intention of changing a
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