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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 1103.PDF
//lPAIRCRAFT 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.1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 297 1 (5 lines). 260, D E A N SG ATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Tetephim: Blackfriars 4412. 26B, RENFIELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Tehgrams : Iliffe. Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES; Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. 6 months, £1 10 6. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. 3 months, 15s. 3d. No. 1690. Vol. XXXFX. MAY 15th, 1941 Thursdays, One Shilling. The Outlooks A Qreat OpportunityB Y merging the Ministries of Transport and Shipping into the Ministry of Wartime Communications, the way appears to be open for certain other changes which may, at first glance, seem out of place and premature at the present time, but which on closer examination are found to link up very well with other aspects of the newer reorganisation. For a number of years there has been in this country a school of thought which held that commercial aviation should be given greater freedom by being divorced from the Air Ministry. It was argued that the Air Council as of necessity so preoccupied with service aviation at it could not be expected to devote much attention to the problems of commercial aviation. When the Gorell Report was issued in 1933, Col. Moore-Brabazon, now Minister for Aircraft Production, signed a minority report in which it was. advocated that civil aviation should be removed from the influence of the Air Ministry. Thus the idea is far from new. However, at that time there were reasons for retaining the Directorate of Civil Aviation in the Air Ministry. Now that all transport is to be reorganised and rationalised, it seems logical to include civil aviation in the reorganisation. Civil flying is an important factor in wartime communications—far more so than is gener- ally realised—and it appears logical to suggest that the Department of Civil Aviation might be transferred to the Ministry of Wartime Communications. Col. Moore-Brabazon will not, as Minister for Aircraft Production, be directly concerned with civil aviation, but he may be expected to lend a sympathetic ear to any requests that might be made for the handing over of certain surplus aircraft for civilian flying duties. We should imagine that Mr. Leathers, the new Minister of Wartime Communications, would be fully alive to the importance of civil aviation, and it would be worth giving the scheme a trial. Perhaps later on it will be wise to consult, and collaborate with, the Ministry of Reconstruction. As a first step we suggest a com- mittee of enquiry to study the question of post-war civil aviation. - : •...-*-' - "Secret" Qerman Engines PROBABLY most of our readers will have realisedthat in wartime the production of a technicaljournal such as Flight is attended by considerable difficulties. Of restrictions there are a great many, and in the main these are sensible and obviously designed to prevent the communication to the enemy of informa- tion which might be of value to him. From common- sense no less than from patriotic motives we have always kept scrupulously to the spirit as well as to the letter of the law in such matters, and exercised reasonable restraint. In more than one instance we have drawn the attention of the censors to certain matters which had been passed for publication, but which we considered it against the national interest to publish, with the result that they were recalled and not published. To reasonable restrictions we do not object in the least. There comes a time, however, when official re- strictions arouse strong protest through sheer lack of official understanding. A case in point occurred recently when a certain firm invited friends from the aircraft industry and the technical Press to inspect certain captured German aero engines which had been com- pletely stripped to reveal all the details. Permission was granted, not without a good deal of time-wasting argu-
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