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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 2147.PDF
ma " "'•• ' ' '"• '' ' • ' "• 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, SE.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. . Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (35 linei). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS. NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midlsnd 297 1 (S lines). 260. DE A N SG ATE, MANCHESTER. 3. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone; Blackfriars 4412. 26B, RENFIELD ST.. GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES; Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. 6 months, . Registered at the Q.P.O. as a Newspaper. £1 10 6. 3 months, 15s. 3d. No. 1708. Vol. XL SEPTEMBER 18th, 1941. Thursdays, One Shilling. The Outlooks Danger at BlackpoolW HEN people go away for their holidays they want to forget the war. For many families holidays are rather rare and very precious, since, for the rest of the year, they live in an atmosphere of unremit- ting work making the tools of war as well as fire- watching or other civil defence duty. Is it fair, then, that they should be bothered on the sands of Blackpool by unthinking R.A.F. pilots diving lighters at the beach or flying low in formation over the shallow water in which children are paddling? On the Correspondence page we publish a letter from a reader who supplies particulars of these actions. This reader is an "A" licence pilot who was on holiday there for a week, and he writes, not in the spirit of criticism of a man who wants a '' safe'' war, but to enquire whether all this is really necessary. Everyone knows and realises that the civilian's life must be risked in this war just as much as that of any man in any of the three Services—but not one life should be risked unnecessarily. Has there not been enough loss of life unnecessarily at Blackpool? The recent collision of two aircraft over the Central Railway Station caused many deaths, all of them avoidable by the simple expedient of insisting that there be no flying over the town or other crowded part. We do not think that young airmen, training to fight in a conflict which will require all their daring as well as their skill, can reasonably be expected to refrain from stretching both qualities to the limit in their practice, and they naturally feel tremendous exuberance when in charge of a thousand horse-power engine. But, despite the general cheapness dJaumaaJifejat .present, we must ask that they do not endanger the life of any person unnecessarily. And we think that it is the responsibility of the station commander to see +hat this is observed by strict insistence on low flying being done over the sea or over land not occupied by crowds. . ; ... % X Mr. Churchill on the Air • * - f ' ^I N his review oi the war in the House of Commons on September 9th, the Prime Minister gave some in- teresting information about certain features of the air war which are not generally known, and also made one quite significant correction of a remark which, had it not been corrected, might have set the hopes of the man in the street on a wrong tack. The Prime Minister =;poke of "that broadening stream of heavy bombers now acting against Germany night after night which will play a decisive part, or one of the decisive parts, in the final victory." But for the correction the belief might have got abroad that the Prime Minister had given up hope of land operations against Germany (in which case why should Lord Beaverbrook be always harping on the output of tanks ?) and had come io the belief that strategic bombing by itself would finish the war. In the same passage he mentioned the importance of "the spacious airfields which we have constructed and which we are expanding there (i.e., in Iceland) and in New- foundland." Incidentally, the use of the word "air- field " by the Prime Minister may be noted. Mr. Churchill confirmed General Wavell's opinion that our stand in Crete had saved Syria and Iraq for us. " The German parachute and airborne corps which, no doubt, was to have operated in Iraq, and which would have been assisted on their journey across Syria ar.
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