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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1947.PDF
SEPTEMBER 17TH, 1942 Topics of the Day FLIGHT n &&gt;c 307- NO MORE BALLYHOO How the "Expert" is Ceasing to Exist in the Minds of the Common Man : The Necessity for Independent Criticism ; Bridging the Gap Between the Pilot and the Non-pilot GIVEN sufficient confidence in himself, the average person can be interesting and bright about almost any subject in the world, and I have always been convinced that it would be a good thing for every "expert" on any subject to be bombarded once a week^,anyttmig-to kind words for the industrialist"or a General with questions by a lot of outsiders who know pra£jaeaTfy who fails and openly admits that he has failed and gives a good reason for it%but heaven help thi are lost, so long as something is really learnt, and so long as the real causes of an industrial or military disaster are not kept dark in a wild and useless endeavour to save the good names of those responsible. Nobody is going to have nothing about the expert's subject One can, for instance, have an enormous amount of fun with an economist of the sterner and literaLjrfinded school. £1^ will talk knowingly about trade balances and inteT: nsSCpnal exchanges and of the importance of gold as a basic medium of exchange. And'you can,talk carelessly about the obvious fact that debts are, ip^he er»d, always paid in goods; about the absurdity of^hipping (or flying) great masses of gold from place to place.; andjew^p (if tiie ^w^ conversation turns to the business foi debts of tnk asjlo nomical kind incurred in wartime) about'^he impo^ibjlity, of borrowing a loaf of bread, a locomotive "or a tank " i to-morrow." The loaf, the locomotive aiid the tan" be made to-day, from materials obtainable to with labour which is paid for liWaaies an^^ish. clothes produced to-day. all-minded little man who covers t%e thing up wjifcrTeeble excuses and" refuses to give everyone elseJ^^Denefit of the experience he has gained .at such ^J*«£n price in man or production Power. : II atiythjflfchjWrDeea on the top line during this w.'ir it rjas bt-tui thlpprodiution of aircraft The Powers thai Be knewrjjj^fvtly or wroraly, what they wanted, and the things roduced witjfastoundingly few hitches. But let no e imagine tha/F mistakes have not been made. Hun- eds of quita^iseless aircraft have been made because ofciers hadj^en placed and because no one had the guts or the S0<$a sense to countermand them before too muci aterial and skilled labour had been wasted. The S elf-advertisement However fallacious the outsider's arguments may turn out to be, the " expert " must inevitably learn quite a lot, and if, before you've finished the discussion, he turns on you with the suggestion that "it is impossible to discuss such things with a person who is basically ignorant of the subject," you know either that you're right or that he's lost track of things and is neither intelligent nor knowledge able enough to cope with your parries. This is a curious world in which the '' experts often wrap themselves up in long and meaningless words, or surround themselves% with a bevy of yes-men so that 110 ordinary person can come along with a pin to burst the bubble of their self-esteem. From art and music to adver tising and production, the world is full of phoney expert- ness and what the Americans so long ago and so aptly called ballyhoo. No one is so disappointing in immediate "IfS'tact as the large noise, whether he is political, industrial ailure was not criminal—merely the result of inertia, laziness and good fellowship. There have been the in evitable cases where works have been reorganised for the immediate production of new types which, for one reason or another, have not been ready for production. It has always seemed to me to be more economical, and even quicker in the long run, to build new factories every time, rather than to reduce production on an obsolescent but worthy type while one of the factories is re-jigged for th**"*" new order. And there have even been whispered cases of sheer failure to admit errors in design, either to save a - few unimportant faces or because the word "production " so had become important out of all proportion to the context; faulty aircraft were, in the eyes of the Powers, more useful than no aircraft at all. Prompt Dispersal In the earlier days, that was where the good and some times maligned Maintenance Units came into the picture. So that masses of almost-completed aircraft should not be left littering a factory to the delight of the daylighT" or even apocryphal. He is usually a smashing salesman— raiders, aircraft were flown away and dispersed as soon as of himself—and that's about all. There are quite a few exceptions, but with no capacity or liking for self-adver tisement, the exceptions rarely reach the top or have any very large part in public affairs. Wrong- Standards Nice as it may be for the general public to carry a mass of do-no-wrong heroes and heroines, one of the best and most encouraging features of the modern world is that the average person is at last learning to distinguish ballyhoo from real worth. At least one important reason why we they could safely be flown, and the various outstanding bits and pieces were installed later. That was one of the Air Ministry's brighter schemes, and it worked well. Whenever shortages of odd equipment appeared, the most extraordinary movements were made—even to the extent of flying aircraft away to M.U.s and motoring quite essen tial parts back so that they could be fitted to the next aircraft, and so on. A lot of that sort of thing will make an interesting story after this war is over, and some of— the overworked ferry pilots will understand why so many of their flights appeared to be superfluous. I once made have not so far really done so very well in this war is— three journeys with the same aircraft in a week. I was that it has taken us quite a long time to discover that the wrong standards have been applied by nearly everyone in the choice of "experts." In a General the ability to say and do the right things, or even to inspire affection and loyalty, is now less important than a practical knowledge of tanks, or (so very rare) an understanding of the value and uses of air power; in a politician the command of mere words, with nothing much to back them, has almost ceased to have any real significance; and in an indus- fairly cross about it at the time, but I discovered why in due course. Nevertheless there have been, and will be, times when this word "production" is taken out of its context and given too important a place. For this reason 1 think that every factory should have a greater proportion of Service or Air Ministry personnel knocking around; not dead- beats, but real live people from squadrons and technic; departments. I know that the average production man trialist the flair for underselling everyone else at the right—ager pulls faces whenever such people are mentioned, but moment is less important than a good Common-sense there is no obvious reason why they should not be as go- capacity for organising rapid production. ahead and as interested in getting on with the war as any Nobody really minds if mistakes are made or battles of the other people who are, in effect, being paid on. a
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