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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 2259.PDF
OCTOBER 29TH, 1942 FLIGHT 469 WORDS AND DEEDS •long-distance machine was held up in the Middle East for %a week while a spare engine was flown from somewhere else and painfully installed with inadequate facilities ; or of the days when hopelessly outclassed, out-of-date and ill- .quipped machines were used for the most difficult night air service in a Europe renowned for its indifferent weather. We have seen what the British aircraft industry can do when it is given the encouragement and incentive. Let there be no more nonsense of the '' no suitable machines '' or " no time" or " no money " kind when this war is over. Whether Jhe world airline system is run by different State- controlled private companies in competition, or whether the whole thing is a pooled and internationally controlled affair doesn't matter a great deal. The traveller flew about Europe and the world in the days of peace without bother ing veTy much about the nationality of the company or, least of all, about the nationality of the manufacturers of the machine in which he was travelling—just as he sailed quite happily in British, American, Dutch, French and German boats. Non-flying Bureaucrats Those of us who travelled about Europe—and even more t so those who travelled about the world—by air in the years * between 1934 and 1939 could not fail to be impressed by the disproportionate efforts and expenditure on airline systems of quite comparatively small and poor countries. Speaking generally, the differences merely meant that the Powers in these smaller countries had the courage of their convictions, whether right or wrong. Possibly there is no need to mention courage, since sufficiently strong convic tions will always provide the necessary drive. I'm afraid that our own bureaucrats had neither the convictions nor the courage. Perhaps they didn't like fly ing oj^oelieve in it. At any rate, the money, whether in terms of a " subsidy" or otherwise, was not forthcoming, and even our national airline, with most of the world to cover, struggled along with inadequate facilities because the mentality of the Powers was of the small shopkeeper order. Either they should have said, in effect, " We don't believe in the future of air transport and it must stand or fall on ordinary commercial lines," or they should have gone all out to make it worthwhile. At the time the fact wasn't much commented on, but the adverse propaganda effect of the arrival of our Prime Minister at Munich in 1938 in an American civil aircraft must have been im mense. It would have been better if he had turned up in a prototype bomber. And there's another word for my list:— "Bureau cracy." I don't know, for instance, what word the Swedes use to describe this tljing, but in pre-war years bureaucracy in that country meant the proper organisation of all manner of things, from airlines to education. In this country, as long as we can remember, it has meant a kind of bowler- hatted, conservative and unimaginative organisation of sometimes futile restrictions. It has meant restrictive rather than constructive legislation. "Indicator's" Little Man Maybe the person epitomised by Strube's Little Man- that mean-minded, conventional, worried and harassed fellow—has deserved nothing better than a world in which miserable little taxes on minor luxuries are easily paid and are better understood than a general reduction of incomes. The Little Man will grumble like mad but will still pay some ridiculous and complicated sums on his consumption of tobacco or alcohol or petrol (while retaining his paper income of /i,ooo a year) rather than be paid less. Bureau cracy, with its black-out technique, has certainly deserved its meaning here, but there is no reason why the word shouldn't conjure up a totally different picture of a properly and happily organised community run by rational and highly educated enthusiasts. Let no one imagine that the Little Man is a fauna indi- ginous to this country. If he had been, the rest of the world would have reorganised itself in such a way that we wouldn't have had a leg to stand on. He pops up every where, whether covered in stupid little uniforms and phoney medals in Germany, or carrying his umbrella and attending a meeting of the Watch Committee over here. He is the reason why this country was so unprepared for action in 1938; why Germany found a scapegoat in the Jewish and Leftist minorities; why America suffered a slump ten years ago; and why the French lacked the will and the concerted energy for resistance in 1940. But for him the British airlines would have been the best in the world. He is obstinate, he is ignorant, he is lifty years behind his times—but he is as brave as a rat when he is defending his rights and privileges. Direct his imagination into the proper channels and he will be magnificently immovable in the defence of human rights and liberties; leave him alone and he will merely look after his little shop, paying off the racketeers with a feeble shrug. To-morrow must not be allowed to be merely another day. "INDICATOR." -*. COMPOSITE NON-SUCH-No. 1 HERE is a composite flying-boat. *Ardent spotters and all interested in aircraft recognition are invited to identify parts of a dozen different aircraft. While the basic idea is not new, it has been developed, and this con vincing prototype is the result. Parts to be identified are : (1) Port wing ; (2) starboard wing ; (3) port engine; (4) starboard engine; (5) port float; (6) starboard float; (7) nose; (8) cabin section of hull; 9) bottom sec tion of hull; (10) top section of hull; (n) cen tral fin and rudder; (12) outrigger tail unit. This puzzle picture should pre sent little difficulty to the regular reader of Flight, as many of the types concerned have been dealt with in our recognition series. Solution appears on page 481)
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