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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 2371.PDF
NOVEMBER I6TH, 1944 FLIGHT 5*9 THE CHICAGO CONFERENCE tration and identification. (6) Collection and dissemination of meteorological information. (7) Aeronautical charts. (8) Customs procedures and manifests. (9) Accident investi gation, including salvage and search for missing aircraft. (10) Standardisation of printed forms. Officers of the sub committees will not be selected until their membership has been determined from nominations submitted by the various delegations. The position taken up by the U.S. Government was set forth by Mr. Adolf A. Berle, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and chairman of the U.S. delegation. The statement was a lengthy one but, briefly, the main points of it were: The U.S. Government believes in and asserts the rule that each country has a right to maintain sovereignty of the air over its lands and its territorial waters. There is a similarity between shipping and air transport, and we are at a stage in air transport' when there should be developed established < and settled customs of friendly permission between friendly nations, and that in exchanges no exclusion or discrimina tion shall exist. On the subject of an international authority Mr. Berle I AM not suggesting that we do good by stealth, nor that we have reason to blush for our fame, but our functions, and even our existence, are not widely known, and if that be true in this country how much more so in the Dominions." In those words Sir Maurice summed up the reasons for the lunch given in London on November 9th to representa tives of the Civil Airworthiness Authorities of the Dominion Governments. He recalled that the success of regulation of design, construction and survey of ships embodied in the activities of the two Shipping Registers was the primary factor in influencing the Government to establish the Air Registration Board for aircraft. This was the first example of the principle that the industry should govern itself. Sir Maurice explained the constitution and functions of the A.R.B. as follows:—~~ "The Council of the Board consists of four representatives from each of the operating, insurance and constructing inter ests, leav&ned, if I may use the term, by the same number of J. independent persons, presumably to see fair play amongst the others. There are in addition two representatives nominated by the Secretary of State for Air, but—and this I wish to make clear—they do not speak for the Minister. One repre sents the interest of commercial pilots, and the other those of ' the man in the street.' "The Board has no executive authority. It works entirely by recommendation directly to the Secretary of State for Air. It is, by its constitution, a democratic body in the fullest sense because each of its twelve primary members is nominated by the vote of the members of the interest he represents. " I believe myself that the constitution of the Board is such that it can more flexibly administer*, the technical matters dele gated to it than could a Government Department. "We have no politics and only one policy: to ensure air worthiness, and to foster the greatest measure of self reliance in all concerned in the design, construction, operation and upkeep of civil aircraft. "When the Board was formed in 1937 the Government delegated to it the responsibility only for the design approval of the smaller class of public transport aircraft of under , 10,000 lb. maximum loaded weight. We thought that this was an unsatisfactory state of affairs which would result in an undesirable devision of responsibility between the Department •ind the Board, and, furthermore, that the restriction in our activities which this partial delegation meant, could only be a temporary one if our proper functions were to be fulfilled. "I am glad to say that both the present Director "General of Civil Aviation, Mr. W. P. Hildred, and his predecessor, said all were agreed that an effective form of world organi sation is necessary. The problems fell into two categories, the commercial and economic, and the technical. Among the latter there were few which were not susceptible of ready solution through the counsel of experts. In the economic and commercial field the problems were much more complicated, and no one had yet stated on what basis routes should be allocated or even what was " equit able '' in these matters. The U.S. Government believed that, at present, international organisation in the economic and political fields must be primarily consultative, fact- gathering and fact-finding, with power to bring together the interested states when friction develops, and designed to set up a system of periodic conferences. America also reserved the right to develop its internal traffic (known as cabotage). Mr. Berle concluded with an assurance that the U.S. Government will make available, on non-discriminatory terms, civil air transport machines when they can be released from military work, to those countries which recognise the right of friendly intercourse. Dr. Chang, head of the Chinese delegation, said his country agreed with the U.S. on the question of an inter national authority. Thus the British view now stands still less chance of being accepted. Sir Francis Shelmeidine, who is now a welcome member of the Board, agreed with us, and the Board in due course was given full responsibility for the approval of the design of all civil aircraft irrespective of size. " We have always realised that this carried with it the duty of preparing and publishing a complete code of airworthiness, t- and it is to this task that we have now put our hands. We have two principal objects in mind—the first is the production of requirements for British aircraft which will result in the highest possible standard of safety compatible with reasonable commercial operation, and such a measure of freedom for the aircraft constructor as will encourage him in competitive world markets. " It is also, however, our duty, although a secondary one, to ensure that as far as is consistent with our primary object our requirements should be so framed as to fit into the general pattern of the airworthiness requirements of other countries to which we may fly and whose aircraft may fly to this country. Before the war Britain and the Dominions subscribed to the International Convention for Aerial Navigation, and as most of the European countries were also parties to this, the machinery existed, and, in fact, does still exist, by means of which each party could accept a common standard pi air worthiness. This Convention had the somewhat serious defect that Russia and America and the countries of the Western Hemisphere were not parties to it, and we hope that this defect may be removed. "It is not the business of the Board to redesign the machinery, but we believe that a mutually acceptable code of airworthiness would form one of the principal foundations on which it could be built. The United States of America shares this belief with us, and for some time now we have carried on unofficial discussions with our good friend, Dr. Edward P. Warner. As our requirements develop and as American requirements are revised, we may gradually remove such differ ences as exist, and reach a stage at which we could agree that aircraft designed and constructed in either country would be acceptable to the other. "We feel that, in matters of airworthiness, as in so many greater things, the Empire is indivisible, and we have therefore suggested to our friends in the Dominions (and they, I am glad to say, fully agree with us) that at least in technical matters we should speak'with one voice. I feel that, anxious as Britain may be for a complete international agreement, we should also strive to foster the development of aviation as a bond between the Dominions and ourselves, and that a mutually agreed code of airworthiness, if but small, is an essential link in the chain." Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India, South Africa and Southern Rhodesia were represented. Airworthiness The Air Registration Board and the Dominions
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