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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1223.PDF
JUNE 2IST, 1943 FLIGHT 667 wartime progress has been good and useful progress. War conditions have, in many cases, developed over-efficient and over-complicated aircraft, and a certain amount of back-pedalling will be necessary if we are to find that air services are commercially practicable from the costing point of view. Into the designer's calculations will enter all- important maintenance and replacement points—overlooked during a war in which cost of operation has been unimport- ant—and the resulting simplification in layout will improve the average of reliability. The transport aircraft of the future will be no "civilised" version of the present-day bomber type—it will, I hope, be laid out on lines in which the annual running, replacement and maintenance costs will take precedence over performance and even over loa'd- carrying efficiency. But until the public are in a position to learn about such things, they cannot be expected to rush confidently into the passenger seats of machines which have been, until now, mysterious and even miraculous in their goings and comings. "INDICATOR." Navy Appoints First Admiral Co'ordination of Commands at Home BasesT HE important changes in the direction of the Naval Air Arm, recently foreshadowed exclusively in Flight, have now been made known in an Admiralty announcement and a statement from the Ministry of In- formation. Essence of the announcement is that Vice- Admiral D. W. Boyd, C.B., C.B.E., D.S.C., R.N!, takes up a newly created appointment as Admiral (Air) following ^his departure from the appointment of Fifth Sea Lord, which is now held by Rear-Admiral T. H. Tr-oubridge. The significance of this new appointment is far deeper than it may superficially appear to be. It means that as the representative of the Service side of the Naval Air Arm stands a man of drive, initiative and resource (with which is coupled a charm of manner and temperament which scissors through un- necessary Red Tape). It means that the chief naval officer for Service air affairs in Britain is an officer of out- standing record in direct con- tact with naval flying, whose "opposite number" on the policy side in the Admiralty, Admiral Troubridge, has a,, parallel intimate acquaiuf- -,-J ance with carrier operations. Full details of the changes h^ve/nb| it is likely that a short tin regime makes its full influence explained that before the appointmt there was a triple division of naval- Service at home bases. These we'fe"~R^A.N.A.S.—(Rear- Admiral Naval Air Stations); R.A.N.A.S. (N.)—(Rear- Admiral Naval Air Stations Northern); and F.O.G.T.— (Flag Officer Carrier Training). Respectively these dealt with (1) all naval air stations at home, but with delegation of much routine work to [2) R.A.N.A.S. (N.), based at Donibristle ; and (3) carrier training of squadrons working up to operational standard. It seems that the Admiral (Air) intends to make a some- what similar but in fact quite different division of duties by the introduction of Groups or Commands (on a not dissimilar basis to R.A.F. Commands). There may, there- ioxt.Jt/'a Training Command, in which all th<e initial stages of naval aviation are carried through ; a Carrier Training Command, in which the second stage of working up to fighting strength is reached and squadrons are prepared for embarkation in" the operational carriers; and thirdly a Reserve Aircraft Command, which will deal with supply of aircraft and equipment, and with maintenance and repair. These titles may be subject to change, but the functions are clear.. It is, therefore, of much interest to see in the M. of I. statement that Rear Admiral Slattery has also been ele- vated to a new appointment. For long Admiral Slattery has been the man behind the scenes in the equipment of the Naval Air Arm. During his time at M.A.P. the equip- ment of the Naval Air Arm has made considerable advances —»he has seen the Swordfish speed surpassed by at least 200 m.p.Ii. and the technique of deck flying correspond- ingly adjusted to meet the new era of speed at sea. . . . Admiral Slattery becomes Vice-Controller (Air) yet he retains his M.A.P..position of Chief Naval Representative. His Admiralty appointment, on the supply side, means that he holds administrative power in the Admiralty, and can thus short-circuit much of^thi*.«etwtrri!" channels of communication between M.A.P. nav the Admiralty which existed prior to this arran It is significant that Admiral Slattery has air knowledge, and in fjfcct was one of the^lTst course naval pilots at Nethgsefvon twenty years Thus, for the first time, at the the Service administrative side, Admiralty suppl of high officers of J>rov each fired with ai aviation. With" the right future 'faces the Jtavy's^iir side, not a little beca*fse of at Ser- ajor air war with juli superiority in equivocal leaji-especially m the heavy wever, every schoolboy the paradoxical vice hasXended the air—»ijh a mber and*^figh Tfg»,a triumvirate anguished record— promotion oi naval and^fighUn<. <8tesgey:' tiowever, with a telescope knows full well that even better bombeis and fighters of many categories were on the verge of intro- duction when the Huns were defeated. — he R.A.F. is to be cut by one-third of its personnel in le coming months, and its foremost aircraft of to-daj/will urely be far outmoded by those in being, about**??) come into being and on the drawing boards for 1948 appearance. Therefore it is clear that the Naval Air Arm 'can step in with a clear field for the interim years, and during coming months avail itself of the brilliant aircraft which would have appeared had not the war in the West terminated. With this aspect of an ascendant air power at sea must be coupled the decline of influence on design by the Ob- servers whose partiality for flying schoolrooms has so much governed design ideas in the past. With the tran- sition" into the higher categories of fighting aircraft and the versatility of employment which war has shown to be av&ilable in aircraft of basically sound design vide Spitfire and Mosquito), it may well be that the Admiralty will in future go to trie aircraft constructors and say: "You build the best aircraft you possibly can for attack or defence, and we will then see how to adapt them for other duties as required." In effect, such a policy would com- pletely reverse that so far existing, in which Naval Air Arm aircraft have been regarded as special-duty aircraft. .One other interesting point is the full insistence on the term Naval Air Arm and the dropping of the now familiar phrase " Fleet Air Arm." The F.A.AyWas not a successor to the old R.N.A.S., which never of&rated from aircraft carriers in the modern sense. The F.A.A. came into being as a 1923 political compromise between the Air Ministry and Admiralty, and was a hybrid force composed of R.N. and R.A-F. personnel. The modern " naviators " cannot therefore be regarded as " Fleet Air Arm " since no R.A.F. officers or men are nominally in its ranks. B. J. H.
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