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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1521.PDF
FLIGHT AUGUST 2ND, 1945 CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. ATLANTIC COMPETITION B.O.A.C.'s Initial Advantage IS it strictly fair to suggest that B.O.A.C. cannot standagainst three competitors? If the three U.S. airlines do not work in close harmony they will be wasting their energy fighting each other. B.O.A.C. starts with the advantage of unified operational direction and ground facilities. Given a good team of personnel, there is no reason why B.O.A.C. should not hold its own and gain great respect for this country. Give it a chance to prove its ability under peacetime, con- ditions before you condemn it. Your remarks are almost un- patriotic and savour of influence from the profit-seeking finan- ciers of private industry. We have chosen, through Parlia- ment, to have B.O.A.C. to run our airlines. Let us back it up and give it all the best facilities and advertisement abroad that we cari. Go to it, Flight/ F. G. [We are not in the least concerned with guarding the in- terests of "profit-seeking financiers of private industry." They are well able to do that themselves. What we do want is that British air lines should be operated in the most efficient manner, and we do not believe that any single company, no matter how well run,' can hope to cope with competition from abroad if its energies are divided over routes spread all over the world. We have never believed in monopolies, and we fail to see why it should be " unpatriotic " to go on saying so after a monopoly has been foisted on the country.—ED.] ATLANTIC AIR TRAVEL The Influence of Currency Regulation FROM across the Atlantic we often hear staggering estimatesof post-war air travel. Calculations worked out, votes collected and super-optimistic prospects are made of the colossal, phenomenal, terriffic increase in the passenger traffic. While all this may be simply the result of a tendency to over- statement, two important factors ought to be considered in gauging post-war air travel. First passenger travel is largely the result of economic activities, and it is open to doubt whether in rehabilitating Europe this will provide a substantial flow of passenger traffic across the Atlantic. Secondly, willing- ness to use air transport and reasonable fares are in themselves no guarantee for a substantial increase in traffic volume. No matter how much a European 01 an Australian may want to visit the States, if in the interest of his national economy he were able to take, with him only 10 or 20 pounds sterling, he would have to restrain his desires. So long as most countries in the world remain short of dollar currency the traffic across the Atlantic may, in the best case, be a one-way-business. In the post-war world it will largely depend on the cur- rency regulations adopted in different countries to what extent people will be able to avail themselves of the air transport activities offered. Since such a policy is the result of political and trade regulations, the potential increase in air travel will be largely conditioned by the economic co-operation between nations. '' ZETETIC. BRITISH AND BEST But We Need Far Better Publicity FURTHER to Mr. R. E. Gregory's letter in the July 19thissue of Flight, may I join him in expressing my congratu- lations to you on the wonderful job Flight has done and is doing in telling the world of this country's achievements in aviation ? I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Gregory's observations re- garding the various British aircraft he lists, although I feel that he does somewhat less than justice to the Short Shetland in comparing it to the Mars. It must be remembered that the Shetland programme was tossed from Ministerial pillar to Ministerial post as an unwanted encumbrance when the air- craft could have been in production a clear two years ago. As for the Blackburn project of the Clydesman, as I see the position, almost no individual firm, from its own resources alone, can afford to undertake the development of such a huge aircraft as a private venture. Where these mammoth aircraft are concerned it is essential that some form of official guarantee be given the manufacturers so that they will not plunge their all into a venture which is doomed to receive no support. Quite obviously there is no reason at. all why any experi- enced concern (like Blackburn's) should not evolve a design (such as the Clydesman) and sincerely feel that it is capable of a full future; after all, no profit-making firm is going to waste its time with something in which it has little faith. But beyond that point it is a vastly different matter—to get the paper work into concrete fact is a very large step and, in most cases, requires official help. Whether or not the powers-that-be are sufficiently well aware of their influence on the future course of Britain's aviation is a moot point; it is to be hoped that they are. Nevertheless, the manufacturers themselves have a liability other than their products, and it consists of furthering the most powerful sales campaign throughout the world in an endeavour to bring to the"*' notice of the potential buyers that this country's aircraft are second to none. In the past the industrial concerns of Britain have been' almost childlike in their outlook on publicity, and it is true to say that in most cases their whole reaction to publicity is bound up solely in advertising—and not very good advertising at that. Shrewd, carefully calculated publicity (used in its widest sense) is capable of wielding a great and potent force for good on behalf of the British aviation industry; but it is up to the industry itself to generate that force, not as rabble attacks on the subject, but as a great concerted effort. I look forward to the day when this simple lesson is learned and put into, effect. CLAUDE ALDBURY. FLYING BOATS ON OCEAN ROUTES Too Many Lives Lost in Recent Landplane Accidents R announcement in Flight of July 26th that the Air Ministry had abandoned the search for the Liberator missing since it left Montreal on July 3rd with Government officials returning from the San Francisco Conference, once again raises the question of using flying boats for trans-oceanic routes. It will scarcely be denied that there have been too many of these disappearances, and a very considerable number of people who could ill be spared have lost their lives in this way, among them Commander Brabner shortly after his appointment to the post of Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Air. Advocates of landplanes for all routes are fond of arguing that if a forced alighting in the open sea has to be made, it matters little whether the aircraft is a seaplane or a landplane, since it will sink very quickly in any case. In the old days, when it was a case of searching mainly with surface vessels, that may have been true, but surely the fact that searches can now be made with aircraft, and are so made on a very large scale, aided by all modern radio equipment, has put ijj very different complexion on the problem. There are a great many days of the year on which a flying-boat pilot could manage to alight safely on .the sea, even if he could not get oil again. And, having alighted, the flying boat would prob- ably survive for several hours at least before breaking up. During that time wireless signals could be sent out giving the location of the machine. A Iandplane, once awash, if it does not sink immediately, would rarely be in a condition to send out such signals. What is the reason usually advanced for using landplanes? The only .one I can call to mind is that they are more economic to operate than flying boats. But even placing the problem on that low level, is the argument necessarily sound? I think that if one looks far enough it may be that there is little, if anything, to choose between the two classes. Fuel is admitted to be one of the heaviest cost items in the balance sheet. Now the price of fuel is largely governed by the locality at which it is to be delivered. It will be very different in the Gulf of Mexico and in the centre of Africa. Surely the flying boat will score heavily by being able, to p_ick up its fuel at points where transport costs are lowest, viz., on the seaboards of the world? I feel that this fact alone might, on many routes at any rate, actualfy make the flying boat more economical in operation than the landplane. It would be interesting if we might have this subject thoroughly ventilated in the columns of Flight, either by articles or correspondence or both. "SHELLBACK."
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