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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 2326.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE W6RLD .• FOUNDED 1909 Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. War Correspondent JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). GLASGOW, C.2> 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 48 5 7. COVENTRY: BIRMINGHAM,!: 8-10, CORPORATION ST. GUI LDHA LL T B Ul LD I NG^S , Te/efroms : Autocar, Coventry. Telegrams : Autopress, Birmingham*. Telephone: Coventry S2I0. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). MANCHESTER, 3: 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfrlars 4412. No. 1927. Vol. XLVIII. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. Registered at the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. November 29th, 1945 6 months, £1 10 6. Thursdays, One Shilling "We Outlook It Won't DoT O blame the newspapers for over-publicising air accidents and to attempt to combat such adverse propaganda by quoting fatality figures which are '' favourable'' in relation to miles flown are tactics too often used in the world of aviation. Let us for once face the fact that the Service air transport accident record of the past few months has been a tragically bad one. The appalling and almost day-to-day fatality record will lower the public's confidence in air travel for years to come. All the good effects of a hard-won safety record in civil operations are being thrown away by the R.A.F. The most carefully briefed statisticians will not be able to find satisfactory figures to balance the unpleasant fact that the Service has suffered accidents involving a passenger death-rate figure of well over a hundred in ten days of peacetime, non-operational flying. The individual reasons for the different accidents may be various, but the basic cause is all too obvious. There are quite inevitable differences between the outlook, atti- tude and even training of Service and civilian flying per- sonnel. The Service attitude is rightly one of disciplined "dash" but this is quite the worst spirit in which to approach any air transport operation. A high standard «& safety can only be maintained by mature individuals who, while appreciating and understanding the dangers which will always be present, know that these can be cancelled out by pluperfect organisation and mainten- ance, good training and meticulously cautious captaincy. The record of the past few weeks suggests all too pain- fully that the whole Service approach to this specialised work of air transport is faulty. There was a time when Transport Command crews were recruited more or less at the whim of the Advanced Flying Units—with the net unnatural result that the most suitable pilots and crews were by no means necessarily chosen. The outcome was that the flying staff tended to consist of a small nucleus of really experienced pilots surrounded by a mis- cellany of partially trained newcomers. Whatever the causes of these recent accidents, the situation must be improved. We cannot afford to throw away lives and we cannot afford to lose the public's confidence in air travel. Long-distance RecordI T is somewhat remarkable that just after Britain-had recovered one of the great world's air records she should have lost another. There are three air records which are universally considered to stand out above all others in importance, namely, speed, distance and alti- tude. Britain, thanks to the Meteor, has just recovered the speed record, which she had not held since Agello, in 1933, beat that of Stainforth. Now the long-range record, established by two Vickers Wellesleys in 1938, has passed to the United States. The new record-maker was, of course, a B29 or Superfortress, which had been designed for long-range bombing of Japan. Once the military equipment had been removed and extra fuel tanks installed, it was only to be expected that this type would exceed the 7,162 miles of the Wellesleys on their flight from Ismailia to Darwin. The jump up to 8,198 miles, on the flight from the Pacific island of Guam to Washington represents a very handsome margin, and the American flight was a very fine feat indeed, and will be sincerely applauded on this side of the Atlantic. It might be asked what ultimate good purpose is served by long-distance flights, now that the need for long- range bombing appears to be over. In civil air trans- port it would be wasteful and extravagant to ask an
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