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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0336.PDF
338 FLIGHT, 15 March 1956 PROPHECY IN AERONAUTICS . . . such a process under the earlier pressures of rail transport. A United States of Europe should also evolve in time, and a much more closely integrated British Commonwealth, made possible by air communications, was simply the particular unit closest to Burney's heart. (Has a great opportunity been lost?) He asked "Will the development of long-distance aircraft . . . mean, perhaps, that the idea of American 'isolation' will have to be discarded as impracticable, like the 'splendid isolation' idea that inspired British foreign policy at the end of last century?" and predicted that "A progressive Chinese Republic, with a fully awakened national consciousness, will dominate the Far East." He realized that "as things are at present, it is difficult for Great Britain to extricate herself altogether from the European tangle" and warned that "It is both narrow and foolish for this country to regard America's claim to share with her the naval supremacy of the world on an equal footing as a hostile challenge." The italics are mine, but if these last two quotations sound quaint and old- fashioned today, only twenty-eight years later, consider how modern are the following ones from the same book: "A means of transport that will help to unify the Atlantic peoples will also help to unify the human race" and: "the harmonious development of Anglo-American relations is the cornerstone of World Peace." Sir Dennistoun Burney clearly believed, then, that the ultimate goal should be the final association of all large geographical units into a World State—"Indeed, air power practically demands a World State for its free and systematic development, and from an airman's standpoint the national divisions of mankind are so many irritating obstacles in the path of progress ... an elaborate system of air communications throughout the world implies at least a partial victory of the international principle." On the question of the irritating obstacles which still make that victory only very partial, he also made a number of pertinent and still highly topical comments. In fact, one feels that our progress has been on the Gilbertian principle of one step forward, three steps back, ever since he wrote in 1929 that: "the greatest obstacle to the development of the air is the spirit of nationalism . . . nationalism in its narrow sense is an anachronism in the modern world." How true it still is that "the whole purpose of air travel will be stultified if aircraft are to be victimized by the obstructive paraphernalia that the territorial divisions of mankind have put in the way of free travel and intercourse between peoples; if ... the air traveller may be subjected to the usual routine of passport revision, luggage inspec- tion, purse-prying, and all the other delays and inconveniences that waste the time and patience . . . and make the passage from one State to another such a difficult business at the present time. To make air travel worthwhile, all these petty obstacles must be done away with." Burney also emphasized (A.R.B. and C.A.A., please note) the "desirability of reaching some international agreement as soon as possible in regard to what are known as 'Airworthiness Certi- ficates.' " His own suggestion for solving this still controversial problem was interesting, for he advocated that the authorities issuing such certification should not be national bodies, but administered by the League of Nations. In fact, he went further than this, and wrote: "I propose that civil flying should, as far as possible, be put under the control of the League of Nations . . . all or a large proportion of civil aerodromes should be ceded or turned over to the League ... in much the same way as Musso- lini has recently ceded a small area of territory to the Pope. A traveller flying about Europe would, in effect, never leave League of Nations territory . . . unless he wished." So much for Sir Dennistoun Burney's views, now just under thirty years old, on the social effects of aeronautical developments; however, a great deal of his book was concerned with their tech- nical aspects. As the publishers' blurb on the dust-jacket stated: "His conclusions for both heavier and lighter-than-air craft are remarkable not only for the possibilities but for the limitations discovered in size, range, speed and load." Some of them were remarkable indeed, at least by the hindsight of 1957, as we shall see in the concluding part of this article. THE NAME OF A SAINT LIVES ON IN DUBLIN'S FAIR CITY Mossing clouds sweep in from the Irish Sea, but Viscount 707 St. Laurence O'Toole stands serene and splendid under the blue. One of four 707s in Aer Lingus service, and soon to be joined by three 808s, this Viscount bears the name of a great and good son of Dublin. Archbishop of the city from 1162 until his death in 1180, he was canonized in 1225. In Irish his name is rendered as Lorcan Uo Tuathail.
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