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Aviation History
1958
1958 - 0009.PDF
FLIGHT, 3 January 1958 DREAM OR NIGHTMARE? . . . cial vacation if they had travelled by alternative means of transport.The speed-up of business transactions resulting from the use of aircraft, often quoted as a supreme advantage of aviation, maywell be a mixed blessing; certainly thousands of ulcer-pained American executives must have their doubts. A slowing down ofindustrial development would cause no lasting harm and might, indeed, could prove beneficial. Certainly, the use of air transportby politicians and heads of State to speed across the world to make hasty decisions affecting the future of millions can be viewed withsuspicion. Sounder decisions could hardly have failed to have been made if, since the war, all journeys to top conferences hadbeen made by boat and train. The consequential time afforded for sober reflection and prolonged consideration of the affairs at issuemight, by now, have given us a more stable world. Another world-wide use of aviation is the aerial spraying ofanti-pest insecticides and soil fertilizers, the value of which is now well proved. It is not only quicker than doing the same job byground equipment, but often cheaper, because it does not damage any of the crop as often happens when wheeled equipment is used.In 1954 in the United States three million acres of rangeland were sprayed to kill grasshoppers at a cost of 4s 6d an acre; inthe past the insects had often cost farmers 28s an acre in terms of lost food for cattle.Similarly, beneficial results have been obtained all over the world; Colorado beetles have been attacked in French potatofields; 36 million locusts in Kenya have been destroyed at a cost of less than £200; an outbreak of the dreaded cotton-jassid insectsin the Sudan has been averted by spray from helicopters. Soil fertilization, or top dressing, is now conducted on a scalewhich would not be possible by means other than aviation. For example, in 1950, 5,000 tons of phosphates were spread over48,721 acres in New Zealand. In 1954, 200,000 tons were dropped over 5,000,000 acres. It is estimated that in the U.S. alone theuse of aircraft adds about £1,300,000,000 to the income of farmers, with an obvious beneficial impact on the local society.With the population of the world growing by 68,000 mouths every day of each year, the increased productivity of the soil madepossible by the use of aircraft for top dressing may in time prove to be aviation's biggest impact. In the calculable future the con-tinued existence of the world's society may well depend on— aviation.That, briefly, sums up the impact of the civil prong of aviation. What has been the impact of military flying during the sameperiod? Here range seems to have had a bigger effect than speed. * * * During the Great War of 1914-18, the ability of aircraft to covergreat distances meant that, for the first time in history, war reached out far behind the traditional "front line" and affected the ordinarypeople who, previously, had been largely isolated from its day-to-day terror.In this fundamental impact some detected an inherent benefit. The argument was put forward that, as this hitherto immunesociety, and particularly its politicians, now stood to suffer directly from war, there was less likelihood of nations engaging in war.Unfortunately, the contrary has proved to be true; since 1918, aviation has greatly intensified the menace to the whole world ofany struggle between civilized states. In Europe in particular the range of aircraft revolutionized the character of warfare withoutdiminishing in any way its likelihood. One who realized that the peace theory was but a pious ifworthy hope was the British statesman, Sir Leo Morey, who, in a speech to the League of Nations in 1919, argued: ". . . if thenations armed themselves with aeroplanes enough, the outbreak of war in twenty or even in ten years' time would mean such wide-spread terrorism throughout the world as had never before been Crop spraying: In the calculable future the continued existence of the world's society might well depend upon aviation. known and all the parties to the contest would be inexorably drivenby the foulest of all forms of competition to the murder of non- combatants on a gigantic scale."Sir Leo was right on both time-scales, the Spanish Civil War of the early thirties seeing the destruction by bombing of thevillage of Guernica. This tragedy filled the headlines of the world and caused many to recall Orville Wright's classic comment:"What a dream it was, what a nightmare it has become," brought about by earlier misuses of his great invention. The world warof 1939-45 saw much more than the destruction of one village; towns and cities were devastated by the score. When, in 1945, the twin mushrooms of atomic bombs spreadabove the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, aviation had, in fifty years, grown into a potential destroyer of the civilizedworld. The ability of the aeroplane to overcome distance, a foretaste ofwhich had been given during the 1914-18 war, had been demon- strated with terrifying effectiveness to the societies of half the world between 1939-45. * * * What has been the impact of aviation since the end of hostilities?It is popularly argued that fear of the consequences of a new global war, waged with atomic and thermo-nuclear bombs, has maintainedan uneasy peace. It is, perhaps, opportune to consider the successful harnessingof atomic energy, because this is now inseparable from any thorough survey of aviation. Most of the senior statesmen ofthe world appreciate that in the hydrogen bomb Mankind has a weapon capable of destroying the world. Now, this is, of course,a common claim made for all new weapons, from the introduction of the longbow, gunpowder, the machine-gun and poison gas.History has proved these earlier prophecies of doom to have been wrong; but, viewed in the perspective of the years, they havebecome less so. Up to the end of the eighteenth century, the overall effect ofwar, viewed impartially, can be shown to have been beneficial; it was, without doubt, largely instrumental in developing and spread-ing civilization. Ruskin went so far as to say that war was a "vitalizing and purifying influence essential to the progress ofhumanity." In his book The Crown of Wild Olive, he wrote: "I found, in brief, that all great nations learned their truth of wordand strength of thought, in war; that they were nourished in war and wasted by peace; taught by war and deceived by peace; trainedby war and betrayed by peace; in a word, they were born in war and expired in peace."Since then, owing to the increasing destructiveness of weapons devised by science, war has begun to inflict more and more harmthan benefit on the common fabric of civilization. As far as the first world war is concerned the nations engaged, particularlyBritain, even today feel the effects of the loss of the flower of their respective manhood experienced during the conflict.The war of 1939-45 caused an upset that has not yet subsided today—nearly fifteen years later. With the thermo-nuclear bombman has not only fashioned a weapon representing a gain in destructive power many, many times that of any previous weapon; Nightmare: The atomic mushrooms over Hiro- shima and Nagasaki meant that modern aviation had, in fifty years, grown into a potential destroyer of the civilized world.
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