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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1820.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD t FOUNDED WOQ Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams: Truditnr, Sediit, London. TelepHone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams: Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971 (5 lines). 260, DEAN8GATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 26B, RENFIELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams: IliBe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. Home and Canada: Other Countries: Year, 61 13 0. Year. 41 16 0. 6 months, 16s. 6d. 6 months 18s. Od. 3 months, 8s. 6d. 3 months, 9s. 04, No. 1590. Vol. XXXV. JUNE 15, 1939. Thursdays, Price 6d. The Outlooks Empire Aviation's Story T HE history of British commercial aviation is very largely the history of Imperial Airways, British Airways, and the companies of which they were originally formed, told in some detail in this week's issue of Flight. Our special feature marks perhaps the most important milestone in the progress of the two con cerns—the publication this week of the Bill by which they will be amalgamated under the title of the British Overseas Airways Corporation. The story makes fascinating reading, as we think our readers will agree, and records a wonderful achievement in the face of many obstacles, some of a geographical, some of a technical, and many of a political nature. But in the end the organisation has won through, not to finality, to be sure, for it is to be expected that the new company will carry on the traditions, but to a posi tion unequalled anywhere in the world. Not until relatively recent times has this country bothered very much about internal air services, and consequently the history recorded this week deals almost entirely with Empire aviation. It was held, and we think quite rightly so, that the long Empire air routes offered the greatest promise of making commercial avia tion really useful, and by introducing the " all-up " air mail scheme Great Britain rendered a service to those outlying parts of the Empire which had previously seemed very remote, but which are now within a week or two of Home. In rejoicing over the service now being given, we should not fail to pay a tribute to those who pioneered the routes, surveyed them, and made the first faltering steps possible. The route to Australia was originally surveyed by Major-General Geoffrey Salmond, Brigadier-General (now Air Vice-Marshal) A. E. Borton and Capt. Ross Smith in a Handley Page 0/400 in the latter part of 1918 and early part of 1919. It seems difficult to believe that twenty years have elapsed since those days. It was not granted to Sir Geoffrey Salmond (as he later became) to live to see the full fruits of his work, nor of that of the survey work and preparation of aerodromes which he organised in the Cairo-Cape Town route, but in commemorating the early beginnings of Empire aviation we do honour to him and to those who worked so hard with him to make" possible the wonderful organisation we know to-day. The Merger W HEN the announcement that the two national air transport companies were to become a single public Corporation was first made last November we remarked that, whether one liked it or not, the merger was inevitable. So it was—and we still have no reason for supposing that such a public Corporation must necessarily be bureaucratically minded and operated. Everything depends on the selected managing personnel. The Cor poration Bill, which was published last Monday, allows for complete independence in normal operations, so that there will be plenty of room for responsibility and incentive, and, to encourage efficiency, the subsidy arrangements permit a financial reserve to be built up. Among the members of the staff of Imperial Airways and British Airways there is sufficient experience, energy and, more important, enthusiasm to make the Corpora tion a really live concern. It is up to them. There is plenty of work to be done. The Empire services are neither as reliable nor as efficient as they might be—largely because of fleet shortage ; there are at least three important trans-oceanic services to be organ ised, and a great deal of prestige to be regained in Europe. The name—British Overseas Airways Corporation— is clumsy and somehow inapplicable. But Imperial Air ways was once known as the Imperial Air Transport Company; presumably we shall all think and speak of the new Corporation as British Airways. There are worse titles. The word "Imperial" was always too
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