AVIATION PROGRESS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 160, 25 November 1926, Page 1

AVIATION PROGRESS.

PRIVATE FLYING. I j Stimulus of Cobham’s Flight. At Croydon the delegates to the Imperial Congress were given a prac ieal demonstration of the progress of aviation in Britain, as a preliminary to their discussion of aerial c&mmunications within the Empire, one of the most, impor ant subjects which they will discuss. The pageant was apparently a very impressive one, designed to give j the delegates some practical knowledge lof the different types of craft and j their possibili ics for transport and . defence. A detailed memorandum of 1 the present position of civil flying and an examination of the possibilities of Empire air development has been prepared for them. All Europe Mapped Out It is seven years since the first ParisLondon air service was s arted, with ill-equipped two seater planes, whereas to-day the service is run by giant machines of three or four engines j apiece, each carrying from 18 to 20 • passengers, plying twice daily through - ] out the summer, not only from London to Paris, bu L to Ostend, to Brussels and to Cologne, while there is single service daily from London to Amsterdam for Hamburg and Berlin, and to Paris fo.r Basle and Zurich. Even in the winter i months air liners make daily journeys to Paris, Cologne, and Amsterdam. What is more important from the point of view of the future of air travel, these mach ; nes of the Imperial Airways, Limited, operated continuously throughout last year without a single serious accident. The development of • the services from London naturally has its counterpart on the Continent. Indeed, some Continental countries have far outstripped England in their progress in this respect, and prac tier lly the whole of Europe is now manned out wi-h air lines almost as well defined as the great trunk railways. In Germany in particular, despi'e the f; t that the “nine rules” imposed by t' e Allied Air Control Commission prohibit her building full-strength machines, nearly all her cities are linked together by air. There are no fewer than 39 regular air services operating in the Fatherland.

Not One Accident Progress has been less rapid in England because of the shorter distances and the splendid railway services. But if England progresses slowly, her advance is sure. The fleet of the Imperial Airways has grown steadily on sound if conservative lines, and including the planes added during the past few months to meet the expansion of summer traffic, they now operate almost a score of machines, of which the largest .are two Armstrong-Whitworth “Argosy” aeroplanes, which have seating capacity for twenty passengers. That they are stout machines is evidenced not only by the absence of accidents, which is the envy of the French Air Union, but by their durability—four of the company’s D.H.34 aircraft have each completed 300.000 miles in the air. while another of the WS.B type has 3000 hours’ flying to its credP.

The experience gained in the past half-dozen years will prove invaluable when at the beginning of next year Imperial Airways Limited commences to operate its much bigger project of a fortnightly aeroplane service Egvpt and India, wi'h the prospect of becoming a weekly service in the near future. Survey parties, including exports of the Air Ministry, inspected the route last year, and this year a more detailed survey was undertaken to arrange final details of ground organisation. Quito apart from reserving spaces for aerodromes a chain of wireless and meteorological stations have now been installed across the groat desert of the Middle East, and, in co-operation wi'h the Royal Air Force, aircraft on their journeys from Cairo to Karachi will receive constant bulletins from stations at Gaza, Amman, Rutbnh Wells, Bagdad. Basrah, Bushirc, Bunda Abbas and Chahbar.

A vigorous propaganda is at work 4 o emphasise the comparative safety of the modern plane, but the memory of recent disasters lingers in the mind of the public, and the propaganda is to some extent nullified by the prominence that is given *o accidents to which pilots in the Royal Air Force lose their lives during flying. No fewer than eleven fatal accidents occurred in August to service airmen, and although the inference is unfair to civil aviation, which is in the hands of aviators of riper experience, those disasters unquestionably deter the public from making fuller use of the services now running. Light Aeroplane Clubs Perhaps the most effective means of combating this prejudice is -he establishment of light aeroplane clubs, of which five have now been formed. The Jotal membership of all five is 525 flying members and 327 associate members, and of the total only nine have so far obtained “A” class pilots’ certificates. Those so licensed include one lady, and there are other ladies who are among the growing number of members who are rapidly reaching the stage of proficiency entitling them to

qualify. The training is done very methodically, and compared with fh*-* neck-or-nothing methods adopted for turning out p : lots during the war, foolproof means are taken. Before the aspirant is allowed in Gic air at all he has to undergo a course of ground training and must learn all about the technicalities of his low-powered machine. Having done so it is said that a man of average intelligence can become a fairly good pilot after about eight hours’ flying under dual control conditions and four hours’ solo flying. This is not to say that such a man will have qualified for an Air Ministry certificate. It costs Ihe Air Ministry £lO for each member of a club who obtains his certificate, and if for no other reasons than those of economy they are not handed out too liberally. The clubs receive also a gran f in respect of equipment from the Government amounting to £2OOO for each authorised club, and out of this fund each of them ha,s possessed itself of a couple of do Havi laud “Moth” machines with one spare 60 h.p. Cirrus engine. The Ministry v arses the clubs also by way of maintenance grants, and sums thus available, together wi'h members’ subscriptions, are employed among other things for {tying one or more full-time ininstructors and a qualified ground engineer. It speaks well for their work that, although there have been a few minor accidents, no injury has resulted in the occupants of the ma chines.