SAFETY IN THE AIR

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 454, 8 September 1928, Page 11

SAFETY IN THE AIR

BRITAIN’S CONSERVATIVE OUTLOOK

ATLANTIC FLIGHTS DEPRECATED

Nowhere has the conservative outlook of the British people been better demonstrated than iu the newspaper reactions to the recent attempts to make non-stop flights across the Atlantic. That no element of national prejudice enters into this is shown by the fact that there is little dissimilarity in the comments on the attempts by Hamilton Minchin and Princess Lowenstein last year, by Hmchcliffe and Miss Elsie Mackay and oy Koehl, Huenefeld and Fitzmaurice this year, and on the flight by Amelia Earhart, Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon. In every case the majority of the British newspapers, paraphrases the aphorism “Magnificent, but not war,” remarked, in effect, “Magnificent, but impractical.”

LITTLE PRACTICAL VALUE Thus the “London Times,” although it devoted three columns to the account of the Earhart landing, nevertheless solid editorially: “By this time it isn’t too much to say that of the Atlantic route all is now known that need be known and that the quest of further knowledge isn’t worth the risk of life which it involves.” Similar sentiments, always tempered by a frank recognition of the bravery of the transatlantic flyers, could be found on every hand. The “Daily Telegraph” says: “It cannot too often be insisted that transatlantic flights make no useful contribution to the science of aviation.” The “Evening News”: “Ocean flights will continue to be costly and uncomfortable, involving extreme uncertainty alike as to the moment of departure and the place of arrival.” The “Evening Standard”: “Atlantic flights are not yet near the point where passenger carrying becomes a practical proposition.” Yet Britain has as much reason to be interested in developing aviation as any nation in the world. This apparent contradiction can he explained by the fact that many thoughtful Englishmen believe that the airplane has passed from its experimental stage and is capable of taking its place as a normal mode of transport. The British railways report they have fewer accidents than any others in the world. British shipping laws are the world’s most stringent; the Imperial Airways, Britain’s chief travel organisation, boasts it has not killed a passenger nor a pilot since 1924. In other words, the whole trend of British opinion as regards commercial aviation can be summed up by the two words, “Safety first.” MILITARY STUNT FLYING For the purposes of people who put up money for commercial aviation in England it is more important that John Bull and his wife should think of the air liner as a safe and quick method of getting to Paris than that they should he thrilled by oceancrossing stunts. Reliability—these people argue—can be tested equally well by a plane flying round and round the British coast as by covering the same distance across mid-ocean. There is nothing timorous about this attitude. In military flying, where stunting is essential, British pilots have reached a high degree of perfection —accompanied by 40 to 50 fatal accidents yearly. But the death of Sergeant So and So, while trying to make his flying scout do flip-flops in the air, receives three lines in most newspapers. The failure of an Atlantic flight gets many columns and undermines the public confidence. It cannot be only a coincidence that the most ambitious flights now undertaken by Englishmen are designed to prove the reliability and safety and cheapness, either of the large passen-ger-carrying planes or of the small aerial runabouts, suitable for private owners.