SAFETY FIRST ALOFT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 917, 10 March 1930, Page 9

SAFETY FIRST ALOFT

AIR POLICY OF BRITISH GOVERNMENT ESTIMATES INCREASE £890,000 LONDON, Saturday. A White Paper discloses the fact that the Air Estimates for 1930 total £17,850,000. This is an increase of £890,000 over 1929. An explanatory memorandum by the Secretary of State for Air, Lord Thomson, says: The trials of the airships RIOO and RlOl have shown a satisfactory measure of success. In spite of the delays inevitable in the field of such novel experiments both airships have proved thoroughly stable and easy to control. RlOl rode at the mooring mast through weather of exceptional severity for a month on end and RIOO attained a speed of SI miles an hour, which is equal to that of the Graf Zeppelin. In accordance with the policy of “safety first” it was decided to insert an additional Section in RlOl before undertaking the flight to India and back. It Is intended that RIOO shall carry out flights to Montreal in the late spring or summer and operate in the winter between Cardington and Ismailia. Provision has been made for the development of mechanical means for moving the airships into and out of their sheds. AVOIDING COMPETITION Generally speaking the estimates allow for a broad continuity of air policy and the outlines of the home defence scheme. This will not prejudice increases in the Royal Air Force -which are small and designed to demonstrate again the Government’s earnest desire to avoid disastrous competition in air armaments. “We shall thus have breathing space in which to watch the development of the new spirit which pervades pacific international instruments, such as the treaty for the renunciation of war and the optional clause of the International Court," says Lord Thomson. The Imperial Airways, Ltd., service to South Africa should be commenced with the section between Alexandria and Mwanza, Tanganyika, next autumn and the through service to Capetown in the spring of 1931.