AIR JOBS AFTER THE WAR.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16397, 17 December 1918, Page 4

AIR JOBS AFTER THE WAR.

Already one of our best-known aviation companies has announced its intention of holding, directly the "war is over, big international air races and an exhibition of pleasure and sporting aircraft so that intending buyers can tij the machines and make a (selection. Thin is but a single instance of anticipating the great after-tho-war ail" boom. Royal Air Force messes are divided on the future of pilots. One school holds that owing to tho vast numbers of men who can fly their status will be that of an aerial chauffeur or an _ aeroplane "driver." The other maintains that an ufter-the-war air pilot will hold tho status of a sea captain, in that he will be expected to know everything about air navigation, weather, prevailing air currents, which are bound to be marked on maps sooner or later, and kindred subjects. "If I am expected to drive somo fat war profiteer about in nn aeroplane when peace is declared," said an Il.A.l'\ pilot to me recently, "thou bock I shall go into the engineering Bhops, for you can depend upon it,_ if a high lovol is not put on the qualifications of peacetime flyers, wo shall have tho incompetents offering their services at £2 ft week and undercutting the real pilots.'» Fortunately there will be work i'or pilots other than that of aoting as aerial chauffeur to people who aro too lazy to learn to fly themaelvoa. Civilian jobs at first will bo kponly competed for, as many of them will be pleasant and safe ways of earning a living. The aerial postman—already at work in France and America, whole aeroplanes unfit for war ure handed over to the postal authorities—should havo a comfortable and regular job. The passenger service pilot would Have nothing to grumble at in a London-to-Paris-and-back daily flight, and the pilots who will carry the first editions of newspapers between tho capitals of different countries will not have an unpleasant occupation. Aircraft for exploration, though likely to be used in smaller numbers, will need pilots who like adventure. Transatlantic piloting onay be a tiring job, but no doubt it will be paid for proportionately. Sporting pilots in the R.A.F. aro anticipating tne development of air racing on' tne lines of horse racing, and somo even go so far as to suggest aerial steeplechnsing. Our. flyinc Gatwicks, Newmarkets, Sandowns, and Brightons should supply pleasant days for pilots and spectators.—(By C. Winchester, in London "Daily Mail.")