AIR TRAVEL.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 17721, 24 March 1923, Page 20

AIR TRAVEL.

SAFE MEANS OF PROGRESS. SOME INTERESTING FACTS. i-icir ova om coemspoxmkt./ LONDON, February 8. During tho courso of a paper read before the third Air Conference, at the Guildhall, Major-General Sir "\V. S. Brancker (Director of Civil Aviation) prophesied great developments in air travel. ''Navigation through any cloud or storm will be as easy to the aircraft of the future," he predicted, "as navigation of the sea is to the big shir> of to-day. And to the seep-, tical I'only say, 'Compare the latest commercial air liner of to-day with tho cfl-h.p. box-kite of 1912—and think. Ho foresees aircraft flying at an altitude of 30,000 ft., with a speed of 300 miles per hour, placing London and New York within twelve hours of one another. He believes that in a few years ten passengers or their'equivalent weight would be carried at iOU niilcfe an hour for about 2s a mile. Comfort is being improved, and before long comparative silence will be obtained. In 1923 the air routes to be covered will be 1350 miles, instead of 420 miles, and this may be raised to 1,000-1,600 if negotiations with Germany are completed. ..e are certainly foing to try to be the first nation to y round tho world. Year's Progress. Dealing with the subsidised Channel eervices, General Brancker said the scheme which had just been decided •upon at the time of the meeting last year had not worked satisfactorily in practice. It'had three outstanding defects: (,!) It fostered undesirable competition between British firms; (2) It depended entirely on the volume of traffic obtained, and was based on a too optimistic estimate of this tra&c; and (3) It was too complicated in its application. Money and energy were •wasted by each company in endeavours to knock its rivals out of business. This, of course, was the last thing in the world that was intended The subsidy was given with the first objecu of putting British aircraft and British pilots into tho air and of, extending British influence and prestige in this new industry, which was eventually going to revolutionise the transport of the world. High hopes entertained ot a large increase of traffic over previous vears during 1922 had been falsified. * Tho first requisite of a satisfactory Jiir route was trrffio, and a, map ot Europe showed that the three nearest points which could provide any serious •bulk of traffic were Pans to the south, Cologne to the oast, and Berlin-to tho north. The Paris route had hee.ii, operated for practically three years, and had an established' goodwill, and although it did not offer a great saving or time over the train; a comparatively i heavy traffic could be counted on during the summer, and at least 10,000 air passengers and 300 tons of excess bag- * gage, parcels, and newspapers could' be> depended upon to cross the Channel to and from Paris during the year. On the central route, as far as Brussels, tho small volume of traffic and' the small amount of £imo saved over the train and boat service prevented the success of an air route in tho immediate future; ■ hut by flying 100 miles further, to Cologne, .a great deal of time was saved. Customa troubles on tho .German, frontier were avoided, the train traffic from lYankfurfc and Berlin was tapped. *n°-' a profitable client was obtained in tho Rhine- Army. Sky-Writing. In a reference to tmsuibsidised undertakings, General Brancker, mentioned aky-wnting.. At first, he said, ho looked -upon eky-writingAae a rather meretricious, use for aviation, but actually this particular activity had produced an organisation which could be quickly converted into a fighting squadron in case of national emergency. The nature or the work demanded very fine piloting at high altitudes, and should provide excellent training for fighting in the air. Various small joy-riding organisations were still in existence, and were very valuable as a means of propaganda to the public, also provided a certain number of training machines and good training pilots and mechanics, who would be available in case of mobihaa- • tion. ■ , ... , - Owing to the general slump in the * i manuf aoturing industry it had been extremely difficult to keep air racing on • ita feet. The King, however, had given. ) them a great incentive by presenting -the King's Oup, to be competed for an.-. ■ nuafly. Perhaps ithe best sporting feat ' accompliahed by British aircraft during " ' -1022 waa the winning of the Sohneader ' Cup by the flupemarine Company, - with one of their flying boata, fitted with, a N»pier Lion engine. , At the moment there were na fewer * -Hin-Ti ftre different groups of pilots who were thinking out schemes tor flying round the world. If it were not done » this year it ought to be done next. In the Air Ministry where all out to help in every way possible any expedition wbkib could prove that it waa soondly organised', that proper arrangement* bfed been made in the different parte of the world over which it would be necessary to fly, and that it had a sound financial backing. Great Britain was certainly going to be the first nation to try to fly round the world.

Safety First .' Safely and reliability .ware the two " most important objectives which, air transport had to attain to-day. When those two factors had been-established there would be no more trouble in obtaining traffic. Taking salety first, during 1922 there were only three fatal accidents to passengers on regular British air routes. Only one passenger was slightly injured. No paying passengers were either killed or injured on joy-rides. l>uring. the year the regular subsidised services carried about 10,100 passengers and 22,200 flew on joy-riding flights. .It could fairly ' be said that the result of 1922 pointed to air transport being a safe moans of * progress if properly organised and properly administered. (Cheers.) Progress towards reliability and economic » running were also to be noted as tea- • tuxes of 1922. Jhiring the spring of 1922 the wireless telephone was brought into use for the £rst time in air transport, and now pilots objected to flying without it. As wireless organisation improved thoy would be able to find their way through - fog, and General Brancker anticipated that the fixed routes marked on the tffoxmi would be abandoned, and flying would be entirely by compass and wireless navigation, certain semes in height and area being allotted for each -stream of traffic. Meanwhile Great Britain, as a nation, could claim to be ahead of anyone in traffio control oiganisation and in wireless navigation. "It may really be said to-day that the only form of weather which stops' air transoort is thick fog; unfortunately, London anH Manchester are more afflicted with this curse than almost any part of the civilised jrlohe. How: ever, T hope that this meteorological disabilitv will help us to produce the finest pilots in the world.'' .. Cable Guide. •« Air fice-Marshal Sir G. H. Salmond, touching on the problem of landing in t* fog, said: "The posibility is now being investigated of laying a cable round the , aerodrome in the general shape of a K>eing curved to an arc it aeroplane in flight to ble will carry electrical 'aeroplane will carry it, and

of measuring the energy received. The amount of such energy gives an inverse measure of the height. By this means it is hoped to enable the pilot to locate the actual confines of the landing ground and finally to glide down, even in conditions of very low visibility, with an accurate knowledge of his height at any given moment." Airship Service. Commander Dennis Burney, ■^-* > -' ""leaking of airships, argued that 16 of these craft could be produced as cheaply as one battleship. Between them it had been estimated- that • that number could carry 32 torpedo-carry-ing planes and 48 fighting-planes. If such a force attacked a battleship, he said, it is more than probable that the battleship would succumb. A reconnaissance airship, carrying two plane 3 for protective purnoses, would have a range of action of 20,000 miles. In searching an area of 1000 square miles ■ an airshtn could do the work for £1 5s a square mile, whereas it -ivould cost a light cruiser £77. "As regards capital cost," he continued, "the same work could be done by a fleet of nine airships as by a fleet of 60 cruisers, the saving in capital cost being £51,750,000." , , , . It was not suggested that battleships could be given up to-day; but surely the lesson to be drawn was that airships had a growing influence on narval strategy and tactics, and the final consideration was how could the British Empire lead in airship development. To start with, the airship would he merely a reconnaisance cr auxiliary vessel, but when the natural growth of scientific development rendered a divergence of type between the • reconnaissanoe or auxiliary vessel and the trading vessel desirable and necessarj, then that was the moment for the-com-mencement of a State service or Navy of specialised fighting airships. Sir S. Hoare, Secretary for Air, said lie was determined to try to develop a consistent civil aviation policy. So far from allowing civil aviation to collapse, ho had for weeks past been studyink schemes for setting it in the way of organic development. "I am very anxious," he added, "to see a start made with an Imperial air route, whether it be by aeroplane or by airship." He told the Conference there were two obstacles to civil aviation—shortage of money and after-war confusion." He omitted a thirds which still count's for more, and tliaf; is" the apathy of 'Governments.

The Very Essence of Imperial Safety. The "Pall Mall Gazette" comments: "The most serviceable thing that the Air Conference could listen to would) be-a full account of what is being done in the practical application of flying by such countries as France and'Ameriea. Civil aviation ought long ago to have found .its feet as a carrier, agency by being employed in mail wansport. The Government could in this way nave helped our postal service to recover the efficiency it lost hi the war, and has never regained; and at the same time given civil flying the experience necessary for an indpendent commercial career., "Thoro are two scientific services of which the British' Empire stands ( in most urgent need, and in their most developed forms. One is flying, and the other is wireless telegraphy. In both cases the time that has 'elapsed since, the war has bean practically wasted, and we are confronting problems today that ought to have been tackled/ four years ago. Mr Bonar Law's' Government will be judged as much hy its handling of these things as by anything else in its policy. They are of the very essence of Imperial safety." t Gliders and Seaplanes. . Colonel A. Ogilvie, in discussing and their value to aeronautical progress, approached the matter from the viewpoint of airchaf t for civiltransport purposes. From that standpoint the present position of aeronautical development could not be considered satisfactory. Cavil aircraft were not sufficiently safe in the, event of a breakdown of the motive power necessitating a forced landing. The demands on the pilot were too severe and the risk of accident was too great. Civil aircraft were too expensive to buy, to run, and to maintain in running' order, and until very considerable I improvements could be effected in that respect it could not be claimed that they were transport vehicles of a really commercial character. Reviewing recent gliding history, he said that' there would appear to be very 'little likelihood that engineless aoroplanes could ever be of practical service in journeying from'' place ,to place, or even they would be much used for sport. The necessity of an up current of.some kind to support the machinej rendered the first almost impossible, and confined. the second to special localities. The renl immediate Value of gliders lay in the opportunity they afforded of technical experiment in a simple and inexpensive manner. There were two main'technical.problems in the commercial aeroplane of to-day, andilj was suggested that solutions of either or of both were more likely to be found by means of experimental work with gliders than by other means. The first was "the> increasing of aerodynamic efficiency, and the second was the improvement of controllability at low flying speeds. Mr C. R. Fairoy, who discussed seaplanes, said that it was obvious that the •proper, type of machine for flying over seas must definitely he capable of alighting'on • and. rising from the surface. The great rivers of the world provided the roady-made routes for sea- i plane services, from which the dangers/ of forced landings that would beset aeroplanes were nearly eliminated. Their equivalent for aeroplanes would he a continuous chain of aerodromes of quite prohibitive cost. The great archipelagoes of the Far East and the African swamps were examples of country .where the seaplane was the only practical means of flyine. From the naval point of view, whatever might be done with specialised ' aeroplanes operating from carrier ships, it was obvious that conditions would set a strict limit to the size of such machines, and for big range reconnaissance at sea, and for carrying big. loads - for offensive operations the development of the seaplane was the allimpcrtant factor that should not be neglected. Next War in the- Air.V "In the next war large fleets of aeroplanes carrying bombs far more terrible, than any yet known will travel perfectly silently through the night, aad directed by electricity, will carry death to any town on which they descend." This prophecy was made by Sir W. Joynson-Hicks. "Who would have thought in the early days of the war," he asked, "of metal propellers and of metal aeroplanes t Yet to-day they are an absolute certainty. When you have got your all-metal aeroplane you will have saved pilots from one. of the greatest terrors of their lives—the possibility of fire while in the air. These things are merely improvements incidental to the ordinary carrying out of aviation work. But what has taken place in the last ten years will take place in the ten years. Those of us who prophesied, ten years ago, the coming of speeds of 200 miles an hour and heights of from 15,000 to 20,000 feet were laughed at as fools. But the prophecies have been fulfilled. Speeds of from 200 to* 300 miles an hour and a height of £O,OOO, feet are well within the range of pos-. sibility at the present time, and I am convinced that the improvements of the next ten years will be as great as those in the past ten years.

Terriflc*DiSc6vori«. "There is one direction where I shouldjike constructors and inventors to consider the possibilities, and that

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is in regard to the electrical side of aviation. "Wireless telegraphy and telephony are not the end of radio discoveries. The men who are to-day making discoveries in radio-telegraphy and telephony are appalled themselves month by month at the discoveries they are making. There is no doubt that within a few years it will be perfectly possible to listen to the conversation of anybody in a priv-iice room, even though there be no receiver in that room. It will be an added .terror to life, but we are in the age of terrific discoveries. Apply these to aeronautics. Your aeroplanes will be driven electrically. Those who discussed the possibilities of bombs on London in 1912 were laughed at for their pains. Think of the possibility—to my mind the certainty—in the next war of large fleets of aeroplanes carrying high explosive bombs far more terrible than any in the last warS-possibly containing something worse than mere explosives—travelling out without any piloi., at night, with perfect silence as to engines, controlled electrically from their base, and carrying death to any town's on which they may be directed. This is no mere extreme prophesy, and I should like those who are engaged on research to consider in the very near future 'what enormous strides are certain to be made in electro-radio science, and apply their minds to it, so that if that terrible time should ever come again when there was a European war, Great Britain will be in the van, instead of behind in any aeronautical discoveries." •

Admiral Mark Kerr, pointing out that the othej day Britain spent sixteen millions on two ships which would probably neVer go into action, aaid: •'Teh millions of that money would have put us safe in the air. Frighten the people of this country, and Ist them frighten the Government. That is the only way to get anything done, but frighten them truthfully. Let them understand the simple lawß of strategy —speed and range. And the speediest and the longeßt-range thing is the aeroplane."