AVIATION.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 19889, 28 March 1930, Page 10

AVIATION.

BRITISH ADVANCE.

VALUE OF THE AIRSHIPS.

Irs.om otte ow* coerespondent.) LONDON, February 13

As Secretary for Air, Lord Thomson is obviously as enthusiastic as any Secretary who has represented the Conservative Party. His training has been that of a soldier, and he knows that the Empire must keep up with the times, and plan for years ahead. Lord Thomson was the guest of the British Empire Club at luncheon last Friday, and gave an interesting address on "Aviation and the British Empire." In the coming year, he said, there should be 35,000 miles of civil air routes in the Empire. We would then, lie believed, be second to no country in the world and at least equal to America, with all her money and her immense field for enterprise. In aviation, Lord Thomson continued, we had a priceless opportunity because it would provide a now bond between the far-flung Dominions, Colonies, and overseas territories and the Mother Country. In 1928, our Empire air routes covered 11,000 miles; in 1929, 19,000 miles, and in 1930 it was hoped to cover 35,000 miles. These figures were very eloquent. At present a flight of four aeroplanes was flying from Cairo to the Cape and back. Another flight was being carried out in Nigeria; our military airmen were exploring the Empire's remotest parts, and blazing the trail for British aviation. As to the personnel of the British Air Force, anyone who knew them must be proud that our race had produced such magnificent specimens of mankind. Forward-Looklng Policy. The air policy of this country, said Lord Thomson, was based on far greater considerations than mere party politics. It was always a forward-looking policy. No Secretary for Air would be worth the dignity of his office unless he looked at least five years ahead. Imperial Airways had the great trunk lines connecting the Mother Country to India, and shortly to be extended to Australia. With the route across Africa to the Cape our civil routes within the Empire would amount to 35,000 miles. Both these great trunk lines should be opened during the coming year. It was said that commercial aviation should fly by itself, but the nearest approach to a self-supporting concern in the world had been reached by Imperial Airways. The indirect subsidies of U.S. air mails were enormous. Civil aviation could not be divorced from the Air Ministry. He shuddered to think of the shoal of correspondence which would pass through the Air Ministry from civil authority. Civil aviation was still in its, swaddling clothes, and it would be wrong to take it away from its harsh but firm mother.

Airships and the Empire. Turning to the subject of airships, Lord Thomson said that these were never more than an experiment. He believed that the solution of the problem of Imperial air communications would be largely found in such craft. Nothing was more misleading than to talk of our airships having cost £1,000,000 each. It was the whole airship programme that had cost about £2,000,000. He accepted responsibility for the statement that the knowledge gained in regard to air matters generally was well worth the money if we had not got an airship at all. "R 101 has come through her trial? triumphantly. She may not be very fast; she may not have all the accommodation that was anticipated, but she is a very useful experiment. My belief, founded upon opinions expressed to me from various quarters, is that we are justified in continuing these experiments. ''

They started building ariships when no other country was building them, but now Germany and France were competing. An American admiral, a naval delegate, had been talking to him about airships. The American people were not blind to the possibilities of such craft. The airship was an essential vehicle for passing over seas, and it was not a rival or a competitor of the aeroplane. We had idiots, designers, and engine builders second to none. We also had the organisation. . A friend of his who had visited the United Stateß, said he would never grouse again' about our organisation. WAat he had seen in the United States was chaotic. ■ Aviation • had been developed m the hothouse of war, but we mnst get on with it or get out of the march of human progress.