FLYING FOR NOTHING

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 108, 8 May 1923, Page 6

FLYING FOR NOTHING

A few days ago the Duke of Sutherland, Under-Secretary for the Air, expressed the opinion that soon people would be able to go for week-end flying trips in machines costing from £80 to £90, and practically fool-proof. This prophecy has been early followed by a double trip across the English Channel in a machine whose owner says it cost him only £70, plus sixpence for petrol. The practicability of very cheap flight is thus proved, up to a point. It remains to be seen whether M. Barbot's machine can be called "fool-proof." Almost literally he has flown from France to England and back for nothing. But M. Barbot's petrol bill is small because he has spent a great deal of time, and probably money as well, in learning how to perform a trick that some kinds of birds do instinctively, but which is acquired by man only by careful study and practice.

The new art of air-gliding may be placed to the credit of the much-maligned Treaty of Versailles, which, by restricting Germany's use of engine-driven aircraft, led German aviators (in the first place) to experiment persistently in engineleßS flight, with astonishing results. Hitherto the gliding feats that have attracted attention have been sustained flights over limited areas above which the wind has blown in such a way as to sustain the glider, the wind being in fact deflected upwards by rising ground. M. Barbot's achievement indicates that the art is escaping from the limitations of topography, and that over the sea a skilful pilot can— with the aid of a small engine—find enough upward air-currents to keep his machine from falling. Gliding, however, is not likely to become a general method of travel. It is to the aviator what "coasting" is to the cyclist or motor-driver, but not so easy. The use of very small engines is a more important aspect of practical aviation. It has always been known that aeroplane engines are customarily far more powerful than is necessary for mere flight; but it is also a fact that an engine | that will just sustain an aeroplane | will not make flying safe. It leaves the pilot without any margin for manoeuvring, or for making headway against a wind, and his safety will depend upon his skill, unremitting attention, and luck. And as an aeroplane embodying more than a few horse-power necessarily costs more than a few pounds, the anticipation of the Duke of Sutherland seems a little premature.