AERIAL TRANSPORT

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 119, 15 November 1929, Page 9

AERIAL TRANSPORT

BOON TO INDTTSTKY GREAT BRITAIN'S NEED ] By Colonel the Master of Sempill. : (Copyright.) I While the progress made in the : science of flight has been rapid and farTeaching, the people of Great Britain are not yet benefiting sufficiently. To the majority of our people, aeroplanes are still something outside of the general run of things—vehicles only to be requisitioned in times of extreme hurry. , \ . That is an utterly erroneous view.'1 Aerial transport, wisely developed, can bring great boons to all sections of the community. It can confer big benefits upon British business, open up new paths to trade prosperity,, widen the field of employment. We have to-day a first-rate airport at Croydon. London is in direct connection with France, Holland, and Germany by air. And now there is a regular mail service operating between London and Karachi—evidence, this, of a somewhat belated awakening to realities on the part of tho authorities! PACE THE FACTS. These services are all excellent . in their way, but they mean little or nothing to the industrial north—the workshop of Great Britain. We stand to gain in every way by facing the facts fairly and squarely, however unpleasant they may be. The position is, roughly, as follows:— - ■ The great industrial and manufacturing towns of the north are starved of that new, speedy, safe form of transport which has been inaugurated by the aeroplane. The lack of aerial ser- ■ vices having their termini in the north means that this vitally important reg- i ion is isolated, so far as the air is' concerned, from some of its most im-1 portant markets in Europe. It is' much j as though railways had been devel- j oped in the south, but had not been j provided throughout the northern coun- ] ties. ■ • _ '.! Business men are beginning to re- ■ cognise tho benefits the air can bring.1 Once traders have begun to consign urgent goods and mails by airway, they do not return to tho older methods. One of the pressing needs of to-day— and it grows more urgent day by day i —is the provision of comprehensive I aerial services, based on the great manufacturing centres of the north. Tho north must be linked with Europe by fast mail and passenger services flying over tho North Sea; hours would be saved on journeys to. Holland, Germany, Middle Europe, and Scandinavia, all of which countries" do a good deal of trade with the industries of the North-East Coast. Newcastle, because of its outstanding importance as tho metropolis of England's greatest engineering and manufacturing area, might well become tho base of such airways. Kegular services across the North Sea would, perforce, have to be operated by flying-boats—a type of aircraft which has many advantages for long-distanco commercial work. This fact alone, apart from that already mentioned, indicates the ideal suitability of Newcastle as the terminus. Hero aro excellent dock areas, with the necessary Customs and warehouse facilities; here, too, are unexcelled engineering shops. With but vevy little work, Newcastle could be converted into a fine commercial flying-boat base. There would bo no expensive aerodrome to construct, because the river provides all the landing "ground" necessary; the existing shipyards and engineering shops, with but very minor alterations, could be readily converted for dealing with the repair and maintenance of aircraft. NEWCASTLE AS CENTRE. He would be a bold man who would set a limit to the value to trade of such services as-1 have outlined; they would bring the Continent within a few hours' journey of the north, enabling those who buy or sell in Europe to maintain easy personal contact with their markets or sources of supply. The delivery of urgent consignments of goods and of mails would bo accelerated so much as to assist materially the free flow of trade. A further and very worthwhile advantage would, be that with Newcastle as a flourishing and growing airport—the natural terminus of airways between this country and Northern Europe—many of .those skilled workers who are unfortunately idle all along the Tyne, could bo gradually absorbed into an industry with considerable possibilities. In France, in Germany, in the United States—even in small countries such as Czecho-Slovakia —the value of air services has been abundantly proved. They have passed into the normal scheme of transport of the countries concerned, showing themselves to be powerful business-builders in a variety of ways. And Great Britain, with its. manifold industrial problems, its dependence upon overseas trade, both for; supplies of raw materials and for markets for its manufactured goods, stands in urgent need of every available aid to commerce. INDUSTRIAL HANDICAP. No district of Great Britain has been harder hit. by the trade depression than the industrial north'; no feasible means of : . assisting it to regain prosperity must be neglected. The Government is exploring avenues of relief for unemployment and for re-estab-lishing our national trade. If it is to be successful in those aims, it must lift every handicap from industry. And no scheme which is to prove anything more than a temporary palliative can neglect, the north's urgent need for speedier transport such as the air alone can afford —speedier transport which will, in innumerable ways, help Britain's depressed trades to win | back their position in the world's markets. ■