MAN IN THE AIR

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 5, 7 January 1930, Page 4

MAN IN THE AIR

i PRACTICAL FLYING

A HISTORICAL SKETCH

OUTSTANDING FIGUEES

i.The; following interesting, survey of "the. .development of aviation, written ■ : -by Mr.^C. G. Grey, editor of the "Aero—plane,"'"is taken from a publication issued by Shell-Mex, Ltd. Setting aside all the legends of Icarus and Company, which may or may not .. bo based on the fact that some of these , people did actually attempt gliding •• flight, the first authentic flying in '. which men were supported ou wings i which they had more or less under .-■ control was dono in the closing years of the last century. The pioneers of this curious combination of sport and science were Doctor Lilienthal in Ger- |; many, Professor Chanute in America, ,'r and Mr. Pilcher in England. Mr. Pilcher was killed near North- ; ampton in 1899, through his glider ' breaking; Doctor Lilienthal was killed i similarly in Germany in 1895; and Pro- : fessor Chanute died of old age only a few years ago*. Their successes en- ': couraged. a.number of. other young ; ; men, to.similar, experiments. ; |. 'Undoubtedly the best gliding maehI ineg-'ever made -were those built by '■, Mr. Jose Weiss, at. Amberley, in Sus--1 sex, and the best pilot, of them was •• Mr.-'TB; Ci Gordon England, whose nameiß familiar to all motorists in this country, as a builder of car bodies. Also, by a curious combination of circum- ■; »tanceg, Mr. Pilcher was one of the '■■ partners in the Wilson and Pilcher car of the late: eighteen hundreds, and his partner, Mr. Wilson, eventually became ' one of the most important persons in : the development of the tanks during i. the "war. 1 Quite out of order, but in this con- :\ section, there is interest in noting that ■ the Jfamous Weymann motor body was invented, designed, and built by Mr. C. :T. Weymann, a Haitian of French descend, who as an American subject, ow--1 ing to the adoption of the island of i Haiti by the' United States, won the Gordon-Bennett Air Race for America •in 1911 on a French aeroplane, and was : quite, one of the most brilliant avia- ;; tors-,o£ .Ms. time. : ;., THE WRIGHT BROTHERS. 'Among the latter pilots of gliders ; there were two brothers named Wilbur ! and Orville Wright, cycle makers in r the-little town^ of Dayton, 0., U.S.A. ', From their gliding experiments they de- ; veloped an aeroplane, and from their • motor-cycle experiments they developed an engine. Combining the two, and hay- '■ ing drawn lots for the honour of niak- ■; ing the first attempt, Orville Wright made the first human flight with enj gine power at Dayton on, 17th Decem- ; ber,, 1903. ' : i| Few people Jbelievedthe story of the :\ flight, and?owing to'mishaps with the '[ machine, they did no more flying until ; 1906, when they produced a modified .', version of the machine and engine. The 1 original machine, rebuilt but not- alter:ed in any essential detail, may be seen ;'. in. the South Kensington Museum to» : day. It was presented to the museum ;■ by Mr. Oryille Wright owing to a dis- : • agreement;with thej Smithsonian Insti»'i tute it* Washington,'to which he origi- {' sally.lent it.v . I . \ During.l9o6 and thereabouts a con--1 eidfcrable amount of experimenting with' j}; , piwerrdriyenv aeroplanes, -jyas going on ■ "'ini'Europe.' In France," Santos Dull mqnt, Henry Farman, Captain Ferber, "Louis Bleriot, and others who achieved qless .success, were lard at work, and in • -^Denmark one Ellehammer was also experimenting. They all achieved their ■Brat successes at much about the same iime. But the first authenticated Sight in Europe was that of Santos Du|nont on his No. 14-bis biplane, fitted with an 8-cylinder Antoinette engine on 53rd October, 1906, when he made a jßigh't of nearly 200 feet. He apparently preceded by only a few days the Srst , jjf- Ellehammer's lengthy hops. ' During 1967-08 experimenting b.egan in England, the first successes being '. achieved by the late Mr. S. F. Cody on Laffan's Plain, near Aldershpt, and Mr. %. V. Roe (now Sir Alliott Eoe) on the track at Brooklands. And much about $he same time Mr. Geoffrey de Havilland (now Captain de Havfflahd), the designer of the famous De Havilland *fMoth," not to mention some sixty jbther types of aircraft, military and civil, large and small, began his experiments at-Newbury. t FIRST BRITISH PLIGHT. '.-. Recently a committee appointed by jbe Royal Aero Club sat to decide who i^as the first British subject to- make •n authenticated flight in England, {the committee decided that this was. |n*de by Mr. J. T. O. Moore-Brabazon, j6n a French Voisin biplane at Eastehurchj during the week-end 30th Ap-irir-tb-2nd May, 1909." So the position 5s tha,^. the first authenticated flight in England' was' made by an Irishman lon a, French machine. The first hops ]by a British subject on a. British machine (which were not considered authentic Sights) were made by Sir. Alliott IRoe. And the probability is that the first hops on a British machine' were made by Mr. S. F. Cody, an. American piibjeet. i ' ' ,The next great step in aviation, so if sir as this1 country is concerned, was jhrhen Louis fileriofy on one of his own monoplanes with a 28 h.p. engine, flew the Channel from Calais to Dover on 25th- July, 1909. In August that year ,the~flfst aviation meeting in the world was held at Reims, when Farman, Latham, Paulban, and others flew for over 200 miles, and for more than an hour, Bon-stop for the- first time in history. At that meeting Mr. Glenn Curtiss Won the first race for the Gordon-Ben-nett Cup, and founded an aeronautical, organisation from which has risen the great Curtiss Company in the United States, which .is certainly to-day the biggest aircraft; firm in.the world, when all its allied. interests are taken into .consideration. Later in 1909 meetings were held, first at Doncaster, and then at Blackpool, all the real flying, being done by Frenchmen on "French machines. THE "DAILY MAIL" PRIZE. The year 1910 saw the first step in the development of flying in this country. Meetings were held at various places. Paulhan won the "Daily Mail" . ;£IO,OOO prize for the first flight from London to Manchester, beating Mr. Claude Grahame White, his only competitor. He started from Hendon, and from the field whence he started grew the Hendon Aerodrome, which is to-day the,headquarters of our two London Coun.'ty.'ancL'City Auxiliary Air Squadrons of tho Royal Air Force, and is also our.-aiexrest Air Defence Station. At the-feame-time, thanks to the enterprise of Major Lindsay Lloyd (now Colonel), the ground enclosed by the Brooklands Motor. Track was made into an aerodrome;;" In the same •year the Navy and. Army began to take an interest in ' flying. Still greater activity developed ,in 1911. ;.We had the famous Circuit of Britain Baco for the "Daily Mail" prize, and on the Continent there were races from Paris to Madrid, and Paris to Eome, and a circuit of the European "capitals; , Thenceforward there- was continual steady", .development. The Hendon Aerodrome, under the management of Mr<-Grahame White and the late Rich■rtf.iGjrte?, became a plac© of popular

end, and tho management thought they were doing badly if they did not get between 20,000 and 30,000 visitors on Saturday and Sunday throughout the summer months. Service aviation developed, and in 1912 the Eoyal Flying Corps was established with a Naval, and Miltary "Wing, and a Central, Flying School at Upavon, on Salisbury Plain, which was a joint Navy and Army affair. Mr. Holt Thomas, whoso death early this year we all deplore, founded the Aircraft Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and acquired Captain de Haviland as his chief designer. On the Isle of Sheppoy,_ where three naval officers and a marino were taught to fly at the expense of Mr. Frank.M'Clean (now Sir Francis), the Short Bros, established a factory and began to dovelop seaplanes, a form of aircraft in which we in this country now excel. FLYING IN THE WAR. Thus aviation developed steadily until the outbreak of war. There is no room here in which to say much.about war flying. The history of the Eoyal Naval Air Service and of the Eoyal Flying Corps, and of their amalgamation in 1918 into the Eoyal Air Force, is a matter of national history rather than of the-history of aviation. But one may say .that there is a general and quite erroneous idea that the war did a great deal to develop flying. Undoubtedly owing to the needs of war we did discover a great deal about what men and material would stand in the air/ And .the knowledge we gained cost us-, many hundreds of valuable lives, ..quite apart from lives lost in battle. Through' aeroplanes breaking in the #r, through engines flying to pieces in £hV'air,.through engines setting fire to machines) through •; aeroplanes getting but of control andj spinning into the ground, wo learned much which is useful in civil.' aviation, to-day. But,, on the: other hand, as cost does not count in time-of war, and as speed and ratei of-climb and manoeuvrability are essential in fighting machines, we achieved thai? speed and climb simply by cramming on more and more power without regard to 'efficiency. And today civil aviation is suffering for it, in that we use. very much more power than ought to'be necessary to get the performance, which wo must haye if our aeroplanes are. to show an adequato advantage over other methods of transport. - • ' ■ If there had been ■no war, and if aviation had had to develop itself with the very small amount, of money which wealthy people were v prepared to spend on it in the pre-war days, we should have had to aim at efficiency first and foremost. • THE RETURN TO PEACE. The result of all this was that when civil flying ; was first made legal after the war,'in 1919, people tried to run air transport with' modified war machinesi, and found that they could not make it. paylbecause of the high cost of running big engines and big aeroplanes. The first real attempt to produce a cheap and economical aeroplane was made by A. V. Roe and Co., Ltd., when they produced in 1920 the Baby Avro 30-h.p. Green engine), on which Mr. Bert Hinkler flew the 800 miles from London to Turin without a stop on 31st May, 1920.But the Baby Avro was in advance of its time. The country was povertystricken after the war; the war profiteers were not of the type of sportsman who wanted to fly, and the sportsman had not the money. We had to wait several years before the balance of wealth began to adjust itself. Nevertheless aviation did not stand still. Mr. Holt Thomas established Air Transport and Travel, Ltd., and began' the first regular air line between London and Paris. On 14th-15th June, 1919, John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown flow from Newfoundland to Ireland on a Vickers Vimy with two Eolls-Eoyce engines, and thus made the first nonstop flight across the Atlantic. For this flight they were duly knighted. In October, 1919, the brothers Boss and Keith Smith, also in a Vickers Vimy with Eolls-Eoyce engines, flew from London to Australia, and were also knighted. .And between 4th February and 20th March, 1920, Major van Eyneveld and Captain C. Quentin Brand flew from London to ; the Cape, starting in a Vickers Vimy and ending in a D.H.9 ■after crashing in Northern Bhodesia. They also were knighted. PRIVATE PLYING BEGINS. . The first move towards the development of private flying began in 1922, when a gliding competition was held at Itford Hill, near Newhaven. From the gliders which appeared Tihere sprang., the; light aeroplane movement, and a competition for light aeroplanes was 'held at Lympne in 1923. The person who is chiefly responsible for the development of the light aeroplane is undoubtedly Air Vice-Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond, who was at that time Air Member for Supply and Research in the Air Council. He perceived :the possibilities of light aeroplanes, and besides giving all the technical support of his Department to those who were developing light; aeroplanes and engines, he induced the Air'-Qouncil to. put. up a -very, handsome'priite for a competition for light aeroplanes in 1924. And through his efforts a number, of light aeroplanes were.bought by the R.A.F. as training machines. From these,light aeroplane competitions in-1923 and 19294 sprang the flying club movement, which has had more to .do than anything else with the development of civil aviation in the British" Empire. Through the efforts, of our . Secretary of State for Air, Sir Samuel Hoare, the Treasury agreed to give subsidies to approved flying clubs in proportion to the number of people taught fo fly '"by the clubs." " 'This enabled the clubs to find finance which they could not otherwise have got. As so often happens in efforts to encourage development by technical competition, !J;the. aircraft which won the prizes in, the.competitions were not the aircraft .which.'did the business afterwards> Several firms laid themselves out to make commercially successful light aeroplanes rather than competition winners. /■'''.". . lIGHT AEROPLANES IN QUANTITY. The result is that to-day the De Haviland Aircraft Co., Ltd., are turning out': fapproximately twenty Moths, a week,'besides Gipsy engines for them and a few extra engines per week as spares,.; and '" for sale to foreign constructors.' And Moths- are being built under licence in the United States, in Australia, and in Canada. The Avro Company produced the Avian, quite unlike their competition machines; and it also is being built in. quantities in this country and in America and sold all over the world. The Blackburn Company produced the side-by-side Bluebird, and it. also is doing big business. The Westland Widgeon has also acquired! a: .world-wide Teputation, though its, putpilt has not been pushed, because the manufacturers have been so busy on war machines for the E.A.F. As a. natural result of this demand for light aeroplanes,, new firms have sprung up. The Simmonds Aircraft Company, at Southampton, are building the Spartan biplane, which has the peculiarity that all four wings are exactly alike ana interchangeable, as are the control surfaces of the tail. The Desoutter Aircraft Company has been founded by Mr. Marcel Desoutter, who'became famous during the war as a maker of artificial legsj a business whidh he developed owing to his having' himself lost a leg in an' aeroplane crash before the war. He is building a light cabin-monoplaue designed by Mr,. Koolhoven, who produced some of our best "war machines. Flight^Lieutenant..CornEer,.,wlio, built,

a light aeroplane of his own design as a sparo time occupation a few years ago, has now founded tho Couiper Aircraft Co., Ltd., and is turning out a cheap and light single-seater and a cabin-machine. Lieut-Colonel G. L. P. Henderson, long famous for his flying school _at Brooklands, and for his pleasure-flying organisations all over the country, has also taken to turning out a cheap light single-seater. Other firms arc following suit, and before long we shall have quite a number of firms all dovotel to the manufacture of light aeroplanes at low prices. AIRWAYS SERVICES. On tho other side of civil aviation we have the development of really big passenger carrying machines. Imperial Airways, Ltd., formed by the amalgamation of three competing air-lines, who now have their plans quite clear for through routes to Australia and the Cape, havo helped materially in the design of the 20-soater Armstrong-Whit-worth Argosy, with three ArmstrongSiddeley Jaguar engines, which is undoubtedly the most economical passen-ger-carrying aircraft in the world today. And Handley Page, Ltd., famous as the makers of big bombing machines during the war, are now building another type of big passenger-carrying machine to the designs of Imperial Airways. . . The great flights by Mr. Alan Cobham (afterwards knighted for his valuable" services to civil aviation) to Burma and .back, .to the Cape and back, and to Australia.and back and round Africa, turned attention to the development of other types df civil aircraft. The De Haviland Company haye developed the 450 h.p. type of cabin machine, either with the Jupiter or the Jaguar engine, which was originally called the Canberra, and is now known as- the Giant Moth. Short Brothers, our pioneer seaplane firm have developed the three-engined Calcutta flying boats, which are used by Imperial Airways on the Mediterranean stretch of the route to the Capo and India. The Blackburn Aeroplane Co., Ltd.,_ haye developed the three-engined Iris, in which our Under-Secretary of State for Air, Sir Philip. Sasoon, made his memorable , voyage to India and back. Tho Supermarine Aviation Woi-ks, now tho property of Vickers, Ltd., developed the famous Southampton flying-boat with two Napier engines, four of which, as an.E.A.F. Squadron, flew from England to Singapore, round Australia, back to Singapore, up to Hong Kong, and back to Singapore, keeping to absolute schedule time throughout the journey. From these Service Southamptons the firm have developed civil flying-boats which compare well with anything in the world. AMERICAN DEVELOPMENTS In this article naturally one has dealt with British, developments, but lest anybody should think that we have . the aviation of the world to ourselves, we shall all do well to remember that in tho United States developments are taking place which, unless our manufacturers in. this country become extremely active, will lead to a position very like that in the motor trade, in which, though our manufacturers here do quite well within the British Isles, the Americans have not only the cream but the bulk of the world's markets.

In America 5000 civil aircraft were built and put into use last year. This year, at tho present rate of output, nearer 25,000 aeroplanes will be built, and the manufacturers are still behind the demand. We have built in this country about six of the big Argosy type of passenger machine. In America: the Ford Company are turning out one machine a day of ,similar power an,d capacity. We undoubtedly make the best aeroplanes in the world. But thero is little satisfaction in making the best of anything if some other nation supplies the world with things which we could make if we tried.