AIR FORCE CRASHES

Evening Star, Issue 19638, 18 August 1927, Page 13

AIR FORCE CRASHES

THE ENGLISH IHDUIRY , An engineer writes in the 1 Itnglisb Review ’ for April an interesting letter commenting on Mr Baldwin's recent speech in the House of Commons, in which he pointed out Hint flying was a n. great adventure, in which risks wore inevitable, and pleaded that the best .sc-i vice tho public could render airmen was to leave thorn alone to work out their own salvation, making no inquiry about the heavy and frequent losses ot life. The writer of the letter notes that the coroner, commenting on enforce disasters, said thaf“the majority were due to errors of judgment m flying.” “It would be interesting to know what inquiries preceded the verdict I have quoted, or what inquiries Wore possible when the distorted machinery came to rest on the ground. Not all accidents, 1 note, arc cine to the faulty pilot. I am not alone in thinking that there is a. case for technical inquiry by qualified experts who have nothing to gain or lose by exploring every possibility of fatal failure. God forbid that the usual Royal Commission, arranged to satisfy public indignation and to produce recommendations which are subsequently disregarded, should indulge in its usual leisurely sittings and .Toad to nothing. The more intelligent part of the public is tired of that sort ot evasion. What it wants to know is whether our airmen -to-day have a fanchance of .survival in the machines they have to use. Neither Mr Maidwin, who is not a specialist in engineering, nor anyone else whose views are of worth and are reported in tho Press, has, so far as I. have noted, met the suggestion that, while money is being spent on sheds and other conveniences on tho ground, old machines are too frequently used by our airmen, machines in which the resistance of fabric to sharp turns inevitable in air manoeuvres has been weakened by long use. By lapse of time steel gets crystallised, and fails suddenly, while other materials arc subject to degeneration. What is the average of proper life of an aeroplane? When should it be scrapped? If Jack of funds has led to dangerous use of old material, and consequently to loss of life, the public should know it. 1 do not say that it is so, but I see that the inquest to which .1. have referred, says nothing in the Press report about the condition of the machinery, involved in the crash.

Surely inquiry of the sort ought to have been made, and its results given to the public in the Press, whenever such a. disaster is considered. Are p.ngineors, accustomed to problems ot stress and the “ (actor of saloly, sati.slied with (lie present progress and disasters of our airmen? If they are, a statement of their views would be Gilmore satisfactory than the apology ot the most, eloquent of Prime Ministers. 1 am aware that any official department is supposed to be above, criticism, bur a lime comes when inquiry is salutary if only to restore, disturbed rniifidcneo. . . . Our men are all right. They arc splendid. But what, about the material they have to use?''