WHO OWNS THE AIR?

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 11 December 1928, Page 8

WHO OWNS THE AIR?

| RIGHTS OF PROPERTY OWNERS. It will he interesting to see what eventually will be the outcome of the issue between the people who take to themselves wings and the people who ! keep their feet tint on the ground that Inns arisen at Hamble. near Southampton. It is an issue that was- bound to arise sooner or later, and it. may affect all of us before long. Along the edge of Hamble aerodrome are houses and gardens occupied hv people who no longer consider the spectacle of aeroplanes in flight either novel or thrilling, but who complain as bitterly of their roaring engines as do wo city dwellers of the nerve-racking rattle of lorries and motor cycles. But that is not the sum total of their complaint. When the wiml is in a certain direction machines landing on the aerodrome fly quite low over these houses and gardens, and the residents declare that their roofs and chimney pots- are thereby imperilled. One indignant resident consequently erected a tall flagpole in his garden as a protection. His action had results quite soon. Miss Grace, ajjiece of the famous W. G. Grace, who is an experienced airwoman, the other day crashed into the flagpole when about to alight, and sustained serious, although not fatal, injuries. The air authorities declare that in other circumstances a charge of manslaughter would have arisen. The owner of the flagstaff, while expressing regret, claims that the accident was a palpable case of trespass, since the air above his house and ground is his own property. Sir Sefton Brancher has gone down from the Air Ministry to try and arrange sonic accommodation between the aerodrome officials and the local residents, but a more definitive ruling than Ibis is reallv required. The property owner is certainly entitled to some protection from above, id though with the development of aircraft we are all going to he liable to lose our chimney pots or to having a ton or so of machinery dropping on to us. On the other hand, he must abandon his claim to a little lane of air from bis roof up to the stars, if for no other reason than that he cannot stake it out. The air has become important to the community as a public highway, and it must be taken from private ownership if the latter exists. But special regulations will have to ho elaborated for the protection of “crawlers.”