CONTROL OF AVIATION

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 18 September 1934, Page 4

CONTROL OF AVIATION

Great Britain does not regard its civil aviation as a potential reserve for war purposes, and the only thing which could suggest to a suspicious foreigner that it does is the control which the Air Ministry exercises over all flying. There is a move to separate control of civil and military aviation in England—a move which is to be repeated in New Zealand. The personnel of the Directorate of Civil Aviation in England is already separate from the Royal Air Force, and as the connection between the two branches is to be weakened still further it is difficult to see what reason there is for maintaining it at all. The break will certainly have to be made, for military and civil flying are growing further apart every day. The time is long past when any sort of aeroplane, flown by any sort of pilot, could do any sort of work. Specialisation in construction of aeroplanes and in the training of pilots is going on so fast that before long there will be as little connection between the Royal Air Force and Imperial Airways as between the London Passenger Transport Board and the Army Service Corps. To a lesser extent, because flying is less developed here, the same thing applies in New Zealand, but before long our Government will have an excellent opportunity to consider separating the two branches of aviation. In the ! past, control of commercial flying I by the Royal New Air I Force has meant no hardships for a anyone, partly because there has I been so little commercial and priI vate flying to control, but partly, I too, because the Air Force has | been such a small organisation 1 that its members have been in ] close contact with all other, flying I men, have been able to understand I their problems, and by virtue of I their experience have helped to t I solve them. An early change in | I both these conditions is certain. • The increase in the strength of the I Air Force which is now under I way will mean more military 1 work for its members, and a | greater concentration on purely I military work. If civil aviation I is not to be neglected, or its ■ enterprise strangled, it will I call for administration here, I as elsewhere, by a director- | ate solely concerned with its in's* terests.