CIVIL AVIATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LII, Issue 257, 29 September 1932, Page 6

CIVIL AVIATION.

Despite the fact that periodically there occur tragic flights which must have the effect of shaking the faith of many people in aircraft as a regular means of transport, the development of aviation, in Britain at least, and to a somewhat lesser extent in our own country, is proceeding apace. Commercial aviation is steadily mounting in mileage, routes covered and machines used, and the use of machines for private flying also shows great progress. According to the report on the progress of civil aviation, 1931, issued by the Air Ministry, there was an enormous expanse in the popularity of private flying. The total number of light aeroplane clubs in operation in Britain at the end of last year was 32, including six which operated without Government assistance. The aggregate membership of these clubs was 9000. The report refers also to the fact that similar developments are taking place in practically every civilised country. Not so well-known here, but nevertheless a popular branch of aviation, gliding has many followers in the Mother Country, there being no fewer than 80 clubs with an aggregate membership of 5500. There can be no questioning the air-mind-edness of the British. Probably had it not been for the economic stress, the New Zealand Government would have been able to extend the movement which it began a few years back to aid civil flying by making available machines to recognised clubs. The help it did give was very beneficial, since it swept away a considerable feeling of prejudice and enabled the training of pilots to proceed more rapidly. The time will doubtless come when the Government again will be able to foster such movements, but in the meantime the majority of the Aero Clubs in New Zealand are functioning healthily and awaiting better times to push further forward their activities. The recent flying disaster in New South Wales, _in which a very experienced pilot and two companions lost their lives, came as a shock and revived, no doubt, questions in the minds of many in regard to the safety of flying. Such occurrences are, because of their distressing nature, outstanding, but thought should be given to the thousands of private light machines in use and the giant airways liners which have set up an almost increditable record for immunity from serious accidents, when it will be conceded that remarkable progress has been made. As Dr. Hamilton, one of the victims of the New South Wales tragedy, stated a short time before embarking on the fatal flight, “Aviation is dangerous, but there is no progress without danger. That would appear to sum up the position, but the state of aviation to-day is so sound, and is being made more so by the aid of valuable scientific researches, that another decade must see an even greater advance than the wonderful achievements made since the early years of the present century.