Ups and Downs of Civil Aviation

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6746, 2 January 1932, Page 6

Ups and Downs of Civil Aviation

The vicissitudes attending the carriage of the Christmas air mail from Australia to England have been many and varied. The ’plane, Southern Sun, which left Sydney on November 20, crashed bodily at Alorstar, near Singapore, a week later. There Colonel Brinsmead, director of civil aviation in Australia, who had been a passenger on the ’plane, transferred to a Dutch air liner which, carrying a mail to Holland, crashed in its turn in Siam with the loss of several lives, Colonel Brinsmead himself being very seriously injured. In the meantime Air-Commodore Kingsford Smith had come to the assistance of the stranded Australian air mail. Picking this up in the Southern Star, he made a rapid journey until he reached France, where his progress was considerably delayed by foggy weather. He duly reached Croydon, however, on December Hi, and planned to leave aagin with a return mail for Australia with as little delay as possible. Again the unkind fates intervened, however, as the Southern Star, when in charge of another flying officer, was seriously damaged in a forced landing in Kent. While repairs to the ’plane are being expedited the date of Air-Commodore Kingsford Smith’s departure is still uncertain. Such happenings, greatly multiplied in kind, might be used as an argument to demonstrate that the success achieved in civil aviation is still somewhat qualified and largely speculative.

A few years ago was published a book by “Neon,” entitled “The Great Delusion: A Study of Aircraft in Peace and War,” which attracted a good deal of notice, and provoked considerable controversy. Apparently in the last four and a-half years, “Neon” has not seen much to cause him to change his views. An article bearing his signature in a recent issue of the Saturday Keview advances the argument that in encouraging the development of civil aerial transport the British Government has been carrying more than its fair share of the burden, to the detriment of the unfortunate taxpayer. The tale, “Neon” complains, is one of subsidies and yet more subsidies. The taxpayers, he points out, must needs be exhorted to “airmindedness, ’’ for without their help civil aviation would well nigh perish. Since 1919 a sum of over £2,636,000 has been voted in direct subsidies for civil transport services, with other sums for clubs and enterprises, and “even the sport of aviation lias to be spoonfed.” The burden of present complaint is that ratepayers are now being called upon to provide local landing grounds and other aids for those who wish to fly. The objection to the development of civil aviation along these lines is urged upon economic grounds. “Neon” is at pains to show that the critics of civil aviation arc not, as is sometimes suggested, akin to those who objected to railways, since the initial opposition to railways was based mainly on aesthetic grounds, and the development of the new form of transport which they represented was such that within 25 years the railway systems of the world were carrying goods at about a penny per ton per mile. .By way of contrast the heavy freight charges for air carriage after 25 years of aeroplane development are cited. Summed up, the contention of “Neon” is that experience everywhere has shown that—unless under exceptional conditions —civil aviation cannot support itself, and therefore, when the virtue of economy becomes a necessity, it is for the State seriously to reconsider the position and face the question whether it should continue to subsidise civil flying and maintain a department solely given over to its development “at all costs.” It would be better, he suggests, that an agreement should be sought among the nations not to subsidise a single air concern, so that “the whole world would thus he delivered of a great menace, and commercial aviation would be left, as it ought to be left, to find its own feet.”

From the point of view of “Neon” the case is carefully argued, with appeal to chapter and verse. There is, of course, another side to the story. It is admitted that other countries spend more freely than Great Britain in keeping their aircraft in the air. The question arises, Can sire afford to drop altogether out of the competition? It is to he recognised that if war is not to be eliminated civil aviation represents an important form of national enterprise, since aerial attack and defence must play a much more prominent part than heretofore in military operations, while pilots trained for civil aviation must constitute an invaluable reserve for the aerial arm to draw upon in case of emergency. Apart from that there is the consideration of the important mechanical developments that are promoted through the activities and enterprises associated with civil aviation. There can be no ignoring the great advances that have been made in the conquest of the air. Of these an illustration is furnished in the manner in which the airmen—and airwomen also—continue to leap from achievement to achievement in the establishment of new records. It is for the British taxpayer, after all, to say whether he considers that he is paying too big a price for the efficiency of British-made machines and the encouragement of his countrymen to excel in the use of aircraft, .