FLYING AFTER THE WAR

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume L, Issue 175, 3 November 1917, Page 6

FLYING AFTER THE WAR

World passenger and mail SERVICES. CjORD GOWDRAY ANO MR HOLT THOMAS. (Mr Holt Thomas lectured on "Commercial Aeronautics" at the Central Sail, Westminster, Lord Cowdray presiding, recently says the English paper. , Flying has come to stay ,he said, and must from .an Imperial point of view be supported in every way. Mail services - : could be established commercially; business men could use the aeroplane commercially for many purposes, and for pleasure nothing would beat it. "Remember that we live on an island,'.' he said. "Remember that we have always depended on the sea for our protection, and remember that we are an Empire. On all these points it is necessary to maintain a huge aerial fleet, and the proper support of commercial aeronautics will enormously as- * sist these ends. This time we must be first. He dealt only with, aeroplanes, not _ airships. The lighter-than-air- machines had their uses, but the cost was, he thought, too great to bring them in for commercial purposes-at any rate, at the moment-and their speed was not sufficient. It was ,however, certain that we must be first in airships as in everything else. • THE LONDON-MANCHESTER FLIGHT. i The history of flying in this country Xvas lamentable, but glorious. No country had had the practical results of flying put under its very nose mors than Great Britain. In this connection lie referred to The Daily Mail £IO,OOO, prize for the first great town-to-town flight—-London-Manchester-and said the circuit of Britain was an event, which ought to have convinced anyone, -liuckily this country "got there" in the end.. Lord Cord ray had recently appointed a committee, with Lord Northcliffe, who . had always taken such a keen interest in the subject, as chairman, to advise on the uses and development of commercial aircraft. This committee should be one of enormous importance. ■ "The aeroplane is going to open up the world as no other means of transport. has yet done, and I* look to Lord Northcliffe, whose enterprise and energy we know, so to guide his committee that a start, at any rate, will be made quickly arid on the right lines. , TO NEW YORK IN 2 DAYS. " "A special aeroplane-special used in the sense of special train-which is per-fectly-feasible to-day, will enable the business man to leave London in the morning, do his business in~Paris, and be home again to dinner. It will take 'hiin-' to Baghdad in a day and a half or New York in two days." The development of all the over-seas ■Dominions would be largely affected by flying. . He dealt mainly, however, with the • conveyance of passengers, mails ,and goods to all parts of the world at a speed beyond anything yet attempted. .- We had to-day- practical machines which .would do well over 100 miles an hour; indeed, far higher speeds. COST OF AIR SERVICE. He dealt at some length with the cost of running an aerial service and took Bis audience through the .costs of a sample route, London-Paris. These costs, he said, were not high for the speed of the journey, and presented a really commercial proposition, although at 'a competitive price they were slightly higher than by train arid boat. Mails presented an easier proposition. He - thought the solution was a mail service subsidised by the Government - - .with the right to carry passengers. On <this sample route the total cost v per mile of running a machine wSs -- 4s Bd., running one machine each x way. The cost came down rapidly if two, three, or four,'machines were run each way daily. With four machines he took 3s per mile as a safe figure. The charges per passenger to Paris, at a profitable rate, so long at the machines 4 were fully loaded, was £5. HALFPENNY POST TO PARIS. tMails were even more commercial ,a .letter weighing one ounce couM be profitably.. carried to Paris for one halfpenny in half the time it could reach there under the present methods ,or a '3lb parcel for 2s. On routes covered with 10-mile Tand- . ing grounds, he pictured Cevlon only 2J days from London, Toikio days, - Sydney 5 days, Capetown 3£ days, • jyancouver 3 days. , l. This question of landing grounds, he isaid, affected' every point in his argument. Safety for instance. The forced landing, the bughear of flying, would be avoided ;the problems of fog and of - ; night flying would be solved. With a searchlight every 10 miles a pilot could algrays with the. searchlight guiding -him. j LORD COWDRAY'S VIEW. ■ Lord Cowdray in a speech at the close of the discussion after the lecture said there were many difficulties to be solved.. Whaitever efforts were made - between now and the end of the war ;it was impossible to expect to be able J to continue the aircraft industry at the present high pressure after the war. Personally, he believed it would be 'found that 'Mr Holt Thomas's estimate of the cost was somewhere near the marie-—that it would not exceed 5s per - mile. It could not be expected that 'commercial flying would step into a 'business thai would produce that amount. However rapid might be its _ -growth it would be years before the . 'trade itself would support the air ser- . "vice which Imperial needs demanded, v Commercial flying was bound to come; ■it would come quickly; it would come •successfully, ana not require Govern- . 'ment assistance after, probably, the ■ first five years, or maybe six or seven years.