SAFER FLYING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20520, 22 March 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

SAFER FLYING.

YEAR'S FIGURES FOR R.A.F. A striking decrease in the number of accidents to Royal-Air Force aircraft has resulted from the standardisation on all British service machines of the Handley Page slotted wing safety device. The figures for 1929 are the lowest for eight years. The number of machines in the R.A.F. in 1922 was 370, and there were 54 fatal machine accidents and 51 deaths. In 1929, with more than 800 machines, or more than double the number there were only 31 fatal machine accidents and 42 deaths. This is convincing proof that the slotted wing gives safety in the air. Compared with some of the worst years, such as 1926, tlie 1929 figures show an even more striking decline. In 1926 the R.A.F. consisted of 61 squadrons, or about 700 machines. There'were 54 fatal machine accidents and 85 deaths, that is 43 deaths more than in 1929. It must be remembered that every year the speeds of R.A.F. machines have increased, and, therefore, other things being equal, the risks of flying them. A subsidiary cause of the reduced deathrate is the fitting of parachutes to all service aeroplanes (though not to seaplanes and flying boats). Parachntes,have in all saved about 30 lives in During 1929 alone they saved 16 lives. It is thought that there may also be a psychological explanation for the improvement. Pilots are now trained more slowly and carefully, and are led to regard flying •as part of a definite profession rather than as an amusing sport. They are less inclined to take unnecessary risks, and they havo ceased to admire the recklessness of some of the war-timo pilots. The statistics for 1929 which have been quoted above includo the accident to the R.A.F. long distance monoplane, which resulted in the deaths of Squadron-Leader Jones-Williams and Flight-Lieutenant Jenkins. Before the R.A.F. had settled down to a peace-time establishment the accidents figures were higher than at any subsequent date. In 1919 there were 138 fatal machine accidents and 180 deaths. But 'there were 7nany more machines in service at that date, so that no direct comparison can bo made.