AEROPLANES FOR ALL

Opunake Times, 22 October 1935, Page 1

AEROPLANES FOR ALL

RELEASE OF CONTROL

SAME EFFICIENCY I x'csh impetus lias been given to the aircraft industry and a ne\v inducement offered of the .British Air Ministry to free die manufacture and the flying of fight aeroplanes from official control, says a London paper. In interested quarters this decision is regarded as highly important and calculated to give the industry the greatest push’ since the war. At present all light aircraft manufacturers and fliers do not come under the general em notion. Pending necessary legislation, special application will be necessary for each type and make of machine.

The lirst British aeropla ic to receive exemption from (!o ■.• lament inspection and control is the Eiitish Drone, the maciiiue in which Mr Bobert Kronfield recently made successful flights in this country and on the Continent.

The new system will provide for reasonable conditions of efficiency and safety similar to those which govern the use of the motor car. One of the main conditions is that the machine must not fly outside (treat Britain and Northern Ireland. This is because Britain has given freedom from control in advance of all other countries.

Moreover, the aeroplane must not carry fare-paying passengers and third-party insurance is compulsory. By its decision the Air Ministry has now given effect to the principal recommendations of the (jrorell Committee on Civil Aviation, and has placed the maker cl light aircraft on the same basis as t lie motorcar manufacturer and the prive ’plane owner on the same basis as the motorist.

It is significant that while exemptions so far granted are in re sped of the ultra-light single seater aeroplane, the Ministry has not prescribed a maximum w eight or power, and it is annex- : ated that in the reasonably near fimne machines carrying four or h\e passengers may be tree i Irani cfiieial restrictions.

It is confidently anticipated the new system will inaugurate an era of low-cost aviation, and bring flying within the reach of anyone who owns a car or a motor cycle combination.

It should enable resuctions Jn first cost of at least sto per’ ctrnl to he made, with' no sacrifice of safety or efficiency. Victory for Pioneers. Behind the Air Ministry decision lies the story of a five years’ by a small group of pioneers in aviation. Perhaps most prominent in the struggle was Mr E. C. Gornon England, whose pilot’s licence is No. OS, and who set up gliding records in ]!)08, and four years later built the first British three-engined sea plane. Associated with him were Colonel Moore-Brabazon, M.P., holder of licence No 1, and the late Mr Lowe-Wylde. Both Mr England and Colonel Moore-Brabazon were members of the Gorell Committee on Civil Aviation, and signed reserya* tions which amount to a minority report. “The effect of the Air Ministrl’s decision,” said Mr Gordon England, “is to remove the red flag from before the aeroplane as it was removed from before the motor ear years ago. The full significance of the development has yet to be appreciated even in aviation circles.

“Quite rightly, the new science

of aviation was used to its full extent in the service of the State in the war years, but, in the view of some who, like myself, were associated with the pre-war developments, flic aeroplane since flic war has been regarded far too much as a potential instrument of destruction instead, of as a new and valuable medium of civil transport.

"There is surely no more rea-l-sou why a Government depart - j merit should control a civil aeroplane throughout its construction and flight than that the Navy should supervise the building and voyages of a new merchant ship. ‘’Both can be of valuable service in time of national emergency, but the efficient civil aeroplane would not be a better fighting instrument than a merchantman.”