SAFETY IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 16037, 23 January 1918, Page 4

SAFETY IN THE AIR.

DECREASE OF CASUALTIES

Those who have been advocating international agreements to refrain from anv form of aeronautical activity have based thair arguments upon the assumption that flying will tend to precipitate war, or, at any rate will increase its horrors (says the aviation correspondent of the London Observer). Those who have urged the confinement of flying to the military services, or the prohibition of all 1 civilian' flying, have alluded to its dangers, :and have argued that the world can very well do without what may even threaten to become a public nuisance. It is because such counsels are still being offered, and because we shall hear more of them in the near future when peace suggests new fields for aircraft, that it is necessary now to expose their fallacy. The existence of aircraft cannot precipitate war. It is moral, not mechanical, forces that matter. And even in the present conflict aircraft have not provided the worst barbarities committed. . In 190.8 it was" estimated that for every 300 miles flown one life was sacrificed. JJy 1910 the mileage per fatality had risen to 3500. In 19X1 the distance had increased to 4900 (statistics for France that year gave the mileage as 62,500 per fatality). From 1908 till 1914 there was a rapidly increasing amount of flying, and whereas aviators only ventured out in calm weather in 1908. they flew in all but the worst weather in 1913 and 1914. Further, instead of flying being confined to men specially adapted to it by study, preparation, and exceptional courage, it became available to all sorts of people, many of whom were,physically unsuited. During the war there ha's been in all countries, what may be described as a feverish pursuit of. flying. The training of aviators has proceeded at a forced pace. Weather, as a deterrent, has been almost ruled out. Even pupils are sent up under conditions that would have appalled the little band of pioneers in 1908 and 1909. In the circumstances one might expect to find to-day, an appallingly high death-rate. Strange to say, it is not to bo found. The writer is in a position to forecast that when the statistics of the flying accidents (not actual battle casualties) of the present year are available it will ho seen that the mileage per death is not less than 350,000, and it will probably prove to be half as much again. Statistics relating to army flying in tho United States are in agreement. In 1916 400,000 miles were flown without a fatal accident, and in the first few months of the present year 353.700 miles were flown without a casualty, this comprising 9306 flights.