The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1931. WHERE BRITAIN LEADS.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18847, 9 April 1931, Page 8

The Timaru Herald THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1931. WHERE BRITAIN LEADS.

Although Commander Glen Kidston, the millionaire racing motorist and airman, lias smashed all records between Croydon and the Cape, and ho may talk rather glibly of the operations of the Imperial Airways, the fact remains that such marked progress has been made by Britain in the field of aviation that the scathing remarks of a brilliant airman are scarcely putting the case fairly. In a recent pronouncement the Society of British Aircraft Constructors has quite another story to tell. Looking over 19110, it is agreed, is a sorry task for many industries all over the world. Nevertheless, in a year of slumps and financial disasters the youthful industry of aviation has steadily progressed. Civil flying has continued to advance at the phenomenal rate first reached three years ago, when suddenly the extension of air routes and the development of all kinds of private and commercial flying enterprises began in staggering fashion. In the three countries where aviation is making most marked measurable progress—the United States, Canada and Australia —the graphs of progress continue to climb steeply. No trustworthy figures are available from Russia, but there, too, the growth of civil flying is always accelerating. And nowhere is to be found an andication of slowing down. The world has recognised the value of civil aviation in its manifold aspects, and the outlook is bright. Though the market for military aircraft has shown small expansion in numbers of machines employed, yet technical advances in the design of aeroplanes and aero engines have ensured orders for new material. Obvious, too, has been a tendency to the increased use of aircraft on reconnaissance duties over land and sea, and in the policing of large territories overseas held formerly by costly ground forces. No national industry lias better right to feel proud of the year's work than the British aircraft industry. In 1929, Great Britain headed the aircraft export trade of the world; the figures so far available for 1930 indicate that she should retain that high position. Further, big orders received from overseas during the last few weeks promise foreign trade in 1931 equal to the best yet achieved. In technical achievement and research the end of 1930 finds the British industry supreme. Long and painstaking research on aircraft design problems and intensive aero engine development has resulted in the production of British fighting aeroplanes which are admittedly superior in speed, rate of climb, ease of control, and general efficiency to those produced in any other country. For example, latest types of single-seater fighters constructed in Great Britain attain speeds with full military load on board which are only reached by stripped racing aircraft built abroad. Similarly, new British day and night bombers, service flying boats, and seagoing war ’planes definitely surpass all foreign competitors. British lead in war ’plane design was strikingly demonstrated recently in Belgium. Foreign single-seater ’planes had made many flights before Belgian experts and pilots, and the Belgian government had practically decided where to order new craft for the re-equipment of the 2nd. Air Regiment of the Belgian Army. At this stage a British single-seater, admittedly one of the two fastest aeroplanes of its class in the world, was flown to the aerodrome. In the days that followed it was flown by the British test pilot and by Belgian army airmen, and caused a sensation by showing amazing speed and rate of climb far outstripping the best that the other competing craft had achieved. The result was an order for 45 machines, the biggest single contract for service aircraft placed in Great Britain since the war by a foreign nation. The engine which made possible the design of these and other high-speed British fighting aeroplanes has set new standards of efficiency in permormance and fuel consumption. Looked at from the front it presents the smallest area of any aero power unit of similar power; this fact markedly reduces resistance to movement through the air and enables the aircraft designer to plan a machine of excellent streamline form. New big civil aircraft show equally striking advances. The year has seen the building in Great Britain and first successful flights of the world’s largest passenger carrying land ’planes, the emergence of the largest float seaplane yet constructed, and the production of other big mail and passengercarrying craft and freighters which, while capable of improved performance, are actually cheaper to build and simpler to maintain than their predecessors. Early in 1931 many of these new big craft will be placed in commission on air lines in many different parts of the world; the result is certain to be a reduction in operational costs and a gain in safety and regularity which will improve markedly the economics of civil aviation. World competition for aircraft trade increases daily and the British industry, in spite of its present

favourable position, is not slackening its efforts. Experience gained in supplying the world’s biggest aircraft market is combed through and .through to provide points for the designer. The work of research and experiment goes on unceasingly, and it can be said without exaggeration, notwithstanding criticism to the contrary, that Britain is more than holding her own in the hottest world competition for supremacy in the air.