CROWDING THE SKIES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19374, 24 December 1932, Page 4

CROWDING THE SKIES

Forecasts have been made of hundreds of thousands of London workers going to and from the scenes of thoir daily labours by air. It is a fantastic and unrealisable picture (writes Major C. C. Turner in the London “Daily Telegraph”).’ . For one thing ,the toll in collisions would be far greater than that of the roads. The roads doubtless are slow and restrictive, but their very limitations impose rules and conditions which prevent collisions, except in the case of sheer folly. And unless the aeroplane owner’s offfee at one end, and home at the other, were adjacent to aerodromes, or save when they are separated by a greater distance than 100 miles, he will lose time by going by air. With the coast an hour’s rail run from London. the aeroplane has but little chance at present over the same route.

Landing Handicaps. London flying is handicapped by the lack of convenient aerodromes. So is Paris. Berlin is better off; and one or two English towns have aerodromes close in. London badly needs an aerodrome at no greater distance from the city itself than Hyde Park. Better still, Horse Guards Parade, as the late Sir W. Sefton Brancker pointed out. There does not appear to be any immediate prospect of a big roof-area for feeder ah- lines to Croydon and Heston.” The autogyro has brought a realisation of future possibilities, even of present possibilities in the way of small-area landings and take-off, and much attention is being given to the design of ordinary aeroplanes with special landing and take-off qualities. This, and ever-improving engine reliability, are steadily widening the opportunities for private flying.

London is so vast that it needs more than one aerodrome or roof landingplace. It needs at least four within a radius of three miles from the Bank of England.

But even when these have been provided—and it is safe to prophesy they will be provided—and even when we have the perfect flying machine which will land and take off nearly vertically, and at the same time be moderately cheap, flying will not be quite so universal as is motoring. And certainly it is not desirable that the skies should ever be really crowded.

Foolhardy Fliers. In the hands of reasonable men and women, and leaving out the foolhardy, who are the bane of flying as they are of motoring, flying is safe. Technical causes of danger are steadily being eliminated, but it is not so easy to perfect the human factor. On all hands I hear that at the present moment the chief lack in this country is that of landing fields. Great Britain is difficult country for the most part, because of its small fields and high hedges. What is needed is not a lot of big. costly aerodromes, although there are many places where they should ee made in the sure knowledge that present action will save greater expense later on.

The great need is the marking of good fields in all localities. It is not necessary to put up buildings, and no greater expense need be incurred than the provision of a wind direction indicator, a conspicuous ground mark, and a dot on the air map. What is even more to the point is the lack of capital. Without hesitation

I say that if a hundredth part of the capital put into airways in the pioneer years were available to-day for airline development, the transport proposition would be revolutionised. There would be day and night air lines between all the big cities.

WHEN A REAL FLYING AGE BEGINS.