"Flight," a New Journal.

Progress, Volume IV, Issue 7, 1 May 1909, Page 237

" Flight," a New Journal.

The first aviation journal ever published \v England has reached us. It is a very characteristic production. We begin, of course, with the advertisements. They

are not literary, but they are more informative than many things purely literary. Being the sinews of war to a newspaper, the advertisements show what the means are by which the particular interest for which any particular journal caters manages to live. It is a surprise from this

point of view to run across an advertisement in a London paper purporting to tell people where they can get aeroplanes built for them. "Factories and large private grounds close to London," runs the first ad. in the journal Flight. It is the advertisement of Messrs Short Brother.-:, and we are surprised to read that they are "official aeronautical engineers to the Aero-Club of the United Kingdom." They have, moreover, "large private trial grounds close to London." Evidently the days when the British Islands were without anything in the aeroplane line are over. The next advertisement takes us into the region of the dirigible, and we are introduced to a formidable list of the known

makes, and there is an offer on the part of the enterprising firm — the Continental Tyre and Rubber Co. of Great Britain, of 102-3 Clerkenwell Road, London — to construct any of them out of Continental materials. This is satisfactory, but not so attractive as the aeroplane advertisement. The latter does not stand alone. There is the advertisement of the Motor Supply Co., of Piccadilly, to make aeroplanes for all and sundry, the firm intimating its willingness

French War Bvlloon "La Republique " to give every information. Then the celebrated Howard Wright advertises his speeiaHy, which is, as we now know, aeroplane construction. He is established in time-honoured Marylebone, and we realise that it is from that establishment the aero's have proceeded which have made some stir on the Continent, in consequence of which there are so many inquiries by strangers whether this may be a brother (if the celebrated Americans, or a fourth cousin several times removed, or something of that kind. Mr. Howard Wright is, however, nothing to the remarkable Dayton Brothers, except an aspiring rival who has undertaken to make the British name good. His stock in trade consists we see incidentally of "propellers, welded frames, wooden frames, main planes, rudders, aeroplane wheels, helieopteres, ormthopteres, monoplanes, biplanes, triplanes. dirigible frames, models.'" It is a fair inference from this display that there is some demand for the wares the possession of which was only the other day out of the reach of Britishers because of the lack of British enterprise and invention. But we are changing aU that apparently. As supporting the inference we have next Sir Hiram Maxim's Book of Aeronautics. It treats, we observe, of air currents and the flight of birds, with the flying of kites, the working of screws, with such things as steering by means of the

gyroscope, of the shape and efficiency of seroplanes ; deals with some recent machines, and is full of information of the most useful character, as may be inferred from the name on the title page of the volume. Major Moedebeek contributes his book, "The Pocket Book of Aeronautics." written in collaboration with the distinguished authority on aviation, Professor Chanute, of Chicago, and he has 150 illustrations to offer, against Sir Hiram's 97.

These are nearly all the advertisements, and the paucity of their number rather detracts from the effect of the contents. Contrast this with the enormous plethora of advertisements in the motor journal. But the motoring industry nourishes. So far it seems, however, the aero interest has been sailing on the back of the motor industry. The editor explains, in his introductory article, that the attention attracted by the aerial writing in the space devoted by the Auto Motor journal has induced the owners to launch a separate journal devoted entirely to the interests of aviation. The new journal has the usual "firm determination to establish lofty traditions," and it has something better than the usual rhetoric to say for its good intentions. The new journal is, moreover, the official organ of the Aero Club of the United Kingdom. The editor hastens at the same time to teU us that his official duty consists in reporting the doings and the fixtures, but does not extend to his opinions, which are free as air at all times on all subjects. The editor is a sanguine man indeed, for the only difficulty he anticipates for the future is the difficulty of keeping up due recognition on the part of the public of the merits of a journal with a title that has ceased — on account of the general advance of the practice of flying — to be distinctive. The literary matter is remarkable for a series of excellent "notes." There is an exhaustive and interesting account of the aeroplanes at the Salon, the first exhibition of aeroplanes ever held in the world, and it is fairly well illustrated. The statistics of flight are historic, exhaustive, and apparently reliable. Correspondence is a welcome feature, esp/ecially as it might have been absent from a first number, and there is a very good comparative article on the "Wright and the Vo.sin systems. On the whole, the new journal begins well, and we trust will redeem the promises of its sponsors and its contents of the first number.