COMMERCIAL AVIATION.
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Some Topical Notes and Comments. •
rHE BAN on civil aviation is raised to-day, May
F
1st, and an Order will be signed during the day containing the various regulations that will control it. The Air Ministry, in making this . announcement, states that there must ensue a period during which regulations are being considered and applications are being made by firms and private individuals for the licensing of pilots and aerodtomes and the licensing and registration of aircraft. In the
• meantime, in order to give all possible assistance b-eforehand to those intending to take advantage of whatever facilities are offered by the Government, particulars of the chief :aerial routes for Great Britain, which it is proposed to declare open to civil aviation are made public, and they are shown in the• accompanying map, which we reproduce from the columns of The Times.
Routes for Civilian Aviation.
these , civil air routes, and he can bake use of the Stations and faciliti e s afforded. P-i 1-o t s landing elsewhere than at a: specified station must not expect to find elsewhere thefacilities in ' the way of accommodation and supplies provided at the specified stations.
Control ofOverseas Traffic.
' With regard to _ traffic passing to and from overseas, the Air Ministry acting with other Government Depart
e38 Ments has appointedfour aerodromes at which all outward and inward.bound aircraft must land for examination of goods and passengers. They are as follow :—For Continental traffic .Lympne in Kent ; for Dutch traffic via Harwich, traffic, in Suffolk; -for Scandinavian traffic via the Humber, New Holand in-Lincolnshire ; for direct traffic to London, Hounslow in Middlesex.
Further " appointed" aerodromes will be selected according to requirements. It has been decided for the present that the " appointed "aero-. dronies, with the exception of the one at Hounslow, shall be on the coast, because of the difficulties of control Which Would ensue if places further inland were selected, and because for the present there is a lack of certainty "as to what particular channels trade will follow.
The Air Ministry intends to be.reeponsible for the care and supervision in regard to the construction andair-worthiness of all pleasure and commercial craft, but it does not intend to hinder -development by imposing inspectionof inventions or purely experi mental machines.
Aerodromes for Disposal.
When the Armistice was signed there were in Great Britain 337 aerodromes and landing grounds fa landing ground not necessarily having the same facilities and accommodation as an aerodrome). Of these, 116 have already been relinquished for purposes of cultivation, etc., and about 100 will be required for the time being by the Royal Air Force. After deducting those aerodromes which have been provisionally selected as stations along the -proposed air routes, there will remain for disposal nearly 100 aerodromes a n d landing places, many of wlich a r e very well
REFERENCE.
Military &Civil Stations_ Civil Stations ______ A
equipped. Particulars of these are to be published, and it is quite possible that t o wn councils. peblic bodies and important C o mmercial firms interested ' in the subject may avail themselves of the opportunity of acquiring a going concern in a wellequipped a e r odrome.
Civil Aviation at Easter.
During Easter 912 people were carried in pleasure flights, and it is probably right to say that not a single accident fell to be recorded.
BEMBRIDGE.