THE COMMERCIAL AEROPLANE.
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Topical Notes and Comments.
Cape to Cairo.
IT IS CLEAR that the Air Ministry is going ahead rapidly with its plans for the organization of a Cape to Cairo aerial service, and it certainly looks as if, over this route, the aeroplane will easily anticipate the long-discussed railway connection. Apparently, the plan is to establish landing grounds and intermediate aerodromes at intervals of six to seven hundred miles, and, when the whole ground organization is complete to hand it over to an operating company. It is not quite so clear whether the Government proposes to make a present of its organization to those who are in a position to use it. One would have thought that the more logical proceeding would have been for the Government to retain possession of the ground organization, providing services by ansexpert staff to assist any operating companies that may use the route, and making some Zharge for this assistance, and possibly calling also for the payment' of dues for the use of aerodromes. It is hardly probable that the Government will spend money on an organization which is subsequently to be presented to a private concern, which would thereby 'be given a sort of monopoly. Of course' the Government -might make itself responsible for the general equipment and then lease sheds and other facilities at the various aerodromes to one er more companies using the route. However, all thia is rather .a question for the future, and the satisfactory fact of the moment is that there is every prospect of the route being rendered commercially possible in the very near future.
• Ground Organization.
It is becoming increasingly evident that the perfection of ground organization is going to be the main factor in the success of commercial aeronautics. To an extent, this -contradicts one's original impression to the effect that one of the principal advantages of aerial as -against land traffic would be that the former would escape from the big capital costs involved in the creation of a railway or road system. By the time we have provided intermediate as well as terminal aerodromes and safe landing grounds at reasonably short intervals, a good deal of money must have already been spent. To this we must add the considerable cost of the meteorological equipment, and also of the provision of -means of telegraphic and telephonic communication between the aeroplane and the ground. Then, again, we need a system parallel to that whioh -is found at sea in the shape of lighthouses, buoys and foghorns. Altogether, the first cost of establishing a long-distance service will evi • dently be very considerable, and such OA to make the average proposition quite uncommercial if the operating company were itself compelled to create the whole of its system. We must evidently take ouranalogy from the organization created to assist shipping. We may charge the equivalent of dock and harbour dues, but we must not expect the aeroplane owner, any more than the shipowner, to provide himself -arith all the means of safety that are necessary before any system of transport can become a business proposition.
The New Air Council.
Particulars have now been published of the constitution of the new Air Council, with provision, at any rate of a temporary character, for the control of civil aviation. General Trenchard is to be chief of the air staff, and General Sykes becomes controllergeneral of civil aviation. It is stated that, in order to provide for the control of civil aviation, an alteration in the constitution of the Air Council is necessary. Legislation to enable that alteration to be made and to provide temporarily for the control of
civil aviation will shortly be introduced into Parliament. It is understood. that the nature of the control will be along the lines advised by the Civil Aerial Transport Committee, which advocated that the Air Ministry should be the supreme authority rather than any Government department dealing-generally with trade or transport. This seems to me the right solution of the problem. The control of commercial aeronautics ought not to be completely separated from the control of military aeronautics. The commercial aeroplane will be even more closely connected withthe aerial navy than is the Mercantile Marino with the Royal Navy. Commercial pilots and mechanids will almost certainly form the first reserve to the Air Force, and one imagines that the authorities at the head of the Air Force will endeavour to influence, to some extent, the design of commercial aeroplanes so as to make the majority of them specially useful in. time of war. The procedure may, perhaps, be along the lines suggested by the subve,ntion scheme for motor transport that was in' operation before the war broke out.
Transatlantic Aeroplane Flights.
There is a tendency for a great deal too much attention to be turned towards the feat of crossing the Atlantic by aeroplane: If this were to be performed by an individual supported only by his own resources, it would at least be a fine proof of daring of a rather spectacular character. It is, however, going too far when Government departments on each side of the Atlantic show signs of taking the thing up officially. We know alma* that the flight is meChanically possible. We also know that the degree of danger accompanying it depends simply on the completeness of the organization temporarily created on the surface of the water. If a great Navy chooses to use all its resources to help the pilot, then the danger of the flight would be minimized, and, perhaps after a failure or so, success would be inevitable. Such success would, however, prove nothing that we do not know already. A commercial transatlantic service would not be in the least likely to materialize for many years to come if we had only aeroplanes to conEider. A long-distance transoceanic service of this kind is evidently a job for large airships, which can provide proper comfort for their passengers and can carry on the service without introducing any -considerable element of danger. Attempts to fly the Atlantic by aeroplane, if they succeed, can only bring notoriety to a few individuals, but, if they fail, may serve to shake public confidence to an unjustifiable extent in the real possibilities of aerial travel. The aeroplane, as it is at present, is not suitable for this sort of work, and the performance of dangerous feats may demonstrate personal courage, but is seldom of any commercial value.
The New Seaside "Skylark."
At the meeting of the Yarmouth Town Council last week it was reported that three applications had been made for a site on the beach from which to fly invite
with passengers. It was resolved to nvite tenders for the exclusive right of flying from the beach for three years. The corporation intend to provide a landing and embarking station on the North Beach ,and also a site for hangars. We had always felt safe in prophesying that the transport of mails would be the first commercial use to which aircraft would be put (leaving out of account the single-passenger flights from aerodromes), -but it now seems as if the modern application of the " Skylark " trips will pioneer the employment of the aeroplane and sea plane for money-making purposes. BEMBRIDGE.