AIR SERVICES: BRITISH, CONTINENTAL AND IMPERIAL.
International civil flying commenced officially on August 26th, 1919, and gradually expanded, both in the United Kingdom and on the Continent, especially during the summer of 1920. France, aided by considerable subsidies, conducted services from Paris to London, Brussels and Strasburg, from Toulouse to Montpelier and across Spain to Casablanca in Morocco; Belgium, from Brussels to London and Paris; Holland, from Amsterdam to London; Germany, in spite of the restrictions placed upon her, entered the field as a compet.i.tor and her aircraft flew regularly from Berlin to Copenhagen and Bremen, and from Bremen to Amsterdam. On the American Continent, the United States Post Office ran mail services from New York to Washington, Chicago, and San Francisco, with extensions from Chicago, St. Paul, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.
For reasons which I shall give, there were no internal services in the United Kingdom, but there were four companies operating air lines from London to Paris, one of which held the contract for the carriage of mails. There were also air mail services between London and Brussels and Amsterdam. The mileage flown and the number of pa.s.sengers and the weight of goods carried were considerable, while the number of letters steadily increased, especially on the Amsterdam service; and an efficiency of 76 per cent., 94 per cent., and 84 per cent. was obtained on the London-Paris, London-Brussels, and London-Amsterdam services respectively.
It must be remembered that these results were obtained without any direct a.s.sistance on the part of the State, such as was given by the French Government to air-transport companies in the form of subsidies.
British economic policy is traditionally opposed to subsidies, believing that enterprise can be healthily built up on private initiative.
Therefore, until 1921 civil aviation had to content itself with the indirect a.s.sistance of the State, which consisted mainly in the adjustment of international flying; the laying-out and equipment of aerodromes on the air routes; the provision of wireless communication and meteorological information; research and the collection and issue of general information concerning aviation.
This indirect a.s.sistance, however, proved inadequate to maintain the progress achieved during 1920, and therefore the maintenance of air services by means of temporary direct financial a.s.sistance had to be arranged.
I have already pointed out the difficulty against which commercial aviation has to contend in regard to the geographical features and position of the United Kingdom. Its comparatively small size, the propinquity of industrial centres, our efficient day and night express railway services, especially those running north and south, lessen the value of aircraft"s superior speed and militate against the operation of successful internal air services. Possible exceptions might include amphibian services between London and Dublin, accelerating the delivery of mails five or six hours; between Glasgow and Belfast, where the Clyde and the harbour of Belfast could be used as terminals; or between London and the Channel Islands. I may point out in parenthesis that the development of alighting stations on rivers pa.s.sing through the centres of towns is important, as a great deal of time is at present wasted in reaching the aerodromes necessarily situated some miles outside large centres of population.
Our immediate opportunities of development near home are therefore afforded by the air services to Paris, Brussels, and Amsterdam; but even here the saving in time is not great, and our position is unfavourable compared to that of the United States, where the Post Office saves two days in the delivery of mails by air between New York and San Francisco; or compared to that of Germany, where Berlin is within a 350-mile radius of Copenhagen, Cologne, Munich, Warsaw, and Vienna, which is itself in an advantageous situation as the junction for a South European system extending to the Balkan States and the Near East.
The ultimate use of the air, however, is not exemplified by a few pa.s.sengers flying daily between London and the Continent any more than by a few squadrons of fighting craft. In a decade or two overhead transit will become the main factor in the express delivery of pa.s.sengers, mails, and goods. It is the one means left to the Empire of speeding up world-communication to an extent as yet unrealized. For the price of a battleship a route to Australia could be organized, the value of which would be beyond computation.
The British Empire as a whole offers vast fields for expansion. In Africa, Canada, and Australia are found the great distances suitable to the operation of aircraft, the wide undeveloped areas through which air transport may prove more economic than the construction of railways, and the trans-oceanic routes over which travel by steamship has reached, and in many cases pa.s.sed, its economic maximum speed. Air transport, careless whether the route be over land or sea, unhampered by foreign frontiers, gives the Empire precisely those essential powers of direct, supple, and speedy intercommunication which ship and rail have already shown us to be vital.
Here again the geographical position of England presents a difficult problem. England is divided from the rest of the Empire by a wide expanse, either of ocean or foreign territory. Egypt, the starting-point for air routes to India, Australia, and South Africa, may be described as the centre of a circle of which England is on the circ.u.mference; and it may be some years before an aeroplane can complete the journey between England and Egypt with only Malta as a stopping-place.
The future of long-distance oceanic air routes may depend upon the airship. Lighter-than-air craft, mainly for reasons of cost and vulnerability, did not receive such an impetus from the war as did the aeroplane, but the modern airship has claims for use over distances exceeding 1,000 miles. It can fly by night with even greater ease than by day; fog is no deterrent; engine trouble does not bring it down; and it can take advantage of prevailing winds. It would reduce the sea journey from England to Karachi from 22 to 5 days; from England to Johannesburg from 21 to 7 days; and from England to Perth from 32 to 10-1/2 days. Its achievements have already been considerable. In November, 1917, the German L.57 flew from Constantinople to East Africa and back--a distance of 4,000 miles--in 96 hours; in June, 1919, the R.34 flew from East Fortune to Danzig and back in 57 hours; and in July it crossed the Atlantic, was moored out in America for four days, and returned, a total distance of 8,000 miles, in the flying time of 108 hours for the outward and 75 hours for the homeward journey.
Before and during the war Germany gained wide experience in the design, construction, and handling of airships. It is probable that as soon as the peace terms and financial position permit she will begin to establish this form of transport on a commercial basis. In accordance with the Peace Treaty, and the Ultimatum of the London Conference of 1921, the construction of aircraft of all kinds is at present forbidden, but Germany is fostering airship development by the means left at her disposal. Her scientists are probing the constructional problems connected with large airships, while efforts are being made, by financial and other a.s.sistance, to maintain her technical staffs and airship bases in existence. At the same time German commercial interests are negotiating with foreign countries with a view to the development of airships abroad, and plans are being discussed for an airship service between Spain and Argentina.
The United States, France, and Italy are all interesting themselves, either financially or constructionally, in the future of airship development.
In Great Britain we have made great strides, particularly in the construction of small types, and our practical air experience in lighter-than-air craft, during the war, is the greatest in the world.
With a view to carrying out the experiments necessary further to demonstrate the capacity of airships for commercial long-distance flights, a few months ago the Department of Civil Aviation took over all airship material surplus to service requirements. The main object was to test the practicability and value of mooring airships to a mast. Up to the present, a princ.i.p.al factor militating against the economic operation of airships has been the large and expensive personnel required for handling them on the ground, especially in stormy weather.
The mooring-mast experiments have had considerable success and airships have been moored in high winds and over long periods with the a.s.sistance of a very small personnel.
The Government has decided, however, though recognizing their potentialities for speeding up communications between the various Dominions and the Mother Country, that the operation of airships cannot be carried out by the State on account of the present financial position.
Recognizing the limitations of Home services and those to the Continent, it was for the purpose of directing attention to the Imperial aspect of civil aviation that the great demonstration flights were organized in which Alc.o.c.k flew the Atlantic in a Vickers "Vimy," Scott crossed to the United States and back in the R.34, Ross-Smith flew from England to Australia, and van Ryneveld from London to the Cape.
These flights necessitated, too, considerable ground organization in laying out aerodromes, as the following report on one in Africa vividly ill.u.s.trates: "If aerodromes are left unattended for one year," it says, "practically all the work would have to be undertaken afresh, particularly in Rhodesia. The growth of vegetation is enormous, especially during the rains, and gra.s.s will grow to a height of eleven feet in six months; and trees stumped two feet below the surface will throw out suckers and replant themselves within a month after the rains have started.... It is most important that rough drains should be traced.... I have just started planting Doub gra.s.s. This gra.s.s gives an ideal surface for landing, kills other gra.s.ses, and possesses deep interlacing roots which will bind the entire surface of the aerodromes, making it permanent and free from washaways and the formation of sluits."
The demonstration flights, however, showed what could, rather than what should, be done, and what we look for to-day is the inception of practical undertakings, however small, in the various portions of the Empire. The most important of these is the service contemplated between Egypt and India; another instance is afforded by the West Indies, which suffer from the lack of inter-island communications, both for mails and pa.s.sengers, and this could be partially rectified by an air service employing seaplanes or amphibians for the Leeward and Windward Islands and the Bahamas, and between the Bahamas and the American Continent, where an American company is actually conducting a service. Another project, given up owing to recent disturbances, was one for a flying-boat service on the Nile. Services are also being considered from Malta to Italy, Geraldton to Derby in Western Australia, Sydney to Adelaide and Brisbane, and Melbourne to Hobart in Tasmania. Canadian activity takes the form of work carried out by Government-owned civil machines in connection with forest patrol, photographic survey, exploration, anti-smuggling patrols, etc. It would be a great advantage if railway and steamship companies seriously considered the value of supplementing their services by air.
With regard to Government undertakings on the Imperial air routes, Malta is being equipped with an aerodrome, and a line of wireless stations has been established between Egypt and India, but the organization of this route has been delayed owing to the recent disturbances in the Middle East, and the financial outlay involved in ground organization. As I have said, the air route on which we should first concentrate, over and above the Continental services, is that between Egypt and India. Both strategically and commercially it is the most important in the Imperial system; it is a step towards Australia; it offers possibilities of the greatest volume of traffic; it should be much simpler to control than many international routes, which inevitably have many complications; weather conditions are not unfavourable; and the time taken for the journey by sea would be reduced by about one-half. If the shortcomings in point of distance of the continental routes in reaping the full advantages of travel by air, and the importance of the best possible communications for the Empire, are recognized, it is essential that a practical form of a.s.sistance should be given in the near future to the conduct of weekly or even bi-weekly services each way between Cairo and Karachi. Although it will not be a commercial proposition for some time, the Egypt-Karachi route, shortening as it will the delivery of mails between England and India by two-thirds, and England and Australia by one-third, offers greater results than the various other schemes at present contemplated. There are, however, certain considerations which will have to be weighed before the immense amount of work necessary to its initiation as a commercial air route is begun. The French, for instance, hope to push a trunk air route to India via Constantinople, and this line has the advantage of avoiding a long sea and desert crossing. On the other hand, it will be a very difficult matter to negotiate the mountains of Anatolia.
If enterprises of this kind are successfully started, if each of our self-governing Dominions and Colonies encourages civil aviation within its own territory, and develops the air-sense of its people, each portion of the Empire, by a process of natural expansion, and by the gradual extension of local air lines to merge with those from other portions of the Empire, will a.s.sist in eventually forming a continuous chain of inter-Imperial air communication. Such a process of internal development, supported by close co-operation between the States of the Imperial Commonwealth, is the best method of obtaining rapidity of air intercommunication and a system of Imperial air bases necessary to the strategic security of the Empire.
CONCLUSION
Within the necessarily narrow limits of this survey there has been traced the history of aviation from the earliest days; the tremendous impetus given to it by the war has been described, during the course of which not only did air co-operation become essential to the Navy and Army, but the importance of the Air Force as a separate arm, with its own strategic action, steadily grew; the increasing preponderance which aerial warfare will have in the future, and the horrors which it may bring, have been touched upon; and the possibilities of civil aviation in peace and war have been outlined.
The conclusion has been reached that we cannot dispense with aviation, even if we would. We must consider it as a whole and lay down the broad principles on which it should be developed. The air (I write as one who during the last months of the war held the post of Chief of the Air Staff) materially helped, if it did not actually win, the fight. It has greatly complicated and increased the problems of defence. In future its influence on these problems will be still greater. The air has no boundaries. Great Britain and the Empire are no longer protected by the seas. A correct a.s.sessment of their needs will entail a growing ratio of air force to Army and Navy, and air power will in itself depend on the development of civil aviation.
But though air action may be expected with justice to grow in proportion to that of the Army and Navy, and will certainly absorb certain functions of both, it would be unwise, at this early stage of development, for air forces to attempt too much at a time--such as, for instance, to garrison geographically unsuitable countries.
A certain amount of reliance could also be placed on civil machines temporarily borrowed for purely policing measures in uncivilized countries, or for the a.s.sistance of Government during civil disturbances; and for such purposes it should not be difficult to devise a scheme, especially when the State exercises a measure of control through the grant of subsidies, for the obligatory enrolment of civil commercial pilots in the reserve, and for periodical refresher courses for pilots, who are not actually in the service of companies, at civil aerodromes. Such systems are in force in France and Canada. In the event of war the independent striking air force could thus count upon a large proportion of civil reserve pilots and machines.
Air, allied to chemistry and the submarine, will be a difficult combination to withstand. The more its potential terrors are grasped, the less likely is war to be loosed upon the world, and it cannot be realized too clearly how much more easily than any other instrument of warfare aircraft and gas can be cheaply and secretly prepared by a would-be belligerent. Meanwhile, if civil aviation can be built up as a productive organization to a position relative to that held by our mercantile marine, we must understand that it will ensure air supremacy better than a large unproductive outlay on armaments. And I am convinced that, with public support, this can, and will, be done. Others will do it if we do not. But air power, although drawing its vitality from the expansion of air commerce and the growth of the civil aircraft industry, must at the same time rely upon the nucleus of a highly trained and technical air force. Service aviation must be the spearhead, civil aviation the shaft, of our air effort.
The present isolation of England in terms of air from the rest of the Empire, and the geographical conditions already described, certainly render the national expansion of aviation, both external and internal, a difficult problem. It is clear that for this reason it must rather develop on an Imperial basis. The Dominions have already started valuable civil air work and have appointed Air Boards. Whatever the political settlement of Egypt may be, it is important that our air interests at this "hub" of Imperial aviation should be safeguarded. Air communication between the various portions of the Empire may prove of inestimable value in a future world war, and Dominion air forces may be able quickly to concentrate against enemy territory which is out of the range of aircraft operating from home. We have seen the value of aircraft operating from land bases for naval patrol, anti-submarine action, and direct attack on enemy shipping. With the increasing radius of action of seaplanes and other naval aircraft, the Army and Navy may be relieved of certain of their duties in coast defence and in protecting Imperial trade routes. For these reasons, aircraft bases are required throughout the Empire, and it is the commercial development of aviation which is the best means of ensuring their establishment. It will be for the Imperial authorities, while attending to local conditions and requirements, to co-ordinate as far as possible the air effort of the Empire, so that in peace communications may be developed and in the event of war its full power may rapidly be utilized on a co-operative basis.
Civil aviation is not, however, merely a method of amplifying service air power. It has a vast potential value of its own. Communications shape human destinies. The evolution of our civilization bears strongly the marks of the systems which at various stages have made the intercourse of men and ideas possible. Its history is one of endeavour to extend the limits imposed upon human living and mobility in each of the great phases through which it has pa.s.sed.
There was the phase of the coracle and the roller-wheeled vehicle, stretching back into the roadless mists of unrecorded time; of roads which gradually linked the important areas of the Roman Empire; of inland and coastal waterways; of ocean traffic, and its huge advance with the discovery of steam-power, which brought England to the fore.
With each phase the world shrinks smaller and the mists of the unknown recede. The development of human mobility is the greatest marvel of the present age. We can hardly realize that it was only the other day, as these things go--in 1819, just a hundred years before the same feat was accomplished by air-that the first sailing ship fitted with auxiliary steam (and not until 1828 that a real steamship) crossed the Atlantic.
Strain and compet.i.tion are increasing. Trains vie with ships; motor transport with trains. Telephones, wireless, cables, and flying are speeding up communications to a degree undreamed of a few years ago. If the air is to be a prime factor in the world-phase to come, how will the British Empire be affected? Stretching from Great Britain to Australia and the Pacific Ocean, the Empire depends more than any other political and commercial organization on the most modern and speedy communications, and as each of its portions a.s.sumes greater responsibility there is greater need for co-operation, the distribution of information, and the personal contact of statesmen and business men.
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new"; and in communications the new order is air transport.
Equally important is the international aspect. To-day we are deeply concerned with the maintenance of peace, and this can be achieved, not so much by the action of Governments, or the efforts of the League of Nations, as by the personal a.s.sociation of individuals of one nation with those of another, and an increasing recognition of common interests. I conceive that civil aviation, by reducing the time factor of intercommunication, will tend to bring peoples into closer touch with each other and will make for mutual understanding. The Peace Treaty provided for an Air Convention for the international control of civil aviation. The Convention has been signed by all the Allied nations which took part in the war, and I hope other countries will shortly be included. As soon as the Convention has been ratified, the International Commission of Air Navigation will be established, and for the first time the world will see the international control of a great transport service. I believe this will prove an important practical step towards international co-operation and goodwill.
We have no excuse for ignorance of the effects of Imperial and international co-operation. The war gave us an example of what the British Empire can do, provided its combined knowledge and effort is brought to bear for one great purpose; and in no respect was this better exemplified than in the utilization and scientific development of aviation. The world-position of the Empire as a whole is still the best.
Commerce and communications are its bonds, and, if we are so determined, it is in our power to shape the destinies of the future.
A definite advance has been made since the Armistice and, if all goes well, a very much greater one will be made during the next two or three years, and in ten years mercantile air services will be operating on a self-supporting basis. The science and concentration employed in the war must be made to serve the requirements of peace. Readiness for, and success in, war are vital when war is unavoidable, but in peace it is civil and commercial activity which is vital.
As in its infancy it seemed incredible to those responsible for the direction of the older services that the air would be their most valuable partner; as, during the war, they grudged its logical development to strike widely where they could not reach, and tried to tether it closely to them, so now in peace the air is struggling to attain the apotheosis of communication.
In the phase of world commerce of which we are on the threshold, science, brain-power, energy, and faith must, and increasingly will, be harnessed to the work of perfecting air communication so that human mobility can be increased, knowledge interchanged, and the fruits of production distributed throughout the world.
As a soldier I have of course dwelt on the possibility of war in the future and of the part which aviation would play in it, but it would be a great mistake--though I think that mistake is constantly made--to suppose that soldiers look forward with equanimity to the prospect of war. On the contrary, soldiers, more even than civilians, if this be possible, realize the horrors of war and recognize that the great task rests upon the statesmen of all nations, and upon humanity itself, of taking whatever steps can be taken to prevent its recurrence.
We may at least a.s.sume that another great war will not be allowed in our generation. But war, in spite of its horrors, in spite of its bereavements, is only too quickly forgotten. A comparatively few years, and those who have pa.s.sed through its fire are no more. New wealth is created; new antagonisms arise; and a new generation remembers only the romantic stories and the martial deeds of its fathers, or, more fatally, organizes itself to avenge defeat. Then, once again, forgetful of the terrible lesson we have learned, the great nations of the world may unsheathe the sword as the only solution to their problems. Our only hope lies in using the ensuing years to educate mankind to the principle that war brings misery and impoverishment to all engaged in it, that in the final victory it is not a question of which is left the strongest, but which is the least exhausted, and that national are as susceptible as personal differences to discussion and arbitration. Above all, let us guard against the old mistake of compet.i.tive armaments. There is no reason, for instance, why, because France, our friend and ally, is adopting a policy of air armaments, we should blindly pile up aeroplane against aeroplane, pilot against pilot, and thus provoke mutual suspicion.
The possibility of war remains, however, and I wish in conclusion to emphasize the fact that in my belief the security of this country in the event of war will depend upon our strength in the air. The development of the offensive powers of aviation have already destroyed "the silver streak" on which we relied in the past. When we remember that it is less than twenty years since the first successful aeroplane was flown, when we recall the almost miraculous development of the fighting powers of aircraft during the four and a half years of war, and also the further developments which were on the point of being utilized when the war ended, it seems certain that from the point of view of war Britain has ceased to be an island. The "silver streak" would have been little protection but for our naval supremacy, and in the future our security will depend as much upon superiority in the air as it has depended in the past upon our superiority at sea. And this superiority in the air can only be attained in the same way in which we secured our supremacy at sea. That supremacy was not really gained by developing great navies.
It was gained by our mercantile marine, which made the great navies possible. Our future security can only be gained by the development of commercial aviation.