NA TURE 



589- 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1920. 



THE NEED FOR AIRCRAFT RESEARCH. 



UNTDER the stimulus of war the development of 

 aircraft was marvellously rapid, so much so 

 that it not infrequently happened that by the time 

 a squadron of aeroplanes of new and improved 

 design was ready to take the air it was regarded 

 as little else than an obsolete type by its own 

 designers. But with a rate of wastage so high 

 as war conditions made inevitable, one had to get 

 accustomed to such an advance every six months 

 as only the new mental attitude to mechanical 

 developments that the war forced upon us could 

 grasp without surprise. All this is now past. 

 The factories are largely turned to fresh uses, 

 and their skilful staffs scattered to new fields of 

 labour. Even the scientific force of the flovern- 

 ment has for the most part returned to the I'ni- 

 versities from which it came — notably Cambridge 

 and Oxford. 



What is now to happen? Before this question 

 can be answered it must be premised that con- 

 sequent on the purpose of all this tremendous 

 effort — the defeat of the enemy — having been 

 finally achieved, the diversion of the means to 

 other purposes is no more to be wondered at than 

 regretted ; furthermore, we may hope that the 

 need for the re-creation of any such force is remote 

 enough to enable us "to sleep o' nights." The 

 validity of this hope must, however, depend on 

 the sway of politics, and on the political methods 

 followed by the Great Powers — whether a chau- 

 vinistic policy be adopted or earnestly avoided. 



The enemy to-day is the geographical posi- 

 tion with which this country is endowed : as un- 

 favourable for air developments as it is favourable 

 for maritime power. England is not on any air 

 route to anywhere, and its climate deserves, from 

 the air navigator's point of view, all that has been 

 said against it. The sheer march of natural events 

 will not make us an air Power as it has made us a 

 naval Power. Any such result will need to be the 

 consequence of intensely directed effort. But if 

 such an effort can be presumed, then great conse- 

 quences will ensue, for an air force which can be 

 taught to encounter British climatic conditions and 

 rise superior to them — with the implied possession 

 of the best scientific means of assistance on the 

 ground and in the aircraft — will have been trained 

 in as hard a school as any in the world, and there- 

 fore be ready to gain an ascendancy in the easier 

 conditions to be found almost everywhere else. 

 NO. 2623, VOL. 104] 



The experience of the last five years has shown 

 that we have exactly the right kind of personnel 

 for air endurance and skill ; the work is tempera- 

 mentally suited to the British type of youth. The 

 aircraft themselves are the best to be found any- 

 where, and although this does not imply finality 

 it is probable that future important developments 

 will lie in some change of principle, whether 

 thermodynamic (by modification of cycle or change 

 of fuel) or aerodynamic, rather than in greatly im- 

 proved efficiency in detail. We may, in fact, have 

 to repeat in another fashion our war experience 

 and once more face fundamental problems; we 

 shall not be pressed for time, which will be a great 

 gain, but we shall need all the assistance which 

 can be got from minds trained in the fundamentals 

 of science and as ready as heretofore to face en- 

 tirely novel conditions. The Universities, at which 

 many of such minds are now again engaged, must 

 help. This, however, is not the most pressing 

 problem ; the urgent need is for the provision of 

 means with the utmost rapidity to enable flying in 

 this country, whatever its climate, to be as regular 

 and safe for the traveller as it will surely become 

 in the very near future in other countries. 



When the weather is reasonable it is the custom 

 to select that altitude of flight which enables best 

 advantage to be taken of a favourable wind, and 

 perhaps, when flying over Central Africa, that 

 height which adds a pleasant temperature. Under 

 normal winter conditions in this country quite 

 other considerations apply. If the conditions are 

 such as to create, or even to suggest the creation 

 of, local fogs, pilots will choose their altitude from 

 quite another motive ; their aim will be to select 

 that altitude which keeps them always within sight 

 of the ground, so that if a fog, or heavy mist, is 

 encountered at ground level, a landing can at once 

 be made. Very often the fog or cloud is not of 

 great thickness, and it would be easy to climb 

 right through it and so to fly in sunshine under a 

 blue sky. By astronomical means the position of 

 the craft could be checked from time to time, and 

 there need be no fear of being blown out to sea 

 when prepared only for a limited number of hours' 

 flight. \\'hat makes such flying impossible is not 

 the uncertainty of position, but the doubt whether, 

 when the pilot wishes to land, he will find the 

 lower cloud- or fog-level actually resting on the 

 ground. It is unpleasant enough to walk even a 

 hundred steps along an empty road with one's 

 ^es shut — how much less attractive when one's 

 speed is 100 miles an hour and the feeling of 

 having one's feet on the ground is absent ! Unless 



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