ON AERONAUTICAL PROBLEMS. 397 
280 miles per hour, and aeroplanes have crossed the Atlantic.2 Years 
must elapse before we shall attain the perspective which is needed for 
proper historical study; but I hold that even now, and at the risk of some 
distortion, we ought to keep the historical aspect in view,—for this reason, 
that the future of Aeronautics is in our hands. Just as the politician ought 
(if he does not) to study current tendencies in the light of history, so we 
ought to look to the history of earlier sciences for guidance in our business 
of directing aeronautical research. 
The Unusual Circumstances of Aeronautical Research. 
4. The future of Aeronautics is in our hands, to make or mar, because 
practically the whole of aeronautical research and development is financed 
and directed by Government. State-aided research is, of course, a post-war 
phenomenon which affects practically all of the applied sciences. But the 
business of direction is a simpler matter in those which have by now 
attained a definite position and a “ settled outlook’ ; for reasonably correct 
lines of development are guaranteed by the stern law of Nature and of 
Economics,—that only the fit survive: in Aeronautics, which has never 
yet “ paid its way ’, but has grown, and grows, in the artificial atmosphere 
of Government subsidy, much time and money may be wasted before the 
fact is glaringly apparent. 
The Importance of Proper Direction. 
Many well-disposed but less well-informed people, especially in Parlia- 
ment, seem to imagine that progress in Aeronautics is a question, first and 
last, of money ; technical advance, in a word, is a mercantile commodity, 
purchasable at a definite amount per thousand pounds. No view could 
be more fallacious. Unless our programmes of research and development 
are well-conceived, aiming at the solution of definitely formulated 
problems, additional money will do us more harm than good. It is 
pleasant to feel assured of a favourable hearing when we have to ask for 
money ; but remembering that we have no economic touchstone, as yet, 
by which to test our schemes, we ought to subject them to criticism all 
the more ruthless on this account,—to make sure that we have ideas which 
_ we need money to develop, rather than ask for money as a preliminary to 
formulating our ideas. 
The Importance of Public Opinion. 
5. There is another factor in the problem which, as I hold, we need 
_ to consider, and it too arises from the fact that aeronautical research and 
_ development are dependent on Government funds. As such,in a democratic 
- country, they are liable to interference (through pressure brought to bear 
by Parliamentary questions or otherwise) by any interested individual or 
association ; and because the public interest is stirred by an achievement 
so recent and so striking as the conquest of the air, this interference 
? Official records for aeroplanes at the close of 1924 were :—Altitude : 39,576 feet 
(France). Speed : 278 miles per hour (France). Distance : 3,293 miles, refuelling during 
flight (U.S.A.) ; 2,517 miles, without refuelling (U.S.A.). (Cf. Flight, January 29, 1925.) 
