Into the later months of 1919 comes the flight by Captain Ross-Smith from England to Australia and the attempt to make the Cape1 to Cairo voyage by air. The Australian Government had offered a prize of ￡10,000 for the first flight from England to Australia in a British machine, the flight to be accomplished2 in 720 consecutive3 hours. Ross-Smith, with his brother, Lieut. Keith Macpherson Smith, and two mechanics, left Hounslow in a Vickers-Vimy bomber4 with Rolls-Royce engine on November 12th and arrived at Port Darwin, North Australia, on the 10th December, having completed the flight in 27 days 20 hours 20 minutes, thus having 51 hours 40 minutes to spare out of the 720 allotted5 hours.
Australian Flight finish, 10th December, 1919.
The crew and machine.
Cape to Cairo.
The ‘Silver Queen’ and its crew.
Early in 1920 came a series of attempts at completing the journey by air between Cairo and the Cape. Out of four competitors Colonel Van Ryneveld came nearest to making the journey successfully, leaving England on a standard Vickers-Vimy bomber with Rolls-Royce engines, identical in design with the machine used by Captain Ross-Smith on the England to Australia flight. A second Vickers-Vimy was financed by the Times newspaper and a third flight was undertaken with a Handley-Page machine under the auspices6 of the Daily Telegraph. The Air Ministry7 had already prepared the route by means of three survey parties which cleared the aerodromes and landing grounds,271 dividing their journey into stages of 200 miles or less. Not one of the competitors completed the course, but in both this and Ross-Smith’s flight valuable data was gained in respect of reliability8 of machines and engines, together with a mass of meteorological information.
The Handley-Page Company announced in the early months of 1920 that they had perfected a new design of wing which brought about a twenty to forty per cent improvement in lift rate in the year. When the nature of the design was made public, it was seen to consist of a division of the wing into small sections, each with its separate lift. A few days later, Fokker, the Dutch inventor, announced the construction of a machine in which all external bracing9 wires are obviated10, the wings being of a very deep section and self-supporting. The value of these two inventions remains11 to be seen so far as commercial flying is concerned.
The value of air work in war, especially so far as the Colonial campaigns in which British troops are constantly being engaged is in question, was very thoroughly12 demonstrated in a report issued early in 1920 with reference to the successful termination of the Somaliland campaign through the intervention13 of the Royal Air Force, which between January 21st and the 31st practically destroyed the Dervish force under the Mullah, which had been a thorn in the side of Britain since 1907. Bombs and machine-guns did the work, destroying fortifications and bringing about the surrender of all the Mullah’s following, with the exception of about seventy who made their escape.
Certain records both in construction and performance had characterised the post-war years, though as design advances and comes nearer to perfection, it is obvious272 that records must get fewer and farther between. The record aeroplane as regards size at the time of its construction was the Tarrant triplane, which made its first—and last—flight on May 28th, 1919. The total loaded weight was 30 tons, and the machine was fitted with six 400 horse-power engines; almost immediately after the trial flight began, the machine pitched forward on its nose and was wrecked14, causing fatal injuries to Captains Dunn and Rawlings, who were aboard the machine. A second accident of similar character was that which befell the giant seaplane known as the Felixstowe Fury, in a trial flight. This latter machine was intended to be flown to Australia, but was crashed over the water.
On May 4th, 1920, a British record for flight duration and useful load was established by a commercial type Handley-Page biplane, which, carrying a load of 3,690 lbs., rose to a height of 13,999 feet and remained in the air for 1 hour 20 minutes. On May 27th the French pilot, Fronval, flying at Villacoublay in a Morane-Saulnier type of biplane with Le Rhone motor, put up an extraordinary type of record by looping the loop 962 times in 3 hours 52 minutes 10 seconds. Another record of the year of similar nature was that of two French fliers, Boussotrot and Bernard, who achieved a continuous flight of 24 hours 19 minutes 7 seconds, beating the pre-war record of 21 hours 48? seconds set up by the German pilot, Landemann. Both these records are likely to stand, being in the nature of freaks, which demonstrate little beyond the reliability of the machine and the capacity for endurance on the part of its pilots.
Trial Flight of the Tarrant Triplane at Farnborough.
The machine before the crash.
Meanwhile, on February 14th, Lieuts. Masiero and Ferrarin left Rome on S.V.A. Ansaldo V. machines273 fitted with 220 horse-power S.V.A. motors. On May 30th they arrived at Tokio, having flown by way of Bagdad, Karachi, Canton, Pekin, and Osaka. Several other competitors started, two of whom were shot down by Arabs in Mesopotamia.
Considered in a general way, the first two years after the termination of the Great European War form a period of transition in which the commercial type of aeroplane was gradually evolved from the fighting machine which was perfected in the four preceding years. There was about this period no sense of finality, but it was as experimental, in its own way, as were the years of progressing design which preceded the war period. Such commercial schemes as were inaugurated call for no more note than has been given here; they have been experimental, and, with the possible exception of the United States Government mail service, have not been planned and executed on a sufficiently15 large scale to furnish reliable data on which to forecast the prospects16 of commercial aviation. And there is a school rapidly growing up which asserts that the day of aeroplanes is nearly over. The construction of the giant airships of to-day and the successful return flight of R34 across the Atlantic seem to point to the eventual17 triumph, in spite of its disadvantages, of the dirigible airship.
This is a hard saying for such of the aeroplane industry as survived the War period and consolidated18 itself, and it is but the saying of a section which bases its belief on the fact that, as was noted19 in the very early years of the century, the aeroplane is primarily a war machine. Moreover, the experience of the War period tended to discredit20 the dirigible, since, before the introduction of helium gas, the inflammability of its274 buoyant factor placed it at an immense disadvantage beside the machine dependent on the atmosphere itself for its lift.
As life runs to-day, it is a long time since Kipling wrote his story of the airways21 of a future world and thrust out a prophecy that the bulk of the world’s air traffic would be carried by gas-bag vessels22. If the school which inclines to belief in the dirigible is right in its belief, as it well may be, then the foresight23 was uncannily correct, not only in the matter of the main assumption, but in the detail with which the writer embroidered24 it.
On the constructional side, the history of the aeroplane is still so much in the making that any attempt at a critical history would be unwise, and it is possible only to record fact, leaving it to the future for judgment25 to be passed. But, in a general way, criticism may be advanced with regard to the place that aeronautics26 takes in civilisation27. In the past hundred years, the world has made miraculously28 rapid strides materially, but moral development has not kept abreast29. Conception of the responsibilities of humanity remains virtually in a position of a hundred years ago; given a higher conception of life and its responsibilities, the aeroplane becomes the crowning achievement of that long series which James Watt30 inaugurated, the last step in inter-communication, the chain with which all nations are bound in a growing prosperity, surely based on moral wellbeing. Without such conception of the duties as well as the rights of life, this last achievement of science may yet prove the weapon that shall end civilisation as men know it to-day, and bring this ultra-material age to a phase of ruin on which saner31 people can build a world more reasonable and less given to groping after purely32 material advancement33.
The Tarrant smash.
Front view of crashed machine. Searching for the injured after the smash.
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1
cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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consecutive
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| adj.连续的，联贯的，始终一贯的 | |
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bomber
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| n.轰炸机，投弹手，投掷炸弹者 | |
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allotted
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| 分配，拨给，摊派( allot的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6
auspices
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| n.资助，赞助 | |
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ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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reliability
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| n.可靠性，确实性 | |
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9
bracing
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| adj.令人振奋的 | |
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obviated
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| v.避免，消除（贫困、不方便等）( obviate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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12
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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13
intervention
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| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
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wrecked
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| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
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15
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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16
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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17
eventual
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| adj.最后的，结局的，最终的 | |
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18
consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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21
AIRWAYS
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| 航空公司 | |
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vessels
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| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
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foresight
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| n.先见之明，深谋远虑 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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aeronautics
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| n.航空术，航空学 | |
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civilisation
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| n.文明，文化，开化，教化 | |
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miraculously
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| ad.奇迹般地 | |
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abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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watt
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| n.瓦，瓦特 | |
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31
saner
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| adj.心智健全的( sane的比较级 )；神志正常的；明智的；稳健的 | |
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purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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advancement
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| n.前进，促进，提升 | |
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