1.66% Safer

If a man were to fly 10,000 miles annually in regularly scheduled U. S. transport planes, he might suffer a crackup in the 39th year; might be killed in the 282nd. Were the same man to cover the same distance in random flights (instruction, sightseeing, joyhopping, et al.) he might anticipate an accident every 5.8 years, prepare for death in the 36th. These chances are based upon the civil air accident record for January-June 1930, published last week by the Department of Commerce.

All civil aircraft flew 68,669,928 mi. in the six months, a gain of 12,468,590 mi. over the same period in 1929. There were 930 accidents, one for every 73,839 mi. of flight. In 1929 (spring) there was an accident every 72,612 mi. Schedule transport planes suffered six fatal accidents in 16,902,728 mi. flown--one per 2,817,121 mi., compared with one fatality every 1,022,871 mi. for the same period in 1929.

Conclusions: Flying over established routes is 61% safer than a year ago; "miscellaneous" operations, 11% more dangerous; flying in general, 1.66% safer. A smaller proportion of accidents (57.14%) is blamable upon personnel* less upon motor failures (15.02%), less upon airplane failures (8.78%), more upon weather, darkness, airport & terrain (17.65%).

Notable was the fact that "miscellaneous" flights were about 11,000,000 mi. less than in July-December 1929. Part of the difference is due to weather, which is better for flying in the last six months than in the first six months of any calendar year. Part is also due to more careful procedure within the Department of Commerce, more rigorous checking of pilots' extravagant claims of "hours." But much of the slackness was undoubtedly a falling off of costly private flying, even of joy-hopping, because of the Depression.

Burning Letters

People who are reluctant to use the airmail are in few cases deterred by the higher postage (5-c- for first, 10-c- for each additional ounce). More general is the notion that an airmail letter may never reach its destination. Last week the Post Office department made known that the fire hazard is less for airmail than for mail shipped by rail or water. And burning is the only manner in which air mail ever is lost.

In the fiscal year ended June 30, airmail planes carried safely 7,715,741 Ib. and lost 4,665 Ib.--or .06%. Since then, 30 asbestos mail pouches have been put into trial service with the hope of eliminating fire loss entirely (TIME, July 28).

Catapult Muffler

Planes are flung into the air from battleships and cruisers by catapults. Originally all these were operated by compressed air. Then it was found that a charge of black powder (a slow explosive), would launch the plane with a more gradual thrust, less of a jerk. But the powder blast sometimes causes accidents, once blew a seaman overboard, makes as much noise as a 5-inch gun. Last week the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics ordered a newly designed "blast reducer" for all explosion-catapults. Built somewhat like an automobile muffler --a cylindrical chamber perforated with many small holes--the device confines the blast, safeguards its kick, muffles its bark.

R-101 Guilt

In the same great hall in London where the guilt for the S. S. Vestris disaster was argued more than a year ago, a man arose last week and uttered a reluctant, electrifying sentence. Said he: "If it had been left to me, I'm afraid the R-IOI would not have received a certificate of airworthiness."

The speaker was Air Ministry Inspector McWade, assigned to Cardington Royal Airship Works. The R-101'S airworthiness certificate was issued by Lord Christopher Birdwood Thomson, England's air minister, who was killed with 47 others when the gigantic dirigible plowed into a hillside in France (TIME, Oct. 13 et seq.).

Sir John Simon, president of the Board of Inquiry, directed Inspector McWade to a great model of the R-IOI which hung from a scaffold beside his bench like an effigy dangling from a gallows, there fired questions for the witness to answer tangibly.

There were, pointed out Inspector McWade, leaks in the R-IOI'S gas balloonets, caused by the chafing of the bags against wiring points as the ship pitched and rolled. He had reported these leaks last July, he said, and recommended changes in construction which might have required three months. Instead the points of contact were padded, but to no avail.

Inspector McWade's testimony threw into unhappy relief earlier references to Lord Thomson's apparent haste. Attorney General Sir William Allen Jowitt had cor respondence to show that the air minister was chafing to start by late September, be back by Oct. 16. One letter was quoted: "I must insist on the program for the India flight being adhered to, as I have made my plans accordingly." Observed Sir William:

"There probably is no doubt that Lord Thomson thought it would be a striking, dramatic feat to accomplish a flight to India [where he was to succeed Lord Irwin as viceroy] and come home in safety while the Imperial Conference was sitting." Air Vice-Marshal Hugh Caswell Tremenheere Dowding said Lord Thomson had told him not to let his judgment be swayed by his (Lord Thomson's) eager ness to be off; but he showed a memorandum from Lord Thomson insisting upon a take-off early in October.

Supporting Inspector McWade's story was a memorandum by the late Lt.-Col. V. C. Richmond, who was killed in the crash, filed last July after an unimpressive test flight of the R-IOI. Lt.-Col. Richmond found the hydrogen bags fouled against nuts and bolts at hundreds of points; that padding was ineffective; that the loss of lifting power was about one ton per square inch of hole in twelve hours--"an alarming condition. . . . Until this matter is taken in hand, we cannot recommend any extension of the flying permit."

The ugly impression of negligence, or at least undue haste, grew yet higher with the testimony of Vice-Marshal Dowding. Fearing the dirigible was unfit for the long voyage, he said, he ordered Wing Commander R. B. B. Colmore (another crash victim) to run a full power test as soon as possible after casting off from the mooring mast at Cardington. Apparently this order was ignored.

Other points of evidence:

P: The only trial flight before the India take-off was in mild weather, was cut from 24 hr. to 16 hr. without Lord Thomson's knowledge--and resulted in a dead engine.

P: The experimental oil engines weighed 17 tons instead of the nine tons originally planned.

P: A broken aileron cable was examined by microscope and adjudged to have parted after the crash.

P: Scotland Yard investigated the story of a man who said that the day before the disaster, on a train between London and Southend, he overheard a conversation that sounded like a plot to destroy the R-101.

Germans vaguely resent the R-101 crash and explosion as reflecting somehow upon dirigibles and hydrogen gas. They point with pride to the 150,000 mi. which their own Graf Zeppelin has flown safely on hydrogen. Nevertheless, Dr. Hugo Eckener announced in Berlin last week that the LZ-128, now under construction, will be lifted by helium. He also may use crude-oil engines, but not unless the type is greatly improved by next year.

The new Zeppelin's helium will be imported from the U. S. which, while it has a practical monopoly of the world supply, can export it by authorization of a board composed of the Secretaries of Commerce, War and Navy. The Board's recommendations are subject to approval by the President. Since the enactment of the export law (1925) the only refusal of an application was given last October to The Helium Co. of Louisville, Ky. The company had requested a blanket permit to export 12,000,000 cu. ft. within a year. Because the application was not (could not be) accompanied by details of destination, purpose, etc., it was denied.

Many an observer asked: If helium could be had upon legitimate request, why did not Germany and Great Britain use it in their airships? Most plausible answers: i) National pride. 2) High cost of long-distance shipment. 3) Disagreement over superiority of helium or hydrogen, the latter, though inflammable, having 15% greater lifting power. 4) Reluctance to design a dirigible for helium since the supply might be cut off in time of war.

Super-Super-Whale

A mammoth boat hull surmounted by a great stretching wing pushed through the haze over Amsterdam one afternoon last week and settled its 30 tons with astounding gentleness upon the Zuider Zee. Crowds of Dutchmen stared in stupefied silence at the massiveness of this, Germany's famed Dornier DO-X* flying boat, ending the first easy stage of a leisurely flight to the U. S. Swinging at anchor the DO-X loomed largest in the circling flock of three-deck excursion steamers with its own triple-deck cabin, its 133 ft. of length, its 157 ft. spread of wing. A blundering police boat rammed it, only stove a hole in a small pontoon supporting the stubby sponson--a projection like an atrophied lower wing. After a four-day visit the DO-X flew the second leg to Calshot Airdrome near Southampton.

After more than a year of tests since its sensational trial flight with 169 passengers (TIME, Nov. 4, 1929) the DO-X had left its base at Altenrhein, Switzerland, with only its crew of 14, commanded by salt-bitten Capt. Friedrich Christiansen. In the crew are three Americans: Lieut. Clarence H. ("Dutch") Schild-hauer, ex-U.S.N., copilot; and two Curtiss-Wright Corp. engineers to supervise the ship's battery of twelve Curtiss Conqueror engines. Distinguished guests may be carried to Bordeaux, La Coruna (Spain) and Lisbon. Thence the great winged hulk is to fly via the Azores to a fuel supply boat in midocean, to Bermuda, to New York.

Although transatlantic flying time should be about 35 hr., the DO-X is not expected on U. S. shores until December. Long waits may be made between hops for fair weather.

Hymn

God of the sky and sea

We offer thanks to Thee,

For all Thy care.

Pitying the sparrows' fall,

Keep safe our birdmen all,

Father, on Thee we call,

God of the air.

So goes the last stanza of a "Hymn For Airmen," sung for the first time last week in Protestant Episcopal churches; written by one Roxane Seabury Wright, formerly of Chicago, now of California; dedicated to the late presiding Bishop Charles Palmerston Anderson, whose flying son Lieut. Charles Patrick Anderson was killed in the War.

*As they did six months ago, aviation insurance underwriters still insist that more than 90% of all aircraft accidents are traceable to errors of flying crew or ground personnel; that possibly one accident in 150 is due to structural failure.

*Pronounced by Germans "dough-icks," not "dee-oh-ex."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.