INTRODUCTION

The Editors of the Aircraft Year Book are deeply indebted to the officers and personnel of the Information Divisions of the U. S. Air Service, Navy Bureau of Aeronautics and Air Mail, without whose assistance compilation of this volume would have been extremely difficult. Data and suggestions provided by these services, together with material from the Automotive Division, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, and the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, combine to make the Aircraft Year Book for 1923 the most comprehensive and authoritative publication yet issued concerning aeronautics. In preparing the review of activities in foreign countries, invaluable help was provided by the American Air, Military, Naval and Commercial Attachés abroad, and the Foreign Air Attachés accredited to the United States Government. The Chapter on Technical Developments in Aircraft Construction in 1922 was contributed in its entirety by Dr. George W. Lewis, Executive Officer, National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, and the Chapter on Motorless Flight by M. W. Royse, who witnessed the soaring flight contests in France, Germany and England and reported them for the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce.

AERONAUTICAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE OF AMERICA, INC. New York City, May 10, 1923.

CHAPTER I

AVIATION THE PIVOT OF WORLD POLICY-ECONOMIC
AND MILITARY

VIATION in 1922 became the pivot of world policy-eco

A

nomic and military. Universally recognized at the close of the Great War as the key to future conflicts on land and sea, it was also conceived as offering distinctively constructive services in peace. The result has been that, in one form or another, the art has been involved in governmental problems among the major nations and its military or commercial utility accentuated according to the underlying motive.

There has been an impression that progress in aviation in America has been less than that abroad, and foreign press reports go far toward confirming this opinion. Nevertheless, analysis of the aeronautical survey embracing nearly three-score nations, as presented in this volume, establishes the conviction that the American public, by regarding aviation in its true character-that of a beneficent servant of mankind-proposes that our aircraft industry be placed upon a substantial basis, thus assuring the future of flying as an indispensable factor in our economic growth and in the security of the republic.

AVIATION-SERVANT OR MASTER?

The difference between aviation in the United States and in certain of the countries of Europe is this: Beginning with the primary conception of aircraft and their immediate necessity as engines of destruction, the governments of France, Great Britain, Italy, Russia and Germany, among others, have devoted their main energies toward the creation of military aeronautical establishments, out of which have grown commercial activities of impressive scope but essentially insecure nature due to their artificial stimulation by means of subsidies.

The United States, while recognizing the aerial arm as essential, has, since the Armistice, reverted to its traditional non-military outlook upon world affairs and has turned its attention to domestic problems, among which is that of co-ordinating and developing all forms of transportation. Thus American aviation, though it has been deprived to a large extent of the nourishment of military

appropriations, and though it has lacked the fundamental assistance. conferred by a Federal Air Law, finds itself today favorably regarded by the general public as an art desirable because it is useful and by the transportation leaders because it offers hope of relieving them of unprofitable excess-speed traffic.

WHY EUROPE HAS MADE PROGRESS

The effect of these sharply contrasting conceptions has been manifested as follows:

Germany, while theoretically disarmed and deprived of the privilege of extensive aeronautical manufacture or operation, has actually stimulated engineering and design and has temporarily transferred to other soil-notably Russian, Swiss and Italian-fabrication or assembly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles.

France, fearful even in the moment of victory that the enemy had not been destroyed, interprets German ingenuity as a threat of retaliation and accordingly has made the Air Force the nucleus. of its entire scheme for national defense, providing the equivalent. of 7,500 aircraft. American observers, both military and civil, unite in declaring France to be "Master of the Air," and the dozen or more commercial lines radiating from Paris, each the recipient of generous State grants, to be in effect operating reserves instantly available for service.

England, loyal to France as an Ally, yet commercially desirous of seeing Germany restored as a producing and trading nation, has been unwilling to develop its Air Force at the cost of economic improvements and has made attempts to approximate the establishment of aviation upon a commercial basis, conscious, nevertheless, that subsidies given operators must, in turn, benefit the aircraft. industry, which has been consistently recognized by the various Secretaries of State for Air, as essential to Imperial defense.

Italy, registering economic recovery, but greatly disturbed at the rising tide of Ottoman power following the Greek disaster in Asia Minor, set about a definite positive aviation policy under the new premier, Mussolini, the substance of which is the control of the air routes over the Mediterranean and Adriatic.

Russia, whose liaison in matters aeronautical with Germany has caused much speculation, late in the year announced its entrance into the air. "We will build up a strong air force," Minister of War Trotzky is quoted as saying, "and conquer the air as we have conquered the ground we are standing on."

The policies followed by these nations and emulated by others less active are, in varying degree, the following:

I. Continuation of the aircraft industry created during the war.

2. Adoption of the principle of non-competition between the Government and industry.

3. Appropriation of liberal sums for aircraft and engine construction. 4. Granting of subsidies to commercial operators of "approved" aircraft upon "approved" routes.

5. Enactment of national air law, providing among other things for the registration of pilots, certification of machines, establishment of terminals and designation of routes.

6. Encouragement of aircraft exports by means of aviation missions. 7. Establishment of air mail lines.

In Chapter IX of this volume will be found a detailed narrative of each country's aeronautical activities. In all of the major nations, largely due to the first three steps enumerated, the aircraft industry is thriving and commercial operation flourishing, as is seen by the following:

AIR LINES OF THE WORLD (EXCLUSIVE OF THE UNITED STATES)