CHAPTER VI SAFETY IN FLIGHT; LACKING AIR LAW GYPSY CASUALTIES I INCREASE; FIXED BASE OPERATORS DEMONSTRATE DEPENDABILITY IN THE British section of the chapter on World Aeronautics (No. IX), the opinion is expressed by the manager of the Manchester-London-Amsterdam service that fear is the worst obstacle before aviation today. If this is true, explanation of the hesitant attitude shown by the public and capital toward aircraft as common carriers is to be found primarily in the increasing number of accidents among itinerant and irresponsible pilots, and secondarily in the manner in which the press features all accounts of disaster. Until we have Federal Air Law, which will encourage conservative flying and discourage recklessness, and until the newspapers discern that real news is constructive instead of destructive, public and capital will justifiably regard aviation as an experiment. There is only one corrective for fear and that is demonstration of dependability. In this respect, commercial aviation in the United States during 1922 presented a curious paradox. One hundred and twenty-nine established operators, having definite financial responsibility, flew approximately 600 to 650 aircraft about 2,846,037 miles in the year October 11, 1921-October 11, 1922, with twelve serious accidents as compared with twenty-four serious accidents in 1921. Six fatalities in 1921 were increased to seven in 1922, but twenty-one injuries in 1921 decreased to but seven in 1922. And in 1922, as in 1921, the circumstances attendant upon each fatality were such as to convince the analyst that most of them could have been easily prevented had Federal Air Law been in effect. In startling contrast is the record of the gypsies. Replacing crashed equipment from the obsolete surplus stores remaining from war production and available at prices so cheap as to tempt youths whose capital was limited to but a few hundred dollars, the number of gypsy planes and mileage flown remained about the same in 1922 as in 1921-550 to 600 craft wandering from town to town for 3,000,000 or less miles. In 1921, according to press accounts, there were 114 accidents involving itinerants; in 1922 there were 126, an increase of twelve. These accidents, in 1921, resulted in 49 fatalities Aerial smoke screen blinding dreadnought. An example of how the Navy is developing its third arm.-Official Photo, U. S. Navy. and 89 injuries; in 1922 they resulted in 62 fatalities and 100 injuries, an increase of thirteen deaths (or over 26 per cent) and eleven injuries (or over 12 per cent). SIX REQUISITES FOR SAFE FLYING In the report which the Aeronautical Chamber of Commerce made to the Department of Commerce in 1922 were set forth six requisites for safe flying, as follows: 1. A machine, sound aerodynamically and structurally. 2. An engine of sufficient power and which operates satisfactorily. 3. A competent, conservative pilot and navigator. 4. Air ports and emergency landing fields, sufficiently close together to insure gliding to safety. 5. Nation-wide weather forecasts specialized and adapted to the need of fliers. 6. Nation-wide chart of air routes. It is reasonable to assume that craft and engine will be kept airworthy according to the degree of responsibility, financial or legal, felt by the operator. Likewise the competency of the pilot depends upon either financial liability (for property damage or the loss of his equipment) or legal restraint (imposing disqualification for infraction of regulations). Lacking the latter, the fixed-base operator must not only conduct his own business so as to demonstrate safety, but he also bears the burden of overcoming, as best he may, the cumulative prejudice which the gypsy inspires. Of the twelve serious accidents occurring in 2,846,037 miles of flying by 129 responsible operators, resulting in seven fatalities and seven injuries, six accidents, entailing five fatalities and three injuries, can be attributed with certainty to causes rather beyond the immediate control of the operator but which would have been removed had some central Federal authority, with power to license fields, craft or pilots, been functioning. It is believed no more than fair, therefore, to reduce the casualty record of fixed-base flying to six accidents, involving death to two people and injury to four, or the following ratio: One accident to every 14,989 flights made or 474,340 miles flown. Examination of Table No. II discloses some interesting facts. Three of the five fatalities attributed to causes beyond the operators' control occurred at a public field along one side of which were high-tension wires. The field should never have been established there. A pilot took off with three passengers, struck the wires, and his plane crashed in flames. The pilot undoubtedly erred, |