China held the second meeting of the 1920-21 session on Tuesday evening at the Royal Asiatic Society's Rooms, when Dr. Chatley delivered a paper entitled "Commercial Aeronautics in China."
Dr. Chatley, who is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, and was engaged in aeronautical research before the war, opened his paper to the Engineering Society by roferring to the fact that the part to be played by aircraft in China in the future had already been envisaged in connexion with the Shanghai Harbour Investigation with which he is now associated.
His own interest in the subject dated back to the year 1900 and the imminence of local developments had suggested the suitability of a paper. It was not proposed to deal with dirigible balloons owing to the technical difficulties of handling those craft in China.
Tue Question or Cosr.
The main principles of aeroplane practice from an, economic point of view were than considered and it was-shown that for fuel alone even under good conditions the expense would amount to $0.25 per freight ton-mile. Phe overhead expenses (not including ground costs) were then showh to bring the total to upwards of $2.00 per ton-mile. The ground costs were next considered and it was shown that a total figure of $3.50 per ton-mile was quite probable. Home prices from 5/- to 14/6 per ton-mile were mentioned for comparison. Thus 700 lb of carey Old "te. cartied daily 540 miles at about $1 per Ib. or four passengers could be taken the same distance at $150 per trip.
The weather conditions and the topographical difficulties were then considered and finally certain conclusions were indicated.
(1) A purely mail service would necessitate heavy ffranking of mails.
(2) A passenger service might not be financially sound.
(3) A cargo service can only be-operated when carrying valuable goods. a (4) Aerial service can only be a success when plying between two highly developed centres.
(5) Aeroplanes already begin to compare with automobiles for long distance transport.
He concluded by a consideration of the various possibilities for improvement of the economic condi tions and mentioned his indebtedness to Col. F. V. Holt of Peking for kind criticisms of his paper.
Several visitors interested in aeronautics were present, and an interesting discussion followed the reading of the paper.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.