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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0788.PDF
DECEMBER II, 1909. FRENCH TEARS AND A ITU THE newspaper reader of this country is not unaccus- tomed to the cry of "Wake up England !" in one .connection or another, but we are none the less glad that the warning note should have been repeated so solemnly on Wednesday last by Lord Roberts at the Royal United Service Institution. Progress in regard to the navigation of the air in Germany and France has again and again been instanced to throw into greater prominence our own backwardness ; but, as though to show how supremely urgent the question has become, we find that even France during this past week is becoming distinctly nervous at the steady advance in official military circles in Germany. If, therefore, the French feel that they have occasion for alarm, considering the en - couragement that has been given by their Govern- ment, how much more important is it that the British Government should consider the position of this country, and should do .its utmost to rise from the inferiority in which various circumstances have placed and held it. We ourselves, as the mouthpiece of British aviation, would always be the last to scare our readers unnecessarily, just as we should ever be the first to give credit to the British Government for such action as it has taken in the matter. In this connection it may be well at the outset to recall that there is at this moment in course of constructron at the Barrow works of Messrs. Vickers, Son, and Maxim, one magnificent airship of the rigid type, in addition to the non-rigid Lcbaudy and Clement ships that are likely to be acquired from France as a result of the Morning Post negotiations with the War Office ; and that this mammoth vessel, with its pair of 8-cyl. 200-h.p. Wolseley motors, stands no small chance, in the hands that it is in, of proving the most efficient aerial craft afloat. While British officialdom is doing what it is—totally inadequate though it may be—we cannot justly bring a charge of utter apathy against them as far as dirigible balloon work goes, even though we are fully justified in asking if the possession of only these two or three vessels is calculated to withstand Germany's present fleet. That fleet consists, by the way, of six Zeppelins, three Gross, and three Parsevals, which, if not individually superior, must together possess an enormous superiority over anything that this country can muster for some time. But say what we may on behalf of the Government, there is unfortunately no indication at all as yet that the claims of the aeroplane in its military application have been adequately considered, or that the authorities have taken any steps at all to commence the systematic training.of any considerable body of men in readiness for the inevitable developments of the near future. Turning for the moment to France, we find that both sides of the question of military aeronautics are being given the most serious attention, and that the ultimate supersession of the dirigible by the aeroplane is taken for granted by all authorities, the latest move on the part of the Government being the purchase of four biplanes and two monoplanes of the leading types for the use of officers who are desirous of becoming practical aviators. Encouragement is thus to be given in every direction to induce officers to devote themselves to aviation as well as dirigible ballooning, and quite recently the Military Governor of Paris has issued a circular asking officers who are willing to take up this branch of work to send in their names to him. Information to this effect, together with a further announcement that the Govern- ment would shortly submit a complete programme for material and construction to the Senate, was given by the Minister of War only a few days ago to a deputa- tion of the Committees of the Senate and Chambers which waited upon him to express "the anxiety of members of their group at the progress made in other countries, especially Germany, while aerial navi- gation seemed to be stationary in France." The attention which this matter is receiving in France has been largely brought to a definite focus by a most able report drawn up by M. Clementel, in connection with the French War Budget, and in which he not only says, " Our aerial fleet, after having been the finest in the world, is now reduced to a single dirigible, already old and useless," but urges that " France must, at all costs, organise an aerial fleet equal to those of her neighbours." Thus it will be seen that France, with all her ex- perience and enterprise, does not consider herself to be much better off in the matter of an aerial navy than Britain, which has scarcely done more than make the most tentative of experiments with any type of flyers. To remedy this position into which she has fallen, however, France has gone very thoroughly into the whole question, in a manner which ought to receive the closest attention of the British authorities and of all wide-awake British subjects ; and M. CldmentePs report is a model of condse and comprehensive examination. In spite of the gigantic strides made by heavier-than-air apparatus, the steerable " gas-bag" is given by him twenty years of useful life, and M. Clementel states that a vote of .£20,000 is necessary in aid of military airships. On the other hand, it is interesting in this same connection to note that General Brun, the War Minister, only gives the dirigible four years in which to become obsolete, and he is consequently undisturbed by Germany's superiority in this particular respect. He, however, is even more impressed than M. Clementel by the impending military utility of the aeroplane, and the necessity for energetic operations immediately to be instituted on an important scale. When speaking of aeroplanes for military application, M. Clementel claims that automatic stability by gyro- scopic means has already been solved by the French War Office at their Chalais-Meudon establishment, and he further makes a great point that it is the imperative duty of the War Department to organise another large estab- lishment, since he draws such a hard and fast distinction between military aeroplane construction and that which is required for civilian sport that he urges official manu- facture as well as official encouragement of outside builders of aeroplanes. But interesting as this report unquestionably is, it is the moral of French activity with which we are con- cerned. Apart from the purchase of half-a-dozan aero- planes, and the subsequent provision for building special war machines, M. elemental also insists upon the necessity for educating military aviators, and for giving them increased pay and other advantages in proportion to the risks they must run. This is yet another step in which Britain ought to emulate her neighbour at once, and it seems to us that we have—particularly with the assistance of Mr. Haldane's recently-introduced Terri- torial scheme—a unique opportunity which ought not to be allowed to slip. 790
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