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Aviation History
1911
1911 - 1119.PDF
DECEMBER 3°I 1911. fuGm be too much dependent upon weather conditions to make it a serious rival to other forms of locomotion. The When we wrote our review of 1910, we Government recor°^e<^ that tnat vear nad seen Great Attitude. Britain still lagging behind the nations in the race for the supremacy of the air. This year it is necessary to go even further, and to say that, bad as our position was twelve months ago, it is infinitely worse now. Vacillation and procrastination have been the official watchwords during 1911. While France and Germany have been devoting money and brain to the perfecting of their aerial resources, we have supinely followed a waiting policy, unexampled in the history of nations and the development of aerial science for its penuriousness. What is to be thought of the state of mind which prompts the admission that we are hopelessly behind, that now is the accepted time when we really must adopt a forward policy and make a bid for the supremacy of the air, and which, in the same breath, enunciates the doctrine that it can all be done for nothing ? For that is what the policy of the present Government amounts to when boiled down to its elements. Not only in its broader aspects has the attitude of the official mind towards aviation been unsatisfactory in the extreme, but in the minor details the same parsimony and cheese-paring tendency has been manifested. However, these are all matters upon which we have commented exhaustively from time tc* time as occasion seemed to warrant. There are signs that there is likely to be a tardy awakening, though in the light of experience we are not inclined to be too sanguine, but we can at least hope for better things in 1912. ® ® ® ® We do not hear a great deal of the work The Aeroplane accompllshed by the Italian airmen in the Active Service. Tripolitan campaign, but what little news does filter through is convincing enough of the extreme utility of the aeroplane for reconnaissance work. The correspondent of the Daily Express sent home an interesting despatch the other day, describing the valuable work done by the aeroplanes attached to General Caneva's army. One conclusion is that as a bomb-dropping device the aeroplane in the hands of those employed was not successful. What it may be able to accomplish in this direction in the future of its development is another matter, but as we know it to-day and can conceive it to-morrow, we are not surprised that the actualities of warfare have taught this lesson. Of the value of the aeroplane as a gatherer of information, the correspondent speaks in the highest terms of praise. In fact, he goes so far as to say that many of the Italian operations could not have been successfully conducted had it not been for the important scouting work done by he airmen. Verb. sap. Reading from left to A proup of Bristol pilots, pupils, and assistants at the Bristol schools on Salisbury Plain. Read richt (front row): Mr. O. L. Mellersh, Mr. E. Harrison, Mechanic, Mr. S. P. Cockerell, Mr. Fitzmaurice (British Embassy, Constantinople, visitor), Mechanic; top row (left to riRht): Naval Cadet N. F. Wheeler, Mr. W. E Gibson, Mr H M lullerot (Chief Instructor), behind him Lieut. Wyness Stuart, Mrs. Stuart, Mr. R. Smith Barry» ' Lieut R. T. Watts, Lieut. C L. N. Newall 1127
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