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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0460.PDF
[/JJGHT MAY 25, 1912. EDITORIAL COMMENT. The After months of delay the War Office has at last issued its regulations which are to Trials.CC govern the military tests of aeroplanes for the use of the Army. Certainly the delay seems to us to require some sort of explanation, for, seeing that the competing machines have to be entered by June 15th and delivered on Salisbury Plain by the July 15th, it has not left manufacturers over much time to introduce and try out desirable modifications which might be suggested by the regulations. It would surely have been easy to have announced the definite conditions three months ago, seeing that they were more or less in draft even earlier than that. However, the case is as it is and the makers who intend to compete will simply have to make the best of it. So far as the conditions themselves are concerned, there does not seem to be any essential alteration of the text of the preliminary requirements notified when the competition was first announced. Such alterations as there are appear to react in the direction of making the test conditions slightly more elastic than seemed probable and this is certainly to the good. Nothing of an impossible nature is demanded, while at the same time it will need a good machine and a good man flying it to come through with satisfaction to everybody concerned. In point of fact, the most serious criticism that can be levelled at the authorities is, as we originally pointed out, in regard to the amount of the prize-money offered, particularly so far as the all-British machine is concerned. In comparison with the amounts given by the French Government for the military trials of last year the prizes seem absolutely beggarly and parsi monious when we consider the vital issues involved. Then, too, we still miss altogether any mention of British engines, which is a great pity. With the know ledge at the designer's disposal nowadays it is almost true to say that anyone can construct a practicable aeroplane, but the successful aero-motor is quite another matter and it is in this direction more even than in that of the complete machine that encouragement to emulation is needed. There is just one other point upon which we could have wished the conditions to be more explicit and that is on the question of the dates of the competition proper. It would certainly have been better had some fixed date been announced for the commencement of the competition, in order that intending competitors might have had some sort of definite knowledge of what constitutes the "reasonable period" over which the preliminary tests are to extend. It is well to draw such regulations as those we are discussing in as elastic a manner as possible, but there is a limit beyond which elasticity may easily become a source of dispute. •»• f * His Majesty King George V is a much and li" privileged monarch, for during the past Aeroplane two or triree weeks he has seen wonders . Corps. that no sovereign, living or dead, has ever witnessed in the world's history. He has been at sea in command of one of the most powerful squadrons of ships of war ever gathered together for tactical exercises under a single flag, and in the course of that cruise he has seen his naval flyers performing marvels of flight, under all sorts of conditions of weather. He has been brought into personal touch with the realities of flight and has had demonstrated in the most remarkable manner the salient fact that the conquest of the air has made most radical changes in the conditions under which the wars of the future will be fought. So far as land operations are concerned, this was realised to be true long enough ago, but we do not think the same can be said of the conditions of naval war. As a matter of fact, it is only quite recently that even experts regarded at all seriously the possibilities of the aeroplane being of any great use to the naval commander of the future, but much has been done lately to develop the type most suitable for naval use. The " silent service " may work quietly but it works well, and His Majesty must have been deeply impressed by what the Naval Wing of his new Royal Flying Corps, handicapped as they have been in the past, were able to show him. Following hard on the Fleet operation came the King's visit to the headquarters of the Army in the South, where he again witnessed several fine flights by officers of the Military Wing, which must again have left a deep impression upon his mind. It is, we think, a matter for great congratulation that King George has shown himself to be so deeply interested in the progress of the new arm. It cannot but have its due effect upon his military advisers and their policy, and that that effect will be an excellent one we have no doubt at all. The 460 We have not the slightest desire to pose as T* / ?? *L the champions of the Royal Aircraft Royal Aircraft ^ , *\ . , , ' ,. . lt Factory. ractory, but we cannot help noticing that in several quarters there seems to be a dead set made at the Factory and those responsible for its conduct. Time after time we see it stated that the Factory is laying itself out, or intends to do so, to compete with the private constructor in the building of aeroplanes for the Army and Navy. Capital has been made out of the fact that three machines built in the Factory were shown to the King on the occasion of his recent visit to Aldershot, and these are taken as the text of a sermon on the iniquity of the directorate. Well, we are quite easy in our minds about it all. The most definite assurances have been given from the highest quarters that the Factory is not to be worked in competition with the private constructing firms, and its scope and limitations have been very emphatically defined. Our view of the matter is that the pronouncements of those who are responsible for national policy are entitled to at least some respect and, for our part, we accept them without reserve. If, however, it should turn out that the state ments of those in authority have merely been made for the purpose of throwing dust in the eyes of the public— which we utterly decline to believe on the evidence which has been served up as proof of official prevarication—all we can say is that those who made them will be blackened with the deserved infamy of the convicted perjurer. That is plain speaking, we know, but the statements referred to have been too definite to admit of any other construction being placed upon a breach of them. There are many men, altogether outside the influence of " Votes," who, in the almost impossible event of the responsible authorities wishing to throw to the winds all sense of honour by backing on their own solemn under takings, would feel it incumbent in them to fight for the newly born British industry and justify the statements which they have themselves put forward in all honesty.
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