FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0081.PDF
Flight, January 25, 1913. First Aero Weekly in the World. Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 213. (No. 4, Vol. V.)] JANUARY 25, 1913. CRegistered at the G.P.O.T as a Newspaper. J [Weekly, Price 3d. L Poet Proe, Sjd. *L Editorial Office: 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone : Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... is*, ad. Abroad iar. ad. CONTENTS: Editorial Comment: The Coming Budget and Aerial Defence Sun Soarability Men of Moment in the World of Flight : A. V. Roc "World's Records Stability and Control. By A. E. Berriman Brighton and Shoreham Aero Club Aviation in War Royal Aero Club. Official Notices From the British Flying Grounds Eddies. By " Oiseau Bleu " Flying at Hendon Hydro-Aeroplanes. By V. E. Johnson, M.A. ... Airship News Accessories for the Aviator Aeronautical Engines British Notes of the Week Foreign Aviation News Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A. Correspondence Si 83 83 84 86 88 89 90 91 95 97 98 99 100 101 102 Z02 104 106 j£B2T©lR3AIL COMMEHT. The Coming Budget and Aerial Defence. With the first month of the year drawing rapidly to an end, the time approaches when His Majesty's Ministers must appear before Parliament and the country with a state ment of their financial programme for the ensuing year. According to certain responsible forecasts which have appeared in the public prints, it seems certain that the sum which the country is to be asked to provide will exceed by a substantial margin all the records of previous Budgets—a round ^200,000,000 has been named as the exact figure, this being no less than eleven millions sterling in advance of the sum budgetted for 1912-13. It is an enormous sum and may well cause thinking people to ask where all this growth of national expenditure is to end. That question, however, is one with which we in the Editorial capacity have nothing to do, at least at the moment. On the contrary, our only anxiety is to know that sufficient money is to be provided for that service with which we are most intimately concerned and which we honestly feel is vital to the safety of the nation. By this we mean, it goes without saying, the important question of aerial armaments and the amount which the Government proposes to devote to strengthening that line of defence during the coming year. It has been stated with some show of authority that it is proposed to devote a sum of j£i,000,000 during the financial year 1913-14 to the aerial services of the country, and we are inclined to accept the statement as being at least very close to the mark. It has been made manifest during the past few months that the Government and its advisers have come to regard aviation as having passed its experimental stage and entered upon a really practical existence as a serious factor in the scheme of defence. The experience of the Army manoeuvres and of the Military Trials must certainly have driven home the conviction that in aviation and a properly equipped and organised air fleet may lie all the issues between ignominious defeat and certain victory in the wars of the future. Taking all things into account, it therefore seems inevitable that the Government must spend far more than the merely experimental appropriation of the closing year, if we are to maintain our status as a first-class fighting power. Further to this, having regard to what we know to be taking place on the Continent and the progressively larger appropriations for aerial purposes which are a feature of the European war budgets—which we have recorded from time to time in the pages of FLIGHT—it would seem that the sum noted is absolutely the very minimum upon which even reasonable security can be achieved. We would rather it were more, much more, for it must not be lost to sight that we are not yet as favourably situated as some of our rivals in the matter of possessing a ready-made industry. That, as we have so often insisted, is one of the weak points of the situation on this side of the Channel and, if we are to keep pace with others, we must create and foster that industry in order that our sources of supply may remain assured in time of need. Exactly what proportion of the million that is said to be about to be provided for aviation this year will be earmarked for purposes other than the purchase of machines, we have of course no means of knowing. But, it is apparent that a great deal of the spade work has already been accomplished, which should enable very efficient use now to be made of any sums that become available. It must be remembered, of course, that an aeroplane does not fly by itself and also that it is necessary B 2
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
