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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0201.PDF
Flight, February 22, 19x3. First Aero Weekly in the World. Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interest*, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 217. (No. 8, Vol. V.)] FEBRUARY 22, 1913. fRegistered at the G.P.O.T rWaakly, Prioa 8d. L »s » Newspaper. J I Poat Tr*a, 8|d. FligHt. Editorial Office: 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur,.Westrand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1828 Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... 15J. od. Abroad tat. oil. CONTENTS: Editorial Comment' The "Peril of the Air" Some Plain Speaking Army Requirements in Aerooplane Engines Men of Moment in the World of Flight : Mr. G. de Havilland The Olympia Show : First Impressions The Aeroplanes at Olympia The Engines at Olympia Royal Aero Club. Official Notices From the British Flying Grounds British News of the Week Foreign Aviation News Stability Devices, By Mervyn O'Gorman Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A. Correspondence ;-oS ao8 •07 at3 Bgfi •39 »33 336 •37 •38 141 RBSTORSAIL COMMEHT. Our appeal of last week has not been " T^eth>enl barren' if we mav JU(^Se by the vigorous \it.? articles on the need for national supremacy in aeronautics that have appeared these last few days in the general Press. Moreover, an unforeseen ally has come forth in shining armour from the pages of the current issue of the Review of Reviews, which publishes a striking illustration of this country's singular slackness and makes very clear for the least discerning eye to see how far England is already under the shadow ot the evening wing. It is laid to the credit of the late Mr. W. T. Stead, a progressive born, that he raised five millions for the Navy when the senior service was far short of its present efficiency. Had he been alive to-day he would have rejoiced to fight for the good cause of an adequate British aerial fleet. The journal that he founded and so ably conducted is acting accordingly. We hope it will be with equally beneficial results, for indeed it is a situation that calls for the utmost effort not from one quarter only but from all. It is a fight that the Press must fight, because the issue is in the hands of the public and public opinion is moulded by the Press. It is useless, as we have often enough pointed out, for the interested technical element comprising the industry and its allies to badger the Government without public recognition and support. As a race we lack enthusiasm for new things and the type of daily journalism that fetches the most ready market is that having for its motif an ineffective abuse of the authorities whose position deprives them of the power of reply. It is no wonder if the public mind is filled with gall or that individual ministers should make no special effort to advance the cause of that for which only a small minority profess themselves in favour. It is the public who must demand the supremacy of Britain in the air and it is the public who must pay the cost. The Press at large is responsible for making the people of England realise their position. To merely demand that that should be done for which there is no money available is a futile thing. The army estimates under which comes the aeronautics vote leaves no surplus out of which to build up the new arm of defence on a scale adequate to the nation's needs. The Royal Flying Corps is not the Air Battalion, it is a Service in itself. Men from the Navy, men from the Army, and men direct from civil life enter the Central Flying School at Upavon, which is neither naval, military nor civil—but belongs to the Royal Flying Corps. Until a civilian has passed through the school he does not know whether he will be attached to the military or the naval wings of the R.F.C. and whether he is attached to the one or to the other he is neither a soldier nor a sailor but just an officer of the Royal Flying Corps—and it is honour enough. And the Royal Flying Corps of the British Nation is expected to establish itself and keep itself on a vote of ^300,000 or thereabouts, which was its allowance last year. The thing would be ludicrous if it were not so serious. At the opening of the Aero Show on Friday the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster gave expression to that most poisonous of all dogmas, which applauds idleness and apathy on the pretence that it is considered patience. May be, we do save our money by letting other people do this work, but it has been said by wiser men than ourselves that experience is a pearl of great price, and we have yet to hear of this, save of the kind that is both unexpected and undesired, being bought by idleness and apathy. We venture to suggest to Mr. Hobhouse and others of his opinion that the
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