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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0784.PDF
(flio^l one's own language, it is impossible not to admire the singular appositeness of the Frenchman's choice of technical terms. Who, for instance, would not envy a language so adaptable as that which with accommodating grace turns atterrissage into amerrissage when the aero plane alights on the sea ? There is, perhaps, something to be said for the inter national convenience of foreign terminology in technical literature, but in speech the phonetic values of foreign expressions are mostly different in English pronunciation, and so they tend to lose a common international meaning. It is debatable whether foreign words should be Anglicised or pronounced with the accent of the country of their origin ; but here again custom settles the matter without argument, and it generally goes hard with the original French. The subject is, as we have said, one that tends to inspire discussion, but, as far as we have been able to judge, wr must confess that discussion has very little effect. Between experts, it is a matter of convenience to abbreviate long explanatory phrases into a single technical word, but when it comes to telling someone else about it, it is necessary to resort again to the explanatory phrase. " Alpha" is as good a name as any other for the a. particle. It suffices its technical purpose provided there has not previously been another a particle of a different kind with which the present a. particle can be confused. If in the progress of science someone should discover that the a. particle ought to have been called x, the lay mind is equally under the necessity of first obtaining an explanation couched in the words of the modern dictionary before it is in a position to understand the meaning of cither. And the moral of that is, as the Mad Hatter would say, that the complete art of writing or speaking includes the intelligent choice of the vocabulary best suited to the particular purpose to be served at the moment. We were able last week to make the bare The New announcement that the War Office has Deportment, decided upon the constitution of a separate department to deal with all matters relating to military aviation, with Brig.-Gen. Henderson at its head, with the title of Director-General. This is excellent news, in that it supplies an indication that the War Office authorities are alive to the fact that the aerial branch of JULY 26, 1913. the Service is one of immediate and growing importance, even though it may still be open to doubt if the full realisation of its bearing on national defence has yet been reached. . Of the scope of the new department nothing has trans pired, and necessarily much depends upon this. If the department is to be invested with individual responsibility for the efficiency of British military aviation to the extent that with it is to rest the determination of the annual programme which is necessary to meet the needs of the situation as it is modified from time to time, and is to be allowed practically unfettered discretion in the spending of the money allocated to the air ser vice, then we can foresee that the Air Department is going to be an excellent and most useful institution. If, however, it is to act in a merely advisory capacity, with no executive powers save in the matter of com mand and co-operation with other branches of the service—to be on all fours with, for example, the Army Service Corps—then we do not see that it will have much bearing on the wider issues. Rather the reverse, as it should act as a further buffer toward off awkward questions. As the Secretary of State has not seen fit to enlighten Parliament and the country as to this most important aspect of the question, we are afraid we cannot at present become enthusiastic about it, however good the intention. There is a Spanish proverb to the effect that Hades is paved with good intentions, but what we want is aeroplanes, airships, and the men to fly them. A couple of hundred more aeroplanes, a fleet of a dozen Zeppelins, and pilots to navigate them, would be worth all the ornamental departments that were ever devised. However, we must suspend our final judgment until we know more about it. Of one thing we are assured. That no better selection could have been made than that of Gen. Henderson as the head of the military air service. That he will do all that is possible with the money and materiel at his dis posal we are absolutely certain, but what we fear is that his hands will be tied in many directions and particularly by the Treasury, which, for reasons best known to itself, appears to be extremely loath to provide money for aviation. If we could be assured that Gen. Henderson's advice was to be taken, and the military aviation grants placed under the direct control of himself and his staff, we could find it in our hearts to give the new scheme an unqualified welcome, but . Well, as it is, we can only " wait and see." THE SIKORSKY AEROPLANE^ATTn^T^^^^ iwr^AiNH. An all Russian machine, both design a„H ZT~ gI0 * aesl8n and construction.
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