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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0054.PDF
1/OCHT) enemy's moves and guessing them. That being the case, prudence prescribes that the two Departments that have to do with the operations of war should diligently study the progress of aeronautics and all its applications to the ot>erations of war by sea and land. The knowledge thus obtained should be incessantly applied to the provision of such kinds of airships and aeroplanes as have been proved to be capable of service, as well as of officers and crews for their management. Moreover, the strategists of both Services, as well as the Admirals commanding squadrons and the Generals commanding divisions, should have under their orders a sufficient number of aircraft to insure their becoming familiar with the uses to which they can be put, and with the kind of iostruetions with which their aerial scouts ought to be furnished in the successive stages of a campaign. So far as we are aware, these various needs are well understood at both offices, and do not require to be suggested. What we have in view is an annual report for each Service, showing what progress has been made, and what ftuther measures are contemplated. Such reports have a double use ; their preparation causes the Departments concerned to take stock of their work and of their plans, and their publication, if and when they show real progress, reassures the public, which is rendered uneasy by vague or ambiguous language in regard to the condition of the two Services, and still more uneasy by reports of which the form or substance fails to carry conviction." We are entirely with our contemporary, not only in the matter of providing adequately for aircraft and their personnel, but in the issue of the annual report suggested in the quotation we have made. One of our troubles is ® ® Orvllle Wright on the Future. SPEAKING at the banquet by the Aero Club of America in New York on December 17th, the tenth anniversary of the first flight by the Wrights on a power-driven machine, Orville Wright said that in the near future aeroplanes would be used to carry mails in many of the States such as Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, &c, JANUARY 17, 1914. that there is far too much of mystery made in matters which it would do no conceivable harm to make public, but, on the contrary, would work towards a good end were the nation only taken into the confidence of the Government, as indeed it has a right to be. We are not referring now to matters which are of a nature which would prove of use to a possible enemy, but those of broad policy, and which involve certain details which ultimately become known to everyone through outside channels, and which, if communicated by responsible departments, would have a reassuring effect on the public mind. Take, for example, the unedifying spectacle that was witnessed not so long ago of a War Minister trying to juggle with facts across the floor of the House in the face of knowledge possessed by those to whom he was giving the lie by implication. Had such a report as that suggested by the Morning Post been issued prior to the submission of the Estimates to Parliament, there would have been no need for cross- examination on detail, since the broad lines of the Government policy would have been in possession of the nation, and all that would have been needful would have been a definite assurance that those lines were being followed. ® ® where they could do better work than the railroads. He thought that the development of the heavier-than-air machine during the next decade would be beyond the most sanguine expectations. He went on to say that he thought the flying boat had a great future for sport, as it produced the thrills of the motor boat on the water, offered all the facilities of the motor car, and was speedier than either. PASSING A PYLON AT HENDON AERODROME.-From an or*, J Tawing by Mr.^Tric Hill. 54
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