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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0218.PDF
\jQffi Mr. Churchill when, as he (Col. Seely) anticipated, he would be obliged to come to the Committee for a. supplementary sum for the aif service for his department. Speaking a§ the Chairman of the Air Committee, which had both services under its purview, he thought it was almost certain that this country was ahead of all other nations in it* development of the seaplane. The other reasons for the Mpplementary vote were that it had been found necessary greatly to increase the number of spare parts, to increase the number of new aeroplanes, and to create an inspection department. The change of policy with regard to airships was in the direction of efficiency and safety. Other nations thought it desirable to keep the number of their airships secret. His Majesty's Government saw no advantage in «> doing, at any rate so far as the aeroplanes for the squadrons and for the Central Flying School were concerned. When he addressed the House on July 30th last they had 113 aeroplanes. Since that date they had struck off 52 of the older machines, and added IOO new aeroplanes, and therefore the present total was 161. He thought it was right to strike off such a large number—no other nation had done anything so drastic—in view of the great probability that risks to life and limb of the officers and men of the Royal Flying Corps would be minimised. Since July 30th the Military Wing of the Royal Flying Corps had flown well over 100,000 miles, taking part in military manoeuvres over very difficult country. Excluding Saturdays and Sundays, which were not flying days, though in fact, flying often took place on Saturdays, there had only been six days on which flying had not taken place, and he was glad to say that during the whole of that time there had not been a single fatal accident to an officer or man. He regretted that there had been an accident to an officer under tuition, and a very sad accident to a civilian engaged in experimental work two days ago. So far as he had been able to ascertain, there had not been a single case of breakage of any main part of a machine in the air. One of the reasons for that was that a factor of safety had been insisted upon which was far higher than was the case in any other country. That was justified, not because they were more fearful of risks, but because they thought they ought not to take risks if no useful purpose was served, and also because this was a more difficult country to fly in than any of the Continental countries owing to the stronger winds and broken nature of the country. The absence of accident was due also in a large measure to the pilots, whose skill and daring had been acknowledged by all who bad investigated the work of the aeronautical branch. The creation of the inspection department was part of the scheme for securing safety by testing every part of the aeroplane during manu facture. He was glad to say that with this Supplementary Vote, and with the provision which would lie made in the Army Estimates, the Government would be able to complete the whole of the eight squadrons in men and machines by the end of the coming year. That meant that the country would require 250 aeroplanes—50 for the Central Flying School and 200 for the Military Wing. They had come to the conclusion that if the countryrequired ten aeroplanes ready at any given moment they must have 20 in their possession. Therefore. 200 were required in order to have 100 ready at any given moment. The great majoi ity of the machines were biplanes. It was a great mis take to suppose that biplanes were slow and that monoplanes were fast. They reckoned from experience that they could not count the life of an aeroplane more than two years. Therefore every year the War Office must replace one-half, or 125 of the 250 aeroplanes. Of the loo aeroplanes obtained since July 30th he believed that 13 were obtained from abroad, and 87 in this country. Quite apart from any question of the relative merits of trading abroad or at home, it was undoubtedly necessary to get all warlike materials whenever possible within our own borders. He had satisfied himself that the condi tion of the industry was such now that we could quite easily get in this country all the aeroplanes we wanted to maintain the present standard and a great many more. With regard to engines, a competition was to beheld in the near future, with considerable prizes and orders to the amount of nearly £50,000 for a British-built engine. He could not prejudge the result of that competition, but he knew enough about what had been done to be able to say that we could also get all the engines required m this country within a very short time. The problem ot getting aeroplanes and engines sufficient for our needs in h.s country was, in his judgment, solved. It was proposed that much the larger proportion of the Army aeroplanes should be constructed by firms, and the smaller proportion would be constructed, as it had been constructed lately, by the Royal Air craft Factory, which would be thus left free to do work that was more important, namely, the construction of experimental machines knowrTnd yP.e',he dttai,S £ Whkh we did ™l wish l° become F»Z™ H Iep?US' ,Wh'ch ,he? could do ver? well at the Factory. He might he asked how it was that for the provision of a comparatively small number of aeroplanes, namely, «£ money amounting to many hundreds of thousands of pounds was neceXv The reason was that these machines mustbe regarded noti birds with a tittle mechanical power added, gCOmparage? 218 FEBRUARY 28, 1914- cheap as they were when the great pioneers of this industry, the Wright Brothers, first flew. They were now more like a modern high - power motor car, only much more expensive. The size and power of the engines increased daily. The average speed of the aeroplanes now in our possession was 65 or 66 miles an hour, a speed much greater, so far as his knowledge went, than the average speed of the aeroplanes of any other country. That meant high engine power, and, as anyone who owned a motor car knew, an engine of 80 to 100 h.p. was most expensive. Such an engine wore out far more rapidly in an aeroplane than in any motor car on the road. Then, again, every aeroplane must have two mechanics constantly attending to it. For all these reasons it could not be said that the War Office had been other than wise and economical in their management so far as it was possible to save money in a concern where every saving in strength or material might be an added risk to human life. He might be asked why this aeroplane service was required at all or why it should be such a big one. It was quite true that the proposals which he was putting before the Committee would give us an aeroplane service much larger in pro portion to the size of our Army than that possessed by any other Power, but it was wise that such should/ be the case. Our Army was very small, and for that reason in matters of this kind it was well to be equipped on a greater scale. Of the value of an aeroplane service there could be no doubt whatever. The range of vision from an aeroplane was astonishing. One was sometimes told by those who did not understand the subject that if a man in an aeroplane was near enough to the ground to see what was below him he would be brought down by the guns or rifles of the enemy. That was a complete delusion. At the height of 5,000 ft. one could see quite clearly on an ordinary day every detail of the landscape, not only roads and hedges, but whether there were two horses or one horse in a cart or wagon, and men could be seen walking along the streets of a town. How easy, therefore, was it to see what troops there were. In these circumstances he thought that military opinion would be disposed to share the view that if an army without aeroplanes was faced by an army with aeroplanes, and if things were anything like equal in other respects, the commander of the army without aeroplanes was doomed. He could not escape. Every movement except at night or in fog or in dense woodlands would be recorded. All this they saw in the manoeuvres last autumn, and it would be still more marked in actual warfare. In manoeuvres it was easy to have recourse to little ruses de guerre, such as hiding under hedges or blankets, and, as one general said, " making a noise like a mush room." But these things could not be practised in war when there was always the element ot hurry and haste to avoid disaster. Therefore it seemed clear that every large move ment of troops in future would be absolutely known unless con ducted in the dead of night or in dense fog or in thick woods. Whatever view hon. members might take of armaments generally, he felt sure that they would not like to see this country left behind in a matter of this vital importance. He honestly believed that the efforts made by the officers conducting the aeronautical service had been successful. We had pilots as good as any in the world—he believed that our aeroplanes were not less in number, they were certainly faster, much younger on the average, and more airworthy than those of other Powers. On the whole, we had made satis factory progress; he hoped that we should make still further progress in the years to come, and he believed that we were now in possession of a military aeronautical service not unworthy of the British Army. Mr. Joynson-Hicks, while conceding that the statement just made by Colonel Seely was more satisfactory than his previous statements on the subject, thought that the right hon. and gallant gentleman was not justified in appropriating all the plums to himself and describing our Army aeroplanes as being better than those of any other army in the world. It was certainly not desirable in our own interests that such statements should be made. He assumed that the officers of the inspection department would be independent of the Royal Aircraft Factory, and would inspect that factory with the same assiduity as they would private aircraft factories. Further explanation was needed as to why airships were no longer wanted in the Army. If an expeditionary force left this country for a European country, it would be at a time when the Navy also was at grips with the enemy. If the Secretary for War applied then to the Navy for a number of airships for the use of the land force, the Admiralty would, it was more than probable say : "We are very sorry. The protection of these shores is the first duty of the Navy. We must use our airships to compete with those of any foreign country coming here." Only nire months ago the right hon. gentleman made it perfectly plain that the Army did need airships, for he said that they had decided that the Army should have small dirigibles which could be packed in a box and sent wherever they were required. At the present time we did not possess such craft. Small airships would be very useful in Somaliland or
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