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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0613.PDF
Flight, June 12, 1914. I fpje w ^^y/ First Aero Weekly in the World. ekly Founder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, sad Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 285. (No. 24, Vol. VI.)] JUNE 12, 1914. ("Registered at the G.P.O.T L as a Newspaper. J ["Weekly, Price 3d. L Port Free. 3W. ft ILa Editorial Office: 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... 15*. ad. Abroad 20J. od. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: The Future of Naval War The Safety of Flight The Question of Welding The 80 h.p. Avro Scout (with scale drawings) The Aerial DeibjT, 1914 ... ... Royal Aero Club Official Notices From the British Flying Grounds Eddies. By " jEolus " Testing the Langley " Aerodrome " The Aeroplane in War The Flying Machine from an Engineering Standpoint. By F. W. Lanchester Foreign Aircraft News The German Triangle Race Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A. Correspondence PAGE S13 6l4 6x4 6l6 619 624 625 697 631 1 632 634 6 )fi "37 638 64O EDITORIAL COMMEHT. Sir Percy Scott's theory that the day of The Future ^ battleship has passed has created a Naval War. §reat deal °^ discussion among naval authorities, and opinion seems to be rather divided upon the question of whether the future of naval war is with the Dreadnought or the submarine and aircraft. It is not for us to pass judgment in this controversy. The point, however, that does appeal is that aircraft, and particularly the aeroplane, should have thus early reached a stage of development which has caused so drastic a modification of the views of so high an authority as Admiral Scott. It is within our recollection that not so very long ago Sir Percy was the out-and-out advocate of the big gun in the big ship—indeed, he might almost have been described as the arch-priest of the Dreadnought. Now, at the time in question, the submarine had been developed within reasonable range of its present possibilities. True, it has been improved in the meantime, and that considerably, but the point is that it had come to a stage which was quite far enough advanced to have given pause to the apostles of the big ship if its destiny was, or is, to supplant the latter type. But, apparently, it had not dawned upon naval authorities that the time was close at hand when the sea-battles of the world would be fought out in the under-water depths rather than on the surface of the ocean. Thoughtful students of naval war had, indeed, turned their attention increasingly towards the submarine and its potentialities, but it was more as a fleet auxiliary, so to speak, than as a possible successor of the surface craft. That it could ever supplant the latter had not come within their pre vision. Nor, so far as we as laymen are in a position to know, has so much progress been made in the develop ment of the submarine or submersible as to justify that view, were it not that in the interval the aeroplane has been developed so rapidly that it has become a most important factor in warfare, land and marine. The point that seems to emerge from Sir Percy Scott's argument seems to be this: Against the submarine alone, the battleship—or perhaps, it would be more correct to include all floating warships—by reason of its speed and sea-keeping qualities would have more than a fighting chance, since the submarine has to act under conditions which put a very distinct handicap on its chanftes of waging successful war. It has a very limited range of vision ; its speed, both on the surface and when sub merged, is far inferior to that of the above-water craft, and it is dependent for its offensive power upon a weapon —the torpedo—which has never proved itself to be dependable in action. It is true that the latest types of these craft are equipped with guns, but they are of such small calibre as to be quite ineffective against modern armoured ships. The most they could be expected to do would be in the way of repelling an attack by hostile torpedo craft for long enough to enable the necessary preparations for submersion to be made. Reinforced, however, by aircraft, it would seem that the submarine is in a far better position than when acting by itself. Firstly, the aeroplane might be ex pected to act as the eyes of the submarine flotilla—to stand in the same relation as do cruisers and fast craft generally to the battle-squadron. The aeroplanes would be sent out, either from a land base or from their mother ships, to search the enemy's coasts and harbours or to locate and keep touch with a blockading squadron, while the submarines lay handy for action when the aeroplanes had done their first duty of finding the enemy. Whether the clash would come in the shape of a combined attack from under water and the air is a matter that only the future can solve, but it is quite imaginable that this is what would happen. Again, whether such a combined attack would succeed is also a question for the future c
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