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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 1169.PDF
Flight, December 4, 1914. (r ^SCr y@H¥ Oil First Aero Weekly in the World. Pounder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 810. (No. 49, Vol. VI.)] DECEMBER 4, 1914. CRegistered at the G.P.O.T ("Weekly. PrfC* 8l as a Newspaper. J L PoatFrM, 8fd. 3<t. Flight. Editorial Offict; 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone : Gerrard x8a8. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... 15J. od. Abroad sor. ad CONTENTS. • •- Editorial Comment: Aircraft in War Bombs on Non-Combatants Proposed " Industrial " Army Badge Newspaper Claptrap ... " Up Lights, and Drat 'Em " Aircraft Work at the Front... The Roland Bomb-Dropping Apparatus Royal Aero Club. Official Notices The British Air Services Castings Made Under Pressure Eddies. By " .lEolus " From the British Flying Grounds Correspondence Aircraft and the War Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A. Model Clubs Diary and Reports PAGE 1169 1169 1170 U70 1170 I' 7- ««73 1:74 "74 "75 U77 J17B 1178 1179 1183 1185 :IAL COMMENT. Aircraft ^s tbe wee^s 8° bv> evidence is steadily ac in War. cumulating as to the great service which the new arm of the naval and military services —that of aircraft—is rendering in the awful task in hand across the Channel. Field-Marshal Sir John French, in each of the first two despatches he sent to the War Office, paid such unstinted praise to the work of our flying officers that it would not have been very surprising had he not specifically referred to aircraft in his latest despatch, which, although dated November 20th, was not made public until Monday last. Yet, Sir John French, who cannot be regarded as one addicted to bestowing praise where it is not merited, has been so impressed with the increasing success of the new arm that he has deemed it desirable to once again men tion the work of our military flying officers, which he does in the following terms :— " The work performed by the Royal Flying Corps has continued to prove of the utmost value to the success of the operations. " I do not consider it advisable in this despatch to go into any detail as regards the duties assigned to the corps and the nature of their work, but almost every day new methods for employing them, both strategically and tactically, are discovered and put into practice. " The development of their use and employment has indeed been quite extraordinary, and I feel sure that no effort should be spared to increase their numbers and perfect their equipment and efficiency." The foregoing extract from the official despatch is one that is well worthy the closest consideration, for it is noteworthy not so much for what it actually says but rather for what it implies. Although the Royal Flying Corps work has not perhaps come before the public gaze so much as the Royal Naval Air Service by reason of the magnificent flights of some of the officers of the latter into the enemy's country, yet those behind the scenes in the world of aviation are well aware that the untiring work the military flying officers have been engaged in is of a much wider variety than was at first contemplated or even regarded as within the range of possibility. The fact that they and their machines should have proved themselves equal to the new calls made upon them to such an extent as to win the encomiums of so experienced a soldier as the Field-Marshal is one that more than justifies all we have urged in the past as to the vital necessity of a huge air fleet, and must be a further incentive (if such were needed) to those responsible at home for the continued speeding up of the programme of the Admiralty and War Office in the future. Indeed, Sir John's remark that " no effort should be spared to increase their numbers and perfect their equipment and efficiency" may be regarded as indicating that such extension will not be long delayed. In other words, it will result in an immediate impetus to, followed by the permanent establishment upon a solid basis of, the aircraft industry in this country. If assurance were necessary of the power of Great Britain to rise to an emergency, surely no greater lesson exists than the manner in which she has under the present conflict placed herself at the head of the world in the " mastery of air "—always excepting the much-vaunted Zeppelin fleet. But this is another story, for the moral of which we must " wait and see " ! • • » The news transmitted from Washington ^Non-0" by Reuter towards the end Of last week» Combatants. tnat President Wilson had communicated unofficially to the diplomatic representa tives of the United States in the belligerent countries in Europe his disapproval of attacks by bombs dropped from aircraft on unfortified cities occupied by non- B
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