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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0137.PDF
Flight, February 26, 1915. JJ V ^\ f J A. First Aero Weekly in the World. Founder 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. 322. (No. 9, Vol. VII.)] FEBRUARY 26, 1915. fRegutered at the G.P.O.l [Weekly, Price 3d. L a*a Newspaper. J |_ Poet Free, 3Jd. Editorial Office: 44. ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... 15J. od. Abroad 20J. od. CONTENTS. • Editorial Comment: Aircraft in Naval Warfare The "Ark Royal" The Cuxhaven Raid The 160 h.p. Armoured Bleriot Two-Seater Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information The Cuxhaven Raid Mentioned in Despatches The British Air Services Royal Aero Club. Official Notices From the British Flying Grounds Eddies. By"jEolus" Germany's Wrecked Airships Aircraft and the War Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, MA. Correspondence PAGE • 137 • 137 . 138 . 140 . 141 . 142 • 143 • M3 • 144 . 145 . 147 . 148 . 149 • i5« • 152 With regard to photographs and descriptions oj new British machines and those of our Allies, and other information which may be of help to our enemies, it should be noted that the Editor of FLIGHT, in the National interest, submits all matter of this character to the Official Press Censor before publication. Hence our readers will appreciate that many new departures in con struction or advances in detail work are necessarily held back for the present rather than the smallest risk should be run of helping those who are so strenuously fighting the Allies for the enforcement of their " Kultured" militarism.—ED. " His Majesty's aeroplane ship ' Ark Airjraftiin R°yal' is in attendance, with a number of Warfare seaplanes and aeroplanes of the Naval Wing." These few words formed the final sentence of the announcement issued by the Admiralty on Saturday last dealing with the bombardment of the Dardanelles Forts by a combined British and French fleet. Simple as the sentence is in itself, it is yet full of deep significance for those associated with the flying movement, for it presages the full recognition of aircraft as an arm of the Navy, enabling the utilisation of its manifold possibilities in any section of the " Seven Seas" where it may be necessary for British fleets to conduct warlike operations. Of course aeroplanes and seaplanes have been used for some time in conjunction with warships, as, for instance, in the operations along the Belgian coast, but in these cases the aircraft have had the advantage of operating, if not actually from, at any rate not far from a home base. In the case of those which played their part in the action at the entrance to the Dardanelles, how ever, their headquarters was the new aeroplane- carrying ship " Ark Royal," the first of what will certainly be a new class of naval vessel, which will no doubt form a by no means unimportant unit in all future naval squadrons. Although naturally details are lacking in the official report as to the actual work accomplished by the aircraft in directing the work of the naval guns, there is sufficient indication that the assistance rendered was of a useful and valuable nature. This is sufficiently indicated by the official announcement that the bom bardment was renewed on the second day " after aerial reconnaissance." From an aviation point of view this incident, insignifi cant as it probably appears to the majority of the general public, will be an historic one, marking, as we have said, the entrance of aircraft as a definite arm in naval opera tions wherever they may be conducted. As time goes on, the duties assigned to aircraft in warfare will continue to extend rather than to diminish, as, instead of being, as some naval and military authorities have been inclined to think, simply an auxiliary of some doubtful value, to the work of the soldiers and guns of the army, and the ships and men of the navy, it is now recognised that the services rendered by pilots and observers of aircraft can be of the utmost importance in the successful prosecution of operations both on land or sea. • • • It is a somewhat dramatic entrance that "Ark Royal "H,M-S- "Ark Royal" makes int0 the arena of naval operations, for practically nothing has been heard of this vessel since it was announced that the name had been selected for the seaplane carrying ship, which was being built by the Blyth Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., and provision for which had been made in the 1914-15 Naval Esti mates. This, of course, is not the first vessel which has been utilised for such a purpose, as several of H.M. ships have been identified with the activities of the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, or, as it is now termed, the Royal Naval Air Service, notably H.M.S. " Hermes," which, it is understood, was engaged on such service
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