FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0564.PDF
I/QGHT) AERIAL ARMIES LECTURING on " the Command of the Air" at the Services Club, Stratford Place, on the 22nd inst., Mr. H. F. Wyatt indulged in some interesting speculations as to the future developments of warfare. At the outset he said that he did not propose to talk about gas bags or Zeppelins, or any other kind of lighter-than-air machines, because, whatever their importance at the present moment, he had not the slightest belief in their having any importance in the future. He believed that in about ten to fifteen years' time there would probably be no more Zeppelins, They would be entirely cut out through the development of the aeroplane. Mr. H, G, Wells had recently suggested that io.oco aeroplanes should be produced, and some experts seemed to think it might be possible to carry out such a scheme. What was wanted, however, in order to do the thing Mr. Wells desired was a different kind of machine of a great range, size, and carrying power. There was such a machine of Russian origin, and we were supposed to be working on the production of such a machine in this country. In the course of the next few years he expected there would be a number of machines of that type. They must not ignore the march of invention, and then it became a matter of moral certainty that within a period—the exact length of which nobody could tell, perhaps five years, perhaps ten—there would be many thousands of great aeroplanes, unless in the mean time aeroplanes were superseded by some entirely different kind of hcavier-than-air machine. Indeed, it was quite possible that the aeroplane was not the last word in aviation. Supposing the war were followed by another one—10 or 15 years hence —and they had great fleets of such machines as he had sug gested, probably many thousands owned by each nation, and capable of remaining 48 hours in the air, what would the effect of that be upon surface navies and armies ? One of the great functions of our Fleet was to prevent the enemy's fleet from destroying our seaborne trade, and our Navy had admirably performed that function up till now. But supposing they had these long-distance flyers in existence, capable of going from 100 to 150 miles an hour, and of dropping bombs with much more skilful direction than now. The surface navy would be cheated of its functions. As regards armies their function was to crush the powers of resistance in the armed forces of the adversary, but with the existence of such fleets of » ® THE GOVERNMENT'S AIR IN the House of Lords on the 21st inst. Lord Parmoor called atten tion to the Government's scheme of insurance in regard to damage to property which might result from bombardment or air raids. Great experience and a large amount of information had been obtained by the Committee which had been assessing compensation in the case^of such raids, of which he was a member, but the Government's scheme had l>een developed without any reference to that knowledge. The scheme was unfair, and the proposed contri butions were most unreasonable. In consideration of the insurance offices placing their staffs at the disposal of the Government, the companies woold receive 15 per cent, of the gross premiums. That was forty-five times what the cost should be, according to the exPf''ence °' tne Committee of which he was a member. The schedule of rates put an absolutely absurd burden on the householder, the person in occupation of premises, and the owner of stock. The premium on buildings, 3s. to 4s. 6d., was cent, per cent, too high. Country districts were not aimed at by Zeppelins. It had been discovered that where a bomb had been dropped amongst crops, there was no instance of more than 4^. or 5.?. worth of damage. The experience of the committee which had assessed compensation was gained at a time when the damage was likely to be heavier than in the future. The Earl of Camperdown said, in view of the small amount ot knowledge the country had on the subject, it was imperative that additional information should be obtained from the Government. It seemed to him it would have been better if the Government had followed the recommendations of the committee of which Lord Parmoor was a member. Lord Southwark, while admitting that great satisfaction had been expressed in the City and in commercial circles at the institution of a scheme of insurance of any sort hy the Government, thought that, as the risk was so small, it would have been better if the S'ate had assumed the whole liability, and had treated such events as they would have treated the loss of a Dreadnought. The Duke of Devonshire said he was afraid he could not say very much to satisfy the critics of the Government. The scheme was ® ® Fatal Accident in France. ACCORDING to the DAILV MAIL Paris correspondent, one of the aeroplanes that patrol the air over Paris caught fire at 7.30 on Wednesday night and fell in flames on to the roof of a shed in a JULY 30, 1915. OF THE FUTURE. aeroplanes as he had suggested armed forces would cease to be able to exercise their functions because they would not be able to defend any longer their countrymen and countrywomen of the cities. It seemed to be absolutely inevitable that the functions of defen sive armies would be gone before many years were over. Many things followed from that. If they could not fight a fleet of flying machines with a surface army or a surface navy, with what could they fight it? The present war bad proved that it was fearfully difficult to hit an aeroplane. The only thing, therefore, with which they could fight a fleet of flying machines of the future would be another fleet of flying machines, and they came at once to aeriaf warfare as superseding surface warfare. There were curious results from that upon political lines. Compulsory service was required now in Europe to provide great masses of men for the firing line, and great masses of men were wanted because that had hitherto- been the sole means of obtaining victory. But men of considerable training would be required for the fleet of aeroplanes of the future, and they would get men whose live& would have to be devoted to the study of war—in other words, they would get the long-service soldier again. Referring to the present war, the speaker said that what was wanted more than anything else was the long-distance aeroplane. While no self-respecting nation would be the first to drop bombs on non-combatants, if another nation persisted in doing it, then what was before difgraceful became an absolutely imperative duty. The effect of the Karlsruhe raid was considerable upon the Germans. If the British Government chose to make a great raid, in conjunction with the French, and scatter leaflets to the effect that every time the Germans raided non-combatants a return raid of that sort would at once be made and on a greater scale, he was convinced that we should have no more raids upon non-combatants. But the limit of our reply to Germany's raids was the limit of the radius of existing aeroplanes. By aeroplanes which could travel 600 miles out and back again, we could reach Hamburg and play " Old Harry " with the place, while the Kiel Canal would not be beyond attack by a really long distance aeroplane. Even if the cost of building big aeroplanes was three or four times the cost of the present machine, it would be worth while to build a thousand of them. It would pay for itself over and over again. RAID INSURANCE SCHEME. put into operation on the 19th, and a considerable amount of business had been transacted. He hoped the scheme would be allowed a fair trial. He would see that the criticisms which had been passed were conveyed to the President of the Board of Trade. On the 26ih inst., Lord Parmoor asked on what statistics and facts the rate of premiums chargeable to a farmer who desired to insure against the risk of damage from aircraft or bombardment had been fixed. He said that the loss of one lamb, one pony and one pig had been the entire injury caused to live stock in this country by bombardment or air raids. Of course, a shell might do great damage, and farmers could not afford to neglect to insure, but the premiums under the Government fcheme were extraordinarily high. The Duke of Devonshire said the scheme had been formulated by a special committee who had acted on the best possible advice. The Earl of Camperdown asked the Government to postpone the starting of their insurance scheme to some date which would give reasonable notice to owners of property that the Government would not pay any compensation to those who had not so insured. It had been stated that notice had been given publicly by advertisement in the Times. Could that be regarded as public notice ? It was not giving owners of property fair notice that it was necessary for them to take out insurance against this sort of damage by a scheme which came into force on the very day it was published. The Duke of Devonshire replied that it had been decided, after the fullest consideration, to adopt a policy of insurance instead of indemnity. There might possibly be hard cases, but the Govern ment attached the greatest importance to bringing in the scheme at once. They felt that if indemnity and insurance were to run pari passu the owners of property would defer taking out insurance until the last possible moment. The communication relating to the scheme appeared in all the London Press and in a considerable number of provincial papers. Steps were also taken by the agents of insur ance companies to bring the matter to the notice of their clients and the public generally. A considerable amount of business had already been done. ® ® piece of waste ground near the Porte de Versailles. One of the two Frenchmen in the machine jumped out just before the aeroplane crashed down and was very seriously hurt. The other fell with the: machine and was burned to death. 564
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
