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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0579.PDF
Flight, Jiriy 13, 1916. 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. 894. (No. 28, Vol. VIII.)] JULY 13, 1916. rWeekly, Prioe Id. L Poat Tree, l|d. Flight. Editorial Office: 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams : Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone ". Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... 6s. 6d. Abroad 111. od. Editorial Comment: Our Air Supremacy The Roll of Honour ... The British Air Services 6s. 6d. Abroad CONTENTS. * PAGB • 579 1. 5S0 . 581 Constructional Progress at the Kufly-Baumann School of Flying 583 " X " Aircraft Raids 58s From the British Flying Grounds ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 586 The R.F.C. Inquiry 7 Aviation in Parliament 591 The Flying Services Fund—Administered by the Royal Aero Club ... 592 Personals 59 Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information 593 Immelmann's Last Fight 596 Correspondence... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 598 Imports and Exporti, 1915-16 OUR READERS. 'FLIGHT." Important Notice, to be either delivered or reserved TO The Supply of Order " FLIGHT for you regularly. As the demand for " FLIGHT " is so great each week, it is of the utmost importance that readers should place their orders firmly for copies of " FLIGHT " at the bookstalls, their newsagents, or direct from the publishers, at 44, St. Martin's Lane, W.C., if they wish to secure a copy every week and avoid disappointment. The stringent Government restrictions in regard to the supply of printing paper necessitates this precaution in order that only actual numbers required are printed, and all wastage by unsold copies may thereby be reduced to a minimum, if not eliminated. THE PUBLISHERS. E.D1TOH.1AL, COMMENT. OME of the "evidence" at the long-drawn- out R.F.C. Inquiry which drags on week after week reads very like unto ancient history—as history is being made these days—and the repeated challenges as to British supremacy in the air are a striking travesty upon the position of our Air Services as they are to-day. Whatever the shortcomings in Government foresight in the earlier days of hostilities and failure here and there in depart mental organisation to make good, there ^ur can be " no possible probable doubt, no Supremacy possible doubt whatever" that the R.F.C. and our French Allies now have and for some little time have had the whole air situation so thoroughly in hand as to handicap most seriously the tactics of the German Staff in the disposition of their main and reserve units. Temporarily, for quite a short period, it is idle to suggest that the German flying men did not by a bit of luck and clever tactics succeed a few months ago in bothering our air forces in France a good deal. But that is where the ancient history of the Air Committee evi dence comes in, and it is good reading in the accounts now coming along from all sides to find the absolute confi dence and daring which permeates the entire personnel of the R.F.C. in its work over and away back beyond the German lines. Not only does this outstanding fact loom large in official communique's and the various correspondents' descriptions of the work in progress in France, but from private sources the position of affairs is confirmed in no uncertain manner. Only this morning, as we are writing, a letter reaches us from an officer—a personal friend—in the trenches " somewhere " out there which is worth quoting as a live document, and this is how he passes on his impressions:— "The last four or five days we have had excellent scraps in the air above us, and have shot down three Hun planes, the third this morning at sun-up. "At this part of the line our airmen reign supreme, and our ' Archies ' are handled very well. This morning after the Hun had come down (in the Hun lines unfortu nately), one of our fellows sailed leisurely over to the enemy and cruised calmly up and down for a long time over their trenches and quite low. " I simply rolled with laughter. The Huns had about two ' Archies' firing for all they were worth, all their machine guns—able to—concentrated their fire, and the infantry in the trenches got going with rapid on to him. It was too funny for words; he ignored absolutely what must have been a perfect hail of lead, and in the most exasperating manner possible literally ' walked' up and down with engine half speed. For a piece of consum mate impudence it wanted a lot of beating. Well, not satisfied qui*e, when he returned he stopped over No Man's Land and looped the loop ten times right off, and then went home to ' brekker.' He must be the
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