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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 1026.PDF
iyiiGHT| so far as the air is concerned, there is no more need for us to worry. We have driven the enemy from the air beyond all hope of his recovery of his lost position. It means that or nothing at all, particularly as the correspondent fails entirely to make it clear that to maintain what we have gained means even more strenuous effort than has been expended in the past to achieve to our present supremacy. Pessimism may be the deadly sin now, but we are not sure that it is not run to a short head, if the expression may be permitted in this case, by the sort of optimism indulged in by newspaper correspondents of the type whose rosy accounts of aerial war in France we are deprecating.- They create an entirely false atmosphere by the implication—which is not good for either the public or the official mind—that all is so well that it can never be ill. We have only too good reason to know that nothing is done unless there is more or less force of public opinion at work to lessen official inertia. If the public, therefore, is continuously assured that there is no need for it to express any opinion save that all is well, it almost necessarily follows that the Government will continue along the line of least resistance. ' 8 It is quite natural that those who really know what is necessary to maintain our present para mountry in the air should feel some disquietude in view of the irresponsible chatterings to which we directed attention. That disquietude is apparent in some of the letters we have received bearing on the subject. We cannot say that we do not to some extent share the feeling of anxiety. Paradoxically, perhaps, our anxiety is the outcome of knowledge of the tremendous efforts that have been exerted to place our air service in the position it occupies of being superior at all points to that of the enemy. In this way. We have had to build and equip an enormous number of machines, and, moreover, we have been and are now compelled to lay plans for future con struction and equipment very far in advance. That in its turn means a very large degree of standardisa tion, and standardisation means, unless'we are"very careful indeed, stagnation of dJsign. There is no getting away from it—there are a dozen illustrations to hand to prove the proposition. And anything in the way of stagnation of that kind is the very last thing to be tolerated now. We are fully prepared to admit—we believe it to be the case—that those responsible for the proper equipment of the air service are alive to the need for progress, but the danger is an insidious one, and thereforeneeds to be insisted upon. Unfortunately, it is impossible to be explicit in the illustration of our meaning, for very obvious reasons. But it is possible to generalise in order to make the main points clear. We have now a very large number of machines actually in commission and in course of delivery. Many of these machines are of a type that was excellent a few months ago and superior to any contemporary German type. But construction is an ever-progressing factor as the lessons of war are learnt and appreciated, and it thus follows, as day follows night, that the machine that was facile princeps yesterday is obsolescent to-day. It is unfortunately the case that construction cannot keep pace with NOVEMBER Z%, 1916. improvement in design, and thus we are compelled to a policy of compromise. It is here lies the dangn of the situation, and the more it is persisted that all is well the greater is the danger. It is during the coming winter that we shall have to prepare for the spring and summer of 1917. That preparation does not only connote the building of a greater number of machines than the enemy can turn out, but they must be of types certainly not inferior to the best he can put into the air. If our scheme of construction provides for numbers of machines of obsolescent type, then it must be rigorously revised with a view to replacing them with a better. Un doubtedly there are in use a very large number of machines that have been well described as " good, but not quite good enough." It may mean scrapping these already in commission and cancelling contracts for identical types not yet delivered. To do that would mean financial loss, but whatever that loss, it would be cheap at the price. What we have got to aim at is that when the gsod flying weather comes in the early spring our air service shall be as definitely on top of the Germans as it has been during the autumn of this year. It can be done if the right policy is followed now, and, in our view, that policy must be to cut losses, however they arise. If it is a question of compensation to contractors for4 work partially completed, then let the compensation be forthcoming. If it is a question of ruthlessly scrapping a hundred or even a thousand " good " machines, then let them be scrapped in favour of,.better, Incidentally, it need not necessarily mean ihe'jxctual scrapping of large numbers of machines, since those of the " good " types can be used for other purposes than actual " strafing " operations. But no more of them must be built. If that is the policyJwe are going to pursue, then there is no need to fear the result of the 1917 struggle for command of the air. If, on the contrary, the policy is to be one of following the line of least resistance, the result is much_more doubtful. Seven weeks ago the Air Board report Wha th|b°Ut was circulated to the Cabinet. Since Air Board ? then there has been almost endless discussion of the Air Board and its organisation, both in the Press and arising out of questions in Parliament, but apparently nothing has resulted. At least, nothing has transpired publicly to give rise to the impression that the report and all connected with it has not followed so many other reports of the kind into the limbo of official pigeon holes. The question of the best manner of co-ordinat ing the needs of the two branches of the Air Service is so directly related to preparation for next year's campaign, that it would be impossible to refer to the one without touching upon the other. There is nothing to be added to what we have WTitten on other occasions on this pressing subject. Therefore, we do not intend to do more at the moment than reiterate the question : What about the Air Board ? Is anything going to be done or not ? Is the Cabinet afraid to tackle the subject for some reasons that are not fully apparent, but which have been hinted at ? The matter is a serious one, and 18
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