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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0335.PDF
Flight, April 12, 1917. masm First Aero Weekly in the World. , Founder and Editor : STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal d«voted to the Interests, Praottos and Progress of Aerial Looomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 433. (No. 15, Vol. IX.) APRIL 12, 1917. j. Price 3d.L Post Free, 4d- Editorial Office: 44, St. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditnr, Weitrand, London. Telephone : Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom .. 151.2^. Abroad sor. ad. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: • ''" ' PAGE Aerial Ascendancy in the West »."',. •• 335 Is Our Training System Right ? "..'".. 336 Parliament and the Air Muddle ,,.. .. ..336 A Great Battle in the Air .. .. .. 338 " X " Aircraft Raids .. 338 1 he U.S. Coast Patrol Dirigible (with scale drawings) .. „ .. 339 The Roll of Honour . .. .. .. 3+2 The Royal Aero Club. Official Notices ..343 Airisms from the Four Winds „ ..344 The Screw Propeller in Air. By M. A. S. Riach 347 The Deperdussin Case 348 Aviation in Parliament 9 Answers to Correspondents 351 Air Work in the Advance ... .. 35, Personals .. .. 3 The British Air Services 354 The Use and Abuseof Steel. By Lt.-Col. R. K. Bagnall-Wild and Lieut. E. W. Birch 5 Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information 356 Correspondence.. ... 358 EDITORIAL COMMENT.I sgT seems to be almost impossible to j| arrive at the truth about the condition i of things in the air on the Western I Front. Ever since the beginning of || the present year the tongue of rumour 'i! has been busy regarding the "as- cendancy of the air " and, on balance, report has had it that that ascendancy has definitely passed from us to the enemy. Our casualties in the R.F.C. have been very much above the normal, and compared with the Ascendancy officiaI reports relating to German in the West, machines brought down and destroyed they appear to bear a disquieting proportion to those of the enemy. In Parliament, when Ministers are challenged to say what the position really is, questioners are met with evasions and, unfortunately, too often with statements that are demonstrably wrong. For example, it is only a few weeks ago that Sir Henry Dalziel asked the Under- secretary for War if he could assure the House that we still retained the mastery of the air on the Western Front- The answer given was : "I think I can make that assurance." If Mr. Macpherson really believed he could give that assurance—and we must do him the bare justice to think he did—all we can say is that he cannot have taken much trouble to post himself in the facts of the case. Whether the deliveries of fast, high-powered machines that have been made in the meantime have redressed the balance, we are not in a position to say, but we do assert this : that at the time the Under-Secretary was assuring the House that we still retained the mastery of the air in the West, the facts were all the other way, at least so far as one can judge from " stories " direct from the front, of fast German machines which hope- lessly outclassed our own, machines that had ours beaten at every point save that of the skill and daring of the men who flew them. Machines that could climb a full 3,000 feet higher than our own and simply await the opportunity to dive down upon the slower and less handy British 'planes, with a consequent heavy casualty bill among our gallant fellows who . were thus sent out with, figuratively, a bow and arrow to fight men with rifles. There is not a shadow of doubt that at this time the Germans were very definitely in the ascendant, and a week after the reply we have noted, Mr. Macpherson himself went a long step towards admitting it when he told the House that the mastery of the air was still " undecided." Much as we must deplore the loss of many of our gallant flying men, who have lost their lives through flying against the enemy in obsolescent machines, we still must recognise that we cannot expect always to be in the immediate. possession of better machines than the Germans. That is an aspect of the matter with which we have dealt before. Germany, like ourselves, is an engineering nation, and is just as likely as we are to be first in the field with improve- ments and discoveries which will have the effect of putting her temporarily in front in some detail of warlike equipment. Conversely, we must in the nature of things be sometimes in front of the enemy— neither can expect to have it all its own way every time. Therefore, we are not inclined to fali into a state of panic over this one aspect of the war in the air. It is inevitable that the fortunes of war should sway first to the one side and then to the other as this or that improvement becomes available to either side, and in witness whereof there is in the latest report of the Daily Mail, reference to our " latest aeroplane " and its bringing down five in one flight. When we have considered and given due weight to these considerations, we next come to the inevitable question of whether everything is being done to keep our own Flying Services well abreast of every new development, and to provide them at the earliest possible moment with the very latest thing in machines and equipment ? We are afraid that it is here that the principal weakness lies. After nearly three years
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