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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 1372.PDF
Cinderella of the Navy to official acknowledgment of its immense importance as an integral part of our military scheme. In explanation it may be said that its importance had really been recognised a long time prior to this, but Commodore Paine's appointment was taken to be the outward and visible sign of inward grace, as it were. About the middle of the year there were per- sistent reports afloat to the effect that Lord Cowdray intended to resign and that Lord Northcliffe was to replace him. At the time these rumours were denied, but in the light of subsequent events it seems probable that there was fire to account for the smoke. How- ever, Lord Cowdray remained at his post until after the introduction of the Bill for combining the R.N. A.S. and the R.F.C. into a separate Service, to be called the Air Force, when he vacated the position of President of the Air Board and was succeeded by Lord Rothermere as Secretary of State for Air. At about the same time, General Henderson, who for long had been in command of the R.F.C. as Director- General of Military Aeronautics, retired from that appointment and gave place to General Salmond. During the whole of the year, as for a long time previously, " FLIGHT " had been a consistent advocate of an Air Service, separate and distinct from both Navy and Army, having its own corporate existence, its own uniform, and its own badge, with a real Air Board similar in constitution to the Board of Admiralty and presided over by a Secretary of State. Quite late in the year, the Government introduced the Air Force Bill, the effect of which was to create such a Service, and this Bill became law with very little opposition in either Upper or Lower House. We have still to wait for its provisions to be given full effect, inasmuch as the Air Force Act is what is known as an " enabling " Act and requires an Order by the King in Council to make its provisions active. That the interval will be a short one we do not doubt, especially as during the closing days of the year the Air Minister stated categorically that a great deal of progress had been made with the details, and it was hoped that the requisite Order would be issued very shortly. As a matter of fact, it is no secret that a good deal of active work has already been done towards rendering the combination of the two Services effective, so that the Order when it is issued will, for the time being, merely legalise, as it were, an a.1 ready existing state of things. DECEMBER 27, of next year. We, naturally, trust that our position of supremacy will remain unchallenged. Indeed, we believe it will, but there is just enough of the element of doubt in the case to give rise to a feeling of disquietude.. The assistance of America will, of course, be more than sufficient to redress any balance against us, but what we have to keep in mind is that there is just the possibility of Germany being ready for a great air, offensive before America begins to make her weight felt, and we cannot, consequently, afford t,o take any chances at all. What we have to do is to go on as though we had to depend upon our own unaided efforts—nothing less • than that will give us absolute safety. Dirigible After the scant success which attendedt ^ie enemy's attacks on British town& during 1916 and his heavy losses in Zeppelins, we had thought he would have held the game to* be not worth the candle. However, the record of the year shows that Germany has still not lost faith in the airship as an offensive weapon. Still, she must have been driven farther along the road to a shattering of her belief in the great gas-bag that was to play so .great a part in giving her the dominion of the world. So far as the available information leads us to believe, very little has been done in Germany towards the further development of the dirigible. True, we have had at. various times- quite circumstantial stories of great new super- Zeppelins building at Friedrichshafen, but these have come through the usual neutral channels which, as a rule, are worse than simply unreliable. Here in England the record has been one of progress. It is not permissible to discuss matters in detail, but as it is not a month ago that a British airship of the Zeppelin type flew over the Metropolis, it may without any fear of giving useful information to the- enemy be said that we have at least one modern airship of the rigid type in active commission. As- to what else has been done in the direction of develop- ing our dirigible strength we cannot speak. . No reference to dirigibles would be complete without mention of the death of Count Zeppelin, which occurred in March. At the time, we said what was in our minds and, on the principle of de mortuis nil nisi bonum—even in the case of a Hun—we will add nothing thereto. New Before the war it was our custom toAircraft glance briefly at the new types of air- Types, craft evolved during the year. Now, however, we are precluded from making any but the barest mention of our own new designs, and although we have by courtesy of the authorities been able from time to time to print the constructional details of captured enemy machines, no review of progress can be held complete unless it is truly comparative. But this may with justice be said, that the end of 1917 sees the British Air Force equipped with machines which, type for type, are probably in advance of those of the Germans, and, for the time being at least, greater in number. We say advisedly for the time being, because we are not altogether satisfied that our own efforts to speed up construction, great as they undoubtedly have been, will suffice to keep pace with those being exerted by Germany in anticipation of the fighting of the spring Raids— At this time last year we gave a sum-Enemy and m5y °t ^e raids enemy and Allied, Allied. which had characterised the twelve months of 1916. During the year which is now approaching its end the war in the air has reached such a pitch of intensity that it is almost hopeless to attempt to chronicle even the matters of importance. Scarcely a day has passed without its record of raids,'accomplished or attempted, by one side or the other. A year ago we should have hesitated to pronounce that the aerial war might conceivably be decisive of the whole world struggle, but so great has been the growth in 1917 that not only have we no hesitation in regarding the air as the decisive fighting sphere, but it is possible to say that this is the fixed opinion of every military authority. It is possible, however, to glance briefly at a tew of the salient occurrences of the year. It was not 1358
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