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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0390.PDF
toll taken of enemy machines, no exact figures seem to be available, but so far as it is possible to get at the figures, our airmen appear to have destroyed or driven down some 270 enemy machines at a cost, in round figures, of 100 machines to ourselves. Some idea of the intensity of the air fighting may be gathered from the fact that during one day's fighting alone, a single brigade of the R.A.F. destroyed 22 enemy machines and drove down out of control another seven. Meagre as these statistics are, they afford some small opportunity of assessing at its true value the really wonderful work that is now being performed by the aerial arm in the decisive struggle of the West. How really great a part the R.A.F. has had in assist- ing to hold up the German rush for the sea we shall probably never know until the official histories of the war are written—even if we are ever told it. Certain it is, however, that without the self-sacrificing gallantry of the men who fly, the position of the battle- front as it is to-day would be more disquieting than it is. More than that it is impossible to say until fuller information is available. Certain figures relative to the com- Musfbe Parative strength in the air of the Accelerated. Germans and ourselves have recently been disclosed under the seal of con- fidences and these figures convey the lesson that if the war is to be won this year we must still further accelerate the output of aircraft. Naturally, we cannot for the best of reasons say what the pro- portionate number of British machines employed at the front actually is at the moment, but it is per- missible to state that we must have not only more of them, but proportionally more—which is not quite the same thing—if we are to bear our fan- share towards attaining victory in the air. So far as the information at our disposal enables us to judge, the principal acceleration is needed in engine production. We believe it to be the fact that the actual construction of machines has over- taken and passed our present capacity for turning out engines, and it is in this direction that we shall have to carry out an immediate programme of speeding up. Although the communiques from the front would lead us to believe that our airmen have established a definite superiority over the enemy's air service, it would seem that that superiority has been achieved more as the result of personal ascen- dency than by reason of any great preponderance in the numbers of aircraft available for their use. As a matter of fact, it is really doubtful if we have any marked superiority in numbers. The Germans have strained every nerve during the past winter to hasten production, and they are now able to turn out machines at a far faster rate than has been the case at any previous period of the war, and that in spite of their undoubted shortage of many of the essential materials. Indeed, we gather from authori- tative sources that the German capacity for output has been increased to such an extent that machines are coming through much faster than pilots can be trained to fly them and that the present inferiority of the enemy is due as much to that cause as to any other. In all probability the reason for this is that the production of machines has exceeded the estimate by such a substantial margin as to have left standing the arrangements for the advance training of personnel. At any rate, the course of wisdom is to assume that APRIL II, 1918. this is so and to base our own arrangements for future production on that assumption. If the theory is correct, as we believe, we may be very certain that so practical a people as the Germans have shown themselves to be have already taken the necessary steps to increase their capacity for the training of pilots and it would thus follow that unless we in our turn exert our maximum effort it is quite on the cards that we may have another surprise sprung upon us before the end of the present campaigning season. The Air Ministry is, we believe, quite alive to the danger and is doing all in its power to speed up engine production, but if we are to do all that is essential it is necessary that everyone concerned should realise the position and put on one side every question of personal interest for the tune being in order to entirely devote himself to the task of securing victory in the air. There must be no question of strikes or stoppages of work in the aero-engine factories of the country at this the most critical period of the war. The times are more than critical—they are decisive. The whole future of liberty and civilisation hangs upon the issues of the next three months—possibly less than that—and until that future is decided in the only way it can ultimately be shaped every other interest, no matter what or on whose side right or wrong may eventually be found to lie, must remain for future settlement. These matters can always be talked over and adjusted after we have completed the great essential task of beating the Hun. • - In the Trade Supplement of the Times Tllo£I32lre for April Mr- Bernard Isaac has an Industry, article on the " Future of Aircraft Industry," in which there is some amount of food for thought. We do not propose to follow the writer through all his arguments, since he does not advance much that is new, or that has not been said and discussed among those whose business, identifies them with the production of aircraft, but there are one or two notes of warning sounded which * it will be well if those interested wUl take to heart. Naturally, Mr. Isaac has an abiding faith in the ultimate success of the industry, but he is under no delusion as to the manner in which those who intend to stay . in the industry will have to fight for their business. 1 As he very truly emphasises, the industry of pro- ducing and selling aircraft will have to be conducted along the most serious commercial lines. Not only will factories have to be organised to produce up to their maximum capacity, but a real sales organisation will have to be established and it is here that the principal difficulties will be encountered. So far as concerns quantity production, we may take it that all our aircraft factories are reasonably well equipped and organised to get within measurable distance of the maximum output attainable. The stress of production for use in the war has seen to that, and doubtless the war organisation will, with few altera- tions, easily adapt itself to the requirements of peace- time business, But the growth of manufacturing organisation has not been accompanied by a similar- growth in selling organisation. As a matter of fact,.* it would perhaps not be very far wide of the mark to say that sales organisation in aeroplane concerns in this country is non-existent. Of course, there does exist a nucleus of a sales organisation, inasmuch as it is necessary that there should be something of the sort to handle the commercial end of the business even when sales are not a matter of competition. 386
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