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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0553.PDF
Flight, May 23, 1918. Him BWGINBBFL? First A«ro Weekly » the World. Founder and Editor I STANLEY SPOONER. ' A Jouraal 4«TOte4 t* th« faUrcsts, Praetie*, and Progress of Aerial Loeomotioa aa4 Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 491. (NO. 21, Vol. X.) MAY 23, 1918. ["Weekly. Price 6d.L Post Free, 7d. and The Aircraft Engineer. BdittrialOfficil 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. 2. Ttlegrams: Trndttar, Westcent, London. Telephone: Gerard 1818. Annual Subscription Rate*, Post Free. United Kingdom .. 28s. ad. Abroad ly.od. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: • FAG« The Loch Doon Scandal .. 551 How Man-Power is Wasted .. .. .. .. .. .. 55 a Control of Engine Experiments .. . .. 552 Propaganda in Aeroplane Factories .. .. .. .... 553 Allied Aid for Russia .. .. .. .. .. 553 Honours 554 The Austrian-Berg Single-Seater Fighter .. .. .. .. .. 555 In the Han Js of the Enemy ,. .. .. .. .. 557 R.F.C. Hospital Fund 557 The 240 h.p. Mercedes _ .. .. .. .. .. .. ,. 558 The Royal Aero Club. Official Notices 563 The Roll of Honour 563 Trade Parliaments and their Work.—V. By Ernest J. P. Benn .. ..564 A New Compass Deviation Card for Aircraft.. .. .. .. .. 565 Answers to Correspondents .. 566 The Fokker Triplane 567 A Low Strafe .. .. .. .. .. ,. .. 570 Aviation in Parliament 57o •' X " Aircraft Raidi 571 Airisms from the Four Winds 572 The British Air Services 4 Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information 575 Personals 576 Correspondence 7 Company Matters .. .. ., 57S Xewspapers are an essential part of our war organisation."— (.Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister of National Service.) Ef disclosures made in the Report of the Select Committee on National Expenditure, relative to the waste of public money at Loch Doon, amount to a scandal of the first magnitude. No less a sum than £500,000 has been absolutely thrown away on works which it ought to have been obvious from the'first could never be made to serve the purpose for which they were projected. Worse than that, if worse is possible, more than 50,000 •: Loch Doon tons °* material which was urgently Scandal, required for really useful work was put down in the shape of railways, buildings, and other works which have since become virtual scrap and this at a time when the ordinary business firm or person could not procure enough wood to erect a shelf or sufficient steel to make a gross of hairpins without getting a dozen certificates of urgency from the very people who approved of this appalling diversion of the national resources from the purposes of the war. According to the Report, in the summer of 1916 the War Office decided to establish at Loch Doon a large school for training in aerial gunnery. The principal feature was to be the use of moving targets, running on rails. The Committee deals at some considerable length with the history of the project, from its inception until the time work ceased, after the expenditure of half-a-million of money. They state that the only possible site at Loch Doon on which an aerodrome could be constructed—indeed, the onlv place where a machine could land without the practical certainty of crashing, was a peat bog on the western shore of the lake, about half a mile by a quarter in area. It was an essential part of the scheme to drain this bog in order to make it serviceable as an aerodrome. Major-General Scott-Moncrieff, the Director of Forti- fications and Works, reported adversely on the scheme, which he described as " a very risky measure," and further expressed the decided opinion that its execution ought to be deferred until it was definitely ascer- tained that no other alternative was possible. The Chief Engineer of the Scottish Command, however, reported favourably on the scheme, and other expert opinions were that " Loch Doon fulfils all our require- ments," " Loch Doon could not be bettered." The Director of Fortifications, therefore, did not press his objections, and the work was commenced forthwith. The Report goes on to say : " A contract for the greater part of the work was made with a large firm of contractors. As many as 3,000 men were employed, of whom about one-half were German prisoners. Roads were re-made and a temporary railway about two and a half miles long laid from Dalmellington towards the lake. Fifty-six miles of pipes were laid to drain the bog. Soil to the depth of 3 inches to 4 inches was spread over a large part of it to form a new surface, and grass seeds were sown. Railways, of standard gauge, were made some miles in length, up and down the hills to the east of the lake, and by the waterside, together with considerable lengths of steel constructions along which it ^vas intended to run by electricity movable targets to be tired at from the air. An electric power-station was con- structed and boilers and generators installed. By sluices at the end of the lake, with a new outlet channel cut in the rock, the level of the water was raised 6 feet. Temporary huts were constructed, with accommodation for 1,300 men, together with a lecture hall, a hospital, and other buildings. Large hangars and a seaplane shed were erected also, and a motor-boat dock was constructed. Waterworks and sewage works on the bacterial system were made for a population
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