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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0637.PDF
Flight, June 13, 1918. BMGISTBBFh First A.ro Weekly ia the World. < Founder and Editor I STANLEY SPOONEH. A Jouraal J«TOU4 I* ta« I&UraaU, Practise, aad Progrcaa of Aerial Loeomotioa ami Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 494. (No. 24, Vol. X.) JUNE 13, 1918. ["Weekly, Price 6d.L Post Free, W. and The Aircraft Engineer. RttitTialOfiett 3», GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C. a. Talegranu i Truditur, Westcent, London. Telephone: C«rr»rd i8»8. Annual Subscription Ratu, Post Free. United Kingdom .. i%s. %d. Abroad 33*. od. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: —*- - TAGS The Work of Our Seaplanes .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 635 Air Raid Insurance Claims .. ,. .. .. .. ..- .. 635 The Supreme War Council and the Crisis .. . 636 Honours . .. .. .. .. .. .. . 638 The Royal Aero Club. Official Notices .. .. — .. .. .. 639 The A.E.G. Bomber, G 105 .. .. 640 The 240 h.p. (8-cylinder) Mercedes .. .. .. .. .. .. 646 The Roll of Honour .. . 649 The Facts about the Liberty Motor 650 The Flight of an Aeroplane at Different Altitudes. By Louis De Bazillac 651 Airisms from the Four Winds .. .. .. .. 654 Answers to Correspondents . .. .. .. 657 Trade Parliaments and their Work.—VIII. By Ernest J. P. Benn .. 658 Personals 659 Correspondence .. .. 660 Th* British Air Scrrices 1 Aircraft Work at the Front. Official Information 663 Aviation in Parliament 664 Company Doings .. .. .. ., .. .. 666 " Newspapers are an essential part of our war organisation."— .Sir Auckland Geddes, Minister of National Service.) LTHOUGH we do not hear a great deal of the work of the seaplane service nowadays—at least in comparison with that of our aircraft on the fighting front—it is nevertheless one of the hardest worked and withal most useful branches of the air service. Flying far out to sea for the protection of convoys bringing food to these shores and conveying troops to their ports of debarkation ; attending on the hunting flotillas engaged in holding down the enemy's submarine activities ; and performing generally the duties of Seaplanes, handmaiden to the Fleet, the seaplane squadrons based .on our coast ports are doing magnificent work. It is not spectacular work, nor is it even exciting for the most part. It is but seldom the joy of battle enters into it. Only on those rare occasions, such as we had an example of last week, when a patrolling flight met certain enemy seaplanes off the Dutch coast to the marked discomfi- The Work of Our ture of the Hun, or when the single machine, hovering over the waters of the Channel or the North Sea sights the dim silhouette of a submerged U-boat, is there any variety to the deadly monotony of patrol flying. But if it is monotonous and without the thrills of flying over the battle lines of France, it is nevertheless attended by dangers that are sufficient to raise the hair of the ordinary stay-at-home citizen. The adventurous pilot, flying " on his own " or per- haps in company with another, over the dreary, mine-strewn wastes of the North Sea may meet with mishaps which, while they would be of small account in the case of the pilot whose flying is done over the land, may well mean that his name will presently figure in the list of those " Missing, believed drowned." All prosaic and unthrilling as the work may seem to the layman, the gallant men who man our seaplane patrols literally take their lives in their hands every time they fly out over the face of the waters. A slight engine derangement when far from the land and with no surface craft within call may make all the difference between safe return to the base and a lonely death. How many of our keen young pilots have added their names to the Roll of Honour while on this service which the developments of modern sea war have made essential to the preservation of our sea-power, we have no means of knowing. Possibly we shall never know, but the toll has been a heavy one, and must grow as the war goes on and the war in the air develops. But although the service is dangerous, and although it is without the spectacular characteristics of aerial war over the land, there is no lack of the right men for the job, and so the service goes on as all our fighting services have a way of doing. And even though there is no limelight about it, we should not forget in the press of other and more public interests, so to say, what our seaplane service is doing towards the defeat of the Hun, nor the price it is paying. ...... Air Raid In the House of Commons last week, gir JJ Nield put certain questions tothe President of the Board of Trade relative to the relations between the Government anti-aircraft insurance. department and the insured. The questions and the answers thereto we print on another page of this issue of FLIGHT. The main question was really one of alleged bad F
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