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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0935.PDF
AUGUST 22, 1918. THINKING AERONAUTICALLY. By AIR-MECHANIC. THE British subject who would think largely must to-day think aeronautically. The islander could once make out an excellent case for resting his whole confidence upon sea waters. To-day the aeroplane has given us a new orientation : the orientation of the air ; and for Britons, more per- haps than for other peoples, it is vitally important to grasp quickly and sanely the significance of the new orientation. To the Royal Navy seaplane and airship are as essential auxiliaries as are the aeroplane and the observation balloon to the British Army. They are the eyes of the Navy as they are of the batteries in France. They are eagles dowered by wireless. But to think aeronautically includes more than the war uses of aviation. It includes the new fact of the freedom of the air. The Royal Air Force to-day exists by virtue of that fact. Yet powerful though it be, the R.A.F. is still but a Gargantuan war-baby which will only reach its full estate with the coming of peace. Things now hidden by the fog of war will be revealed to us, and the significance of the R.A.F. and its vital importance to the British will be made plain. A novelist once imagined " The Food of the Gods." On some such food is the R.A.F. in course of being reared to-day. War is its nursery, but peace its career, and it is no exaggeration to say that on that career depends much in the future of the Empire. For note, flight, once a dream, is so true as to be a platitude. And platitudes, backed by imagination, terial of aviation will be devoted automatically to the development of peace flying, and then the R.A.F. will give us not only the air navy of the future and the policing of the skies, but the air mercantile marine. The British Empire is scattered, the German Empire is concentrated. That concentration is a source of strength to Germany, whereas the dis- sipation of the British Empire is a source of weakness which in the nature of the case can only be partially counterbalanced by a navy even when supreme. The British Navy demobilises German shipping, naval and mercantile. But it cannot annihilate distance. Neither can the aeroplane do more than partially counterbalance ; but it almost annihilates distance. London to Cape Town, a sea-voyage of three weeks, will be flown in three days. That is not t© say that the slow, heavily-laden cargo steamer will be a thing of the past or that holders of shipping shares should take their profits and write off the future. It is merely the statement of an enormously significant fact. The aeroplane will draw together the Empire. It will bring London as near to Cape Town as London was to Newcastle in the coaching days, and its carrying capacity for long distance flights will more than equal that of the old mail-coach. The restraint of that statement, with its suggestion that air-transport is to-day not further developed than was rapid land-transport in the time of the mail- coach, may annoy the enthusiast, but in this matter it is better to understate than to prophesy, and the build empires. In this case the imagination was the need for an Imperial Air Service Ts"self-evident whileprevision of the Government which, recognising the the Empire without an Air Service would be self- ~u^^ 4^* +w .. fl;~w _ ._.„ .< _ , , .L. condemned. The average mind, when consideringjtheobvious fact that" flight was true," rose to. meet the new situation by the establishment of the R.A.F. It was one of the gestures which makes history. It was the announcement that aviation belonged neither to the Army nor the Navy, but to the nation. It was the proof that the British Government could look beyond the pressing needs of war, and while supplying them, could lay a sure foundation for Great Britain's air future. It was thinking aeronautically which includes something larger than war—it includes peace flying, safe, unexciting, usual as motoring. When war passes, the energies of men and the ma- by cool, steady thinking in terms of aeronautics. question of flight, is apt to be rhapsodic and vague. The need is for opinion which thinks aeronautically, and whose criticism is informed and constructive. The new fact is hardly digested yet, the implications of the R.A.F. are hardly realised. The Empire was won by land and sea. Will it be held by air ? Will the transport trade now hitch its wagon to a star ? What are the things made obsolete by flight ? Which go, which remain ? Has geography to go ? Does dis- tance count ? These questions can be answered only OOOOOOOOO '"••-„- -, •-• O A German Twin-engined Bomber. —It will be seenthat at last the enemy has ap-parently been obliged to employfour-bladed air- screws. Hithertothere has been a marked tendencyon the part of German con-structors to stick to the two-bladedpropeller. [Also note in place thewire guards pro- tecting againstthe propeller tips. O o o o o o o o o o o p b o o 00000000 G
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