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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1472.PDF
DECEMBER 19, 1918 •> .. *?.,* •- • $w PURISMS FKOM THE FOUR WfNDS. PFALTHOUGH the last of the Great Powers to enter the War,probably no nation has learnt more frcm the general trend of war methods than the United States of America. Shehas certainly learnt enough, judging by pronouncements, semi-official and otherwise, to appreciate the real meaningof the " Freedom of the Seas.^as viewed by Great Britain, and it looks as if the U.S. in the future means to run neckand neck with this country in building and maintaining a super navy to help secure that " Freedom of the Seas,"which, by the bye, does strike us once again as emphatically more for the concern of that League of Nations, when itgets going, than any business of the Peace Congress. Surely the latter is to dictate the Allies' terms of Peace to Germany.At least the U.S. realises clearly that aviation is very in- timately mixed up with any big fighting Sea- Force, and inthis direction Admiral Badger, the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the U.S. General Naval Board, has made thefollowing pronouncement:—• " Aircraft will in the future play an important part in allscouting operations of the Fleet. " The General Board is convinced that Fleet engagementswill be preceded in the future by operations in the air. Therefore it is necessary that facilities shall be providedfor our Fleet to carry on such operations. " Admiral Beatty, the Commander-in-Chief of the BritishGrand Fleet, has informed us that the Germans have six seaplane carriers, and that in Fleet operations they appearto be working seaplanes in conjunction with Zeppelins. He says that every effort should be made to develop the useof naval aircraft for Fleet purposes in every possible respect. The General Board has recommended the inclusion of sixseaplane carriers in the 1920 programme. " The General Board believes that our Navy should possessrigid airships and has recommended the purchase abroad of two of the latest patterns and the construction in thiscountry of two more. It is understood that ths Briti: h decid d before Ihs close of war to keep 16 rigid airshipsin commission. They have now nine built and four authorised. " The French have adopted rigid airships as part of their naval programme. Germany is reported to have had afleet of 50 rigid dirigibles, with necessary manufacturing facilities to turn out a ship every two or three weeks." ONE can well believe that the discerning public, afterhaving been severely inoculated with the thousands of won- derful photographs from above of the surface of this sphereof ours, will look for work from the bird's-eye point of view, from the brushes of our leading artists. It should becomequite a business to hire out to artists some of our sausage balloons to enable them to correctly record on canvaswhat the pilot sees when passing through the air, and instead of a series of moored punts at some, very favourite artists'bit on the river, it may well become a common object of the landscape to see half a dozen " sausages " bending to thewind in the more picturesque districts of England. " NIGHT PILOT " in a contemporary not very unreasonably"protests against the attempts being made to dub aviation pilots who may join up with the commercial side of aviation," aerial chauffeurs." A more suitable and more dignified designation should easily be found. WHAT sounds uncommonly like a practical applicationof aviation to modern requirements is reported from Australia. An expedition of six experts, with aeroplanes and motorcycles is to leave Sydney on January 14th for a survey of the trans-Australian route to Port Darwin in the NorthernTerritory, whence it is proposed that there should be con- nection to the Eastern Archipelago, India, and Egypt. THOSE disconcerting aerial net aprons which put the fearof God into the Hun bombers of London, were suggested, as an antidote, it appears, in the very earliest days of theZeppelins. " The Londoner" upon this subject, for fear there may arise some misconception, like unto the disputesas to who first conceived the idea of " Tanks," writes :— " Let me put in a word for Mr. James Macdonald, ofIlford and Stornoway, chief engineer of a boat which a sub- marine put down in the Mediterranean. In the very early OOOOOOOOO O O o o b o :oo o :O O vO Teaching the Youngto Fiy.'— At the Enemy Aircraft Ex-fa b.tion a good use has been found fora German machine. All the controls havebeen removed and pared on the floorof the hall in such a wav that youngEngland can take his seat and, asshown in our photo- graph, see on theaeroplane in front of him the elevatcr,rudder, etc., respond obedientlyas he gleefully pushes the joy-stickand rudder. Noth ng can give greaterdelight to the very small boy than tobe allowed to'*take charge" of a full- O sized aeroplane,especially a German O one. OOOOOOOOO ? o o 1441
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