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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1437.PDF
Flight, November 6, 19W First Aero Weekly in the World Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion ar.d Transport OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM Mo. 567 (No. 45, Vol. XI.) NOVEMBER 6, 1919 rMkly. Pries M. POM Pre*. T«. Flight The Aircraft Engineer and Airships Editorial Office: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAY W.C. a. Telegrams : Truditur, Westccnt, London. Telephone : Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free : United Kingdom .. ais. td. Abroad.. .. 33J. od.* These rates are subject to any alteration found necessary under abnormal conditions 'European subscriptions must be remitted in British currency. CONTENTS PAGE 1439 1440 Editorial Comment '• Our Future is in the Air " The Hun in the Air The R.A.F. as a Separate Service .. .. .. .. .. .. 1440 The Flying Services Fund .. .. .. .. .. ., .. 1442 Flight—and the Men : Sir Napier Shaw The Camera and the Plane The Flight to Australia Royal Aero Club : Official Notices The Bristol '• Tourer " I+41 »443 1444 I45u I4S2 Airships.. .. .. .. ,. .. .. ., .. .. 1453 Airisms .. .. .. ,. .. .. ., .. 1457 In Parliament .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ., .. .. 1460 The Royal Air Force 1461 Company Doings .. .. .. .. .. .. ., .. .. 1464 DIARY OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS. Club Secretaries and others desirous of announcing the date of important fixtures are invited to send particulars for inclusion in the following list : Nov. ... Entrance Examination for R.A.F. College Nov. 7-15 .. Olympia Motor Car Show. Nov. 12 ... " Some Physical and Psychical Effects of Alti tude." Lecture by Dr. Cbas. Atldn Swan before R Ae.S. Dec 3 ... "The Air Force." Lecture by Air-Commodore H. R. Brooke-Popham before R.u.s.i. Paris Aero Show. Dec 19 to ., Jan. 4,1920. July, 1920 S.B.A.C. International Aero Exhibition at Olympi a COMMENT N7another column we publish certain extracts from the articles in the Evening Standard,written by Sir Percy Scott, which caused so much sensation a week or so ago. With those parts of Sir Percy's revelations relating to the neglect of gunnery in the Navy, and to , our general want of naval preparedness at the outbreak of war, we have nothing to do here. They will doubtless be judged by history. " 0 F ti ^ not now' an(^ we can Pass tnein by is in therew^n *^e exPression of opinion that if Air '' they are true—and we cannot doubt that they are—then the whole admini strative system of the Royal Navy is utterly hopeless, and must be swept away, to give place to an organisation which knows its duty and will do it. During the War more than one highly-placed Naval officer was removed from his command for real or alleged incompetence, yet none of the Admiralty staff who were responsible for allowing us to go into the War with naval equip ment far and away inferior to that possessed by the enemy has suffered in any way—except that some have been given the O.B.E. ! What we are very much concerned with are Sir Percy's views of the future and value of naval aviation. It is clear that in his opinion we are wasting money and deluding ourselves into a sense of false security by the building of capital ships costing anything up to eight millions a-piece. In this view he is in goodly company. Lord Fisher, in a letter to The Times, says : " It is as clear as daylight that future war at sea precludes the use of any vessel of war that can't go under water, because aircraft will compel it ... . All you want is the present naval side of the Air Force—that's the future navy." Now, here are two exceedingly eminent naval officers whose opinions coincide absolutely in the matter of future naval war. Lord Fisher is the one whose far-sighted brain grasped the certainties of the future, and, in face of the strongest opposition, succeeded in re-grouping the Fleet against the German menace. If others had had their way, the Navy would have been distributed as it was twenty years ago, and Germany's " chosen moment " would have resulted in a blow at our vitals from which it is more than possible we could not have recovered in time. It was he who anticipated the trend of design of the capital ship and got in first with the " Dreadnought " type of battleship, and thus gave us a two-years' lead of Germany in ship construction. Sir Percy Scott was the father of scientific gunnery in the Navy. It was he who was the first to realise that naval war was destined to undergo a complete change in character, and that the motto of the battle-winning fleet must be : " Gunnery, more gunnerj' and yet again gunnery." Invariably the ships he commanded headed the gunnery lists of the Navy. He introduced new methods of fire-control and gun-laying—methods which, as he has recorded, the hide-bound officials of the Admiralty would not adopt. It was he who was responsible for director firing, which has now been adopted by all the first-class fleets of the world. It is worth while glancing thus briefly at the records of these two distinguished officers, because by so doing we are able to see that all their success
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