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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0169.PDF
Flight, February 12, 1920 RNGINEEFL First Aero Weekly in the World • Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM No. 581 (No. 7, Vol. XII.) FEBRUARY 12, 1920 TWeekly, Price 6d.L Post Free, 7d. Flight The Aircraft Engineer and Airships Editorial Offict: 36, GREAT QUEEN STREET, KINGSWAV, W.C. 2. Telegrams: Truditur, Westcent, London. Telephone : Gerrard 1818. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free-. United Kingdom .. 28s. id. Abroad 33s. od.* These rates are subject to any alteration found necessary under abnormal conditions • European subscriptions must be remitted in British currency CONTENTS Editorial Comment -•— PAGE "The Next War" 169 Civil Aerial Transport 170 To India and Back .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 172 Some Fokker Milestones 3 The Royal Aero Club : Official Notices .. ,- .. .. .. .. 176 The Paris Aero Show .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..177 Personals .. 182 The Principles of Rigid Airship Construction. By A. P. Cole .. .. 183 Royal Aeronautical Society Notices 187 The Cairo-Cape Flight 188 Airisms from the Four Winds .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 191 Correspondence .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 192 The Royal Air Force .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ..194 DIAEY 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: Feb. 28 ... Lecture by Mr. Handley Page, C.B.E., at King's College, Strand, at 11 p.m. Seaplane Competition at MonacoApril 18 to May 2 May 22 and 23 June 1 ... Aviation Competition at Juvisy in connection with Fetes de Paris Air Ministry Competition (Small Type Aero- planes), Martlesham Heath July ... B.B.A.C. International Aero Exhibition at Olympla July (mid.) Seaplane Contests at Antwerp Aug. 1 ... Air Ministry Competition (Seaplanes) Felix- Btowe Aug. (end of) Schneider International Race, Venice. Sept. 1 ... Air Ministry Competition (Large Type Aero- plants), Martlesham Heath Sept. (end of) Gordon-Bennett Aviation Cup, France. N last Monday's Daily Mail there appeared a short article by " A Service M.P." which is very much to the point at the present moment, when the Government is starving the fighting Air Service to death, and has no policy in regard to the fostering of civil aviation. The first purpose of the writer is to criticise the new proposals for the Territorial Force, but he has some rather striking things to say regarding the next war, and the part that will be N "r w " plaYed m it by the aerial services of the belligerents. He says that up to eight years ago war was an affair of two dimensions. Armies and fleets moved in a plane. Movement was along a straight line on a level surface. The conquest of the air made a three-dimensional righting force possible. In the very near future the only fighting factors that will count will be the armies and navies that fly. Mr. Churchill and his " brass hat " friends have been brought up among foot soldiers and horse soldiers. They cannot understand the air soldier, his method of fighting, and his command of all war in the future. They are angry, and are trying to suppress what they cannot understand. Thus we see the separate Air Service once more under the War Office, where it is being quietly strangled. In the past, sea navies fought for the mastery of the sea routes so that their countries' merchant ships could carry foot and horse soldiers to the shores of the enemy. In the next war the only use for Mr. Churchill's Territorial soldiers will be for the labour battalions. The war-hardened soldier of today sees that, and it is to be doubted if he will join the new Territorial Army. Its only use will be to provide well-paid billets for a certain number of military limpets in peace time. The money would be a hundred times better spent in building aeroplanes, civil and military, and in training airmen. We cannot help thinking that it is rather a pity that the writer chose to veil his identity under a nom-de-plume, since his status as a Service member of Parliament would have lent added weight to what is an exceedingly strong and direct indictment of the present policy of Imperial defence as the Government and their advisers appear to visualise it. There is nothing new in the arguments, either as to their incidence or the manner of their presentation, but they are timely, nevertheless, if only for the fact that they demonstrate that what those who have studied the subject from within have believed for a long time is beginning to find acceptance from others. It is ' the sort of propaganda that is badly wanted to bring home to the public that, as the writer of the article well says, war has become an affair of three dimen- sions, and must be approached from a new standpoint accordingly. We have seen lately, in the shape of what purport to be reasoned criticisms from distin- guished generals and admirals, that the Service mind, trained in two-dimensional war, is unable to grasp
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