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Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0320.PDF
MAY 6, 1926 THE ROYAL ACADEMY BANQUET Sir Samuel Hoare Responds for the Air Force SIR SAMUEL HOARE, Secretary of State for Air, in responding on behalf of the Air Force on the occasion of the Royal Academy Banquet at Burlington House on May 1, referred to the fact that the President year by year did honour to a new Force that, although it was only eight years old, was not unworthy to be linked with the two great senior Services. Year by year, also, he honoured by this toast the great company of men of thought and action who, especially in these last years, had devoted their efforts, and often their lives, to the conquest of the air. Was it not significant, said Sir Samuel, that the great adventure of flying had proved a magnet to the most alert thinkers of many succeeding generations—whether it be to such minds as the mind of Roger Bacon, the most original thinker of the Middle Ages, or to such imaginations as the imagination of Leonardo da Vinci, the furthest sighted prophet of the Renaissance ? It was surely then not in- appropriate that his (Sir Samuel's) audience, representing so worthily the arts and sciences of the country, should show its continued interest in a discovery and invention that so many great men had struggled to achieve. As to the Royal Air Force, he was happy to state that it was substantially stronger than it was when he responded for this toast a year ago, its training was constantly develop- ing, and even- effort was being made to take full advantage of the teachings of British science in its equipment. Perhaps in view of certain intermittent criticisms, it was worth re- peating that the Royal Air Force was the greatest flying force in the world. Although in size it was far from being the greatest Air Force in the world, according to the latest figures available, its hours of actual flying had exceeded, not only proportionally, but absolutely, the flying hours of any other Power. Let those critics who spoke of an Air Force tied to the ground remember this conclusive and unanswerable fact. Just as the country was more and more fully realising the excellence of its air arm, so, he believed, was it beginning to grasp the value of air power in the field of Imperial defence. Hitherto, the British taxpayer, looking at the Service Esti- mates, had discovered the mournful fact that the most con- spicuous result of the war to end war had been the addition of a third defence expenditure to the two that had formerly existed. If this piling of Pelion upon Ossa was to be stopped, some way must be found for using the new arm as a means of economy, and not as a cause of additional expense Was the answer to this problem to be found in the great mobihty of air power ? Could we, by the use of Air Force in the Empire, help to get a quicker " turn over," to use a business metaphor, of our defence resources ? This was a question of great im- portance and complexity, and he did not wish to give a dogmatic answer. He would only say that the first step to- wards an answer must be found in the organization of Empire <S> <3> air routes along which Air Force could be moved quickly and safely from one end of the Empire to the other. When the routes were marked out and prepared, and squadrons could pass swiftly from one Imperial territory to another, the country would, he believed, find that the mobility of air power had put into its hands an instrument of real economy. Let those who were interested in the problem follow the first efforts that they were already making in this direction. We were beginning to organize our long-distance routes. We were beginning to send service units upon long-distance flights in the ordinary course of their training. Such a flight was the flight of the three machines that at the beginning of last November flew from Egypt to Nigeria and covered in a few flying hours country that it would have taken months to traverse in any other way. Such a flight was the flight that was now more than half completed between Cairo and Cape Town. In this case we had witnessed four service machines flying in formation across the African continent, a distance of 5,289 miles, over every kind of country and through great variety of climate, with a regularity and punctuality that was worthy of a pre-war Bradshaw. The flight had already started without mishap upon its return, and he took this opportunity of announcing that, if all went well, the homeward journey would not end in Egypt, but would bring the machines and their crews to these shores, where in a few weeks we could give them the welcome that they deserved. If he needed a further example of the mobility of Air Force and of its power to defeat time and distance, he would remind them of an incident of a different kind that had taken place during the last few weeks. The leader of the Spanish flight to Manila was, in passing over Trans-Jordania. lost in the desert. For six days he and his companion were missing. Hour after hour, 24 machines from the neighbouring commands scoured the desert, covering in their search some 16,000 square miles. At length they found Captain Estevez. Nothing but the search of aeroplanes could have saved this airman's life. Nothing but aeroplanes could have scoured in so short a time these great expanses of trackless country. He was proud to think that the British Air Force was able to give such ready and effective help to the officer of the sister force of Spam. These incidents, concluded Sir Samuel, he had ventured to- mention as illustrations of the way in which Air Force could, owing to its mobility, be used to the advantage of the British Empire and to the good of the world. It was for this gene- ration to insist that the great discovery of flying, sought and won after many centuries of endeavour, should simplify and not complicate "the problems of Imperial defence, should mean economy and not additional expense in the field of national expenditure, and should, instead of making war more terrible, make peace more secure by uniting the Empire and bringing the countries of the world more closely together. A Lithuanian Biplane The first aeroplane to be construc- ted in Lithuania, by Linenau and Co. Fitted with a Napier "Lion" engine it is stated to have a speed of 160 m.p.h. and to have reached an altitude of 17,000 ft. in 17 minutes. 276
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