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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0676.PDF
332 FLIGHT. MARCH 28, 1935. THE AIR ESTIMATES INTRODUCED Some Noteworthy Points from Sir Philip Sassoon's Speech in the Commons Last Week : The Debate : Mr. Winston Churchill as Critic TOUCHING upon the much-vaunted efficiency of American aircraft, Sir Philip Sassoon, Under-Secretary of State for Air, made some pertinent comments in his speech introducing the Air Esti mates in the House of Commons on Tuesday, March 19. A brief resume of the speech was given in last week's issue of Flight, while the Air Estimates were set out in detail in the issue of March 7. Below are given some further points from Sir Philip's speech. Sir Philip said that, for the first time since it had been his privilege to introduce Air Estimates, he was presenting Votes which provided for a substantial accession to the air strength of the nation. He pointed out that much confusion had been caused by the varying methods which different nations fol lowed in stating their aircraft programmes. When the United States spoke of adding so many hundred aircraft to their air services those figures did not simply represent additions to first-line strength, but the total number of aircraft to be held, including replacements and reserve machines. If we adopted the American method he might say that we should be order ing well over 1,000 machines for the R.A.F. in 1935 alone. First-line strengths were far from being the only criterion. • In other factors we could still challenge comparison with any other nation. Sir Philip mentioned a report by a powerful independent Commission which had just been investigating the whole field of aeronautics in the United States. He quoted the following passage: — The past year has been marked by incessant attack, using every available medium of publicity, upon the quality of American military aircraft. It has been alleged that they are in every essential respect hopelessly inferior to corresponding machines of European origin. It is an interesting commentary on the state of the public mind that these charges seem to be essentially similar to those being made at the same time in the very countries which have been held up to the United States as examples to imitate. The Press of Great Britain has rung with assertions of the remarkable qualities of Ameri can aircraft and the inability of the available British military types even to keep pace with American commer cial machines. In France a section of the Press has de bated furiously the rumoured inferiority of French military aircraft to those of most of the rest of the world. In Qood Company " I take some comfort," remarked Sir Philip, " from the fact that our own stern critics of all we do, of all we have, and of all we are, apparently have their precise counterparts the world over. So that, if these critics have their way and we are to be court-martialled because of the alleged defi ciencies of the Royal Air Force, we may at least hope to face the firing squad in the excellent company of those responsible for the American, French, and other military air services! " Continuing, Sir Philip said that they had had to take special steps to shorten the time hitherto taken to bring new types into production, and that they were confident that the British industry would rise to the occasion. No fewer than 29 foreign countries were using British aircraft, and 33 were using British engines, whilst the value of our exports rose in 1934 by 3T Per cent. The first-line strength of the R.A.F. to-day was about 890 machines in regular squadrons plus about 130 machines in non-regular squadrons, or 1,020 in all. This year's programme would bring it up to 1,170 and the 1936 programme would bring it to 1,310. Turning to civil flying, Sir Philip mentioned again the ad vances in 1934 an(l the programme of future developments, which has been made public He pointed out that in the last two years Imperial Airways had carried across the Channel a substantially larger number of passengers than all their foreign competitors combined. The weight of letters sent by air from this country in 1934 was the largest ever recorded, namely, 122 tons, an increase of 43 per cent. This repre sented nearly six million letters. Sir Philip mentioned the formal ratification of a ten-vear agreement with Italy which would enable Imperial Airvvav to fly freely over Italian territory. An understanding Wltji France which would be the basis of a similar agreement wa- arrived at shortly before Christmas. Within the next month or two Imperial Airways planned to operate an interim service through to Brindisi with small aircraft, primarily for the carriage of mails. A full service by large aircraft could 1101 be brought into operation until the fleet had been increased owing to the duplication of the African and Indian services. During 1934 seventeen different companies had operated inland air services in the United Kingdom. Sir Philip created a surprise by stating that, "on a basis either of our respective national incomes or of our populations, there are proportionately more private pilots' licences current to-day iu this country than in the United States." Of the new services which are contemplated, Sir Philip said that no other country in the world had yet formulated plans for the carriage of the bulk of first-class mail by air without surcharge. The new programme would entail the raising 01 anything up to two million pounds of capital, the bulk of which would go to the provision of a new fleet. Sir Phiiip gave figures of American expenditure on civil flying, which were dealt with in Flight of March 14 under the heading "An American Stocktaking." He then made the announcement, which was published in our last issue, ot a Government prize of £25,000 for the best medium-sized com mercial transport machine produced by any United Kingdom firm within a stated period. Mr. Churchill's Remarks The only really important speech in the debate which fol lowed was that of Mr. Winston Churchill. He said that nothing was more notable in the Under-Secretary's speech than what he had left out. They were all deeply exercised in their minds about the relative strength of the German and British Air Forces. He said that there was no difference between the Government and those who supported the Govern ment, because Mr. Baldwin had said that the Government would see to it that in air strength this country should no longer be inferior to any country within striking distance of our shores. Mr. Churchill questioned the figures of German air strength which Mr. Baldwin had quoted in November last. He objected to the machines of non-regular squadrons being counted as first-line strength, saying that they were not fairly comparable with the whole-time units of the R.A.F. He foretold that the true position at the end of this year would be almost the reverse of wbai Mr. Baldwin had stated to Parliament (namely, that by November, 1935, this country would have a margin of nearly 50 per cent, in Europe aione over the German total of aircraft). The frontiers of Germany were very much nearer to London than the sea coasts of this island were to Berlin, and whereas practically the whole of the German bombing air force could reach London with effective loads of bombs, very few, if any, of our aeroplanes could reach Berlin with an appreciable load of bombs. He did not think that Mr. Baldwin's pledge of our not being inferior to any country within striking distance was being kept, or would be kept, because the efforts being made would not be made by this country alone. The provision lot this year was hopelessly inadequate. In his reply Sir Philip Sassoon said that he could not follow Mr. Churchill into a morass of figures which must be very largely conjecture. According to the latest information ia their possession it was not correct to say that at the end 01 this year the German air force would be fifty per cent. stronger than we were either on a basis of first-line strengt or in total aircraft. Our programme was flexible, capable of being either increased or decreased as emergency required- They hoped after the visit of the Foreign Secretary to Berlin to know what figure of strength Germany would give, and 1 was presumed that the Foreign Secretary would be able to give the House a clearer picture of what was rather confusing an complicated at the moment.
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