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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0505.PDF
2l3 FLIGHT. FEBRUARY 27, 1936 In general, it may be said that heavy bombers, which have to do a great deal of night flying, ought to be manned by regulars, for on Monday mornings the Special Reservists have Jo attend to their civilian duties, which may suffer if the men have been flying all the night before. But it is certainly a moot point whether the Cadre squadron or the A.A.F. squadron gives the best results. In the former regulars and non-regulars are brought into close touch. The regulars are permanent inhabitants of the messes and quarters, and they natur ally lend an air of official status to the squadron. The Special Reservists tend to take their tone from the regu lars. The result of this commingling of two sets of men produces a very happy result. From the point of view of operational efficiency, one would naturally expect a higher standard from a Cadre squadron than from a unit of the A.A.F. ; but the latter are so very efficient that comparisons become odious. At any rate, in an emer gency it would be possible to get at least one flight of a Cadre squadron into action without any delay, such as might occur through waiting for the non-regulars to mobilise, and that would seem an advantage. The Auxiliary squadrons are almost wholly non- regular, and so each of them finds efficiency in its own way, with a minimum of lead from the Royal Air Force. In an emergency there is no reason to suppose that thev would be any slower in getting into action than the Territorial sappers and gunners who man the anti aircraft ground defences; and so, if the voluntary prin ciple is held good enough in the case of the latter, there is no valid reason why it should be frowned upon in the case of the former. An Auxiliary squadron must cost the country less than a Cadre squadron costs, and a Cadre squadron must be cheaper than a regular squadron. If economy is to be the ruling principle, it would certainly be a good thin" to convert the Cadre squadrons into A.A.F. squadrons. But in these days of expansion, economy by itself can not be allowed to outweigh considerations of defence efficiency. The raising of new regular squadrons would certainly be simplified and expedited if the regular offi cers and airmen now posted to the five Cadre squadrons were set free to form the nuclei of new regular squadrons. Whether it would be a simple matter to replace them at once by citizen airmen when the squadrons were handed over to the A.A.F. is a matter for consideration. In some counties plenty of suitable recruits could easily be found, but in other localities this is more doubtful. A good deal depends on the prosperity of each county, and recruiting by the regular R.A.F. is now very keen. IMPERIAL LUXURY : The after cabin of one of the new Short "Empire" flying boats, seen from the promenade cabin. For night work, bunks will be rigged above the luxurious seats—which, it will be noted, are provided with adjusting levers to set the backs to any desired angle. By day the boat will carry 24 passengers, and 16 by night—which suggests even trior intricate booking problems for the Imperial Airways traffic staff. This photograph, of course, is not of the interior ot a actual boat, but of the careful "mock-up" which serves as a guide to the fitting-out of the finished article. (Imperu * Airways photograph.)
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