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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0747.PDF
3i8 FLIGHT. MARCH 26, 1936. Eggs and Baskets AGREAT many shore-going people have been secretly wondering what would be the return for 1 a good deal of their money if an enemy bomb were to score a bull's-eye on the deck of one of our carriers. If would seem that, though the ship might not be disabled, as an aircraft carrier she would be no further use that day, and the best thing she could do would be to return to harbour. Such a happening seems far from improbable in a naval war, but as the Admiralty has persisted in setting store by carriers, the shore-going people have felt that it was not for them to object. At last the doubts of the laymen have been put into words by no less a person than Viscount Trenchard. Speaking in the House of Lords last week in the defence debate, he said: "A carrier is only a bad aerodrome, and when I heard the noble earl, Lord Howe, talk about the Americans having ninety aeroplanes in one carrier I hoped we should never be so foolish as to copy that. You would put all the eggs in one basket, and one bomb, if it did not sink it, would make it useless.'' Now that someone in authority has said it, it seems very obvious; and yet would even Lord Trenchard venture to suggest that the Fleet should dispense with carriers? Before long all our cruisers and capital ships will carry one or more catapults with floatplanes to be launched by them, and these aircraft can be used in a naval engagement either as a supplement to the machines from the carrier, or as an alternative to them. Prob ably it would be necessary for all these floatplanes to be launched before the big guns of the ship were fired, and if the sea were very rough it might be impossible to recover more than a few of them after they had finished their flights. There is no obvious way in which naval aircraft can go into action with a reasonable assur ance that the majority will be able to perform their functions throughout the action. Yet no fleet could dis pense with aircraft. Even the minimum service which the ' might render at the commencement of an action would certainly be important—possibly vital. A fleet without aircraft could not hope to master an enemy of equal surface strength which had aircraft at its disposal. So far as fleet actions are concerned, the best policy would seem to be to distribute your eggs among as many baskets as possible. That would suggest more carriers and perhaps smaller ones. Other possibilities which ought to be considered are the use of long-range flying boats, based on the shore, and (though this suggestion may shock some minds) airships carrying aeroplanes. There are possibilities in both suggestions. ' Patrol of the ocean trade routes is another naval duty, and here there has not yet been nearly enough use made of aircraft. Carriers could work on these routes with but little danger, but here, far more than for fleet actions, the possibilities of airships deserve consideration. They are at least cheap. THE WORLD'S FASTEST BOMBER : Inspecting the Fairey Battle from stem to stern one finds : three-bladed Fairey airscrew ; supercharged Rolls-Royce Merlin ; small abdominal radiator, possibly denoting high-temperature cooling ; internal landing lights ; semi retractable undercarriage ; complete cockpit enclosure ; and cantilever tail plane. The covering is a stressed metal -skin. All these features are visible in this view of Fit. Lt. Christopher Staniland "posing " the Battle over Heath Row.
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