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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0069.PDF
AIRCRAF AND ENGINEER AIRSHIPS flRST AERONAUTICALIXEEKEY IN THE^WoRLD i FOUNDED 1909 Editor G M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.1 Telegrams : Truditnr, Sednt. London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 Una:). HERTFORD ST.. COVENTRY. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALI, B0ILU1NGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMISGH.Ua. 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland i!971. MO, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER, :i. Telegrams: IliBe, Manchester. Telephone Blackfriars 4412. 26B, RENFIELD ST., GLASGOW. C.2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION-BATES : Home and Canada: Other Countries: Tear, 41 13 0. Year, «1 16 0. 6 month*. 16s. 6d. 6 months, 18s. Od. 3 months. 8s. 6d. 3 months, !*s. Od. No. 1464. Vol. XXXI. JANUARY 14, 1937. Thursdays, Price 6d. In Spai m ain THE horrors of the war in Spain may at least pro vide this amount of comfort for the world, that they have provided, a very fair example of the ineffectiveness of bombing a civilian population. The bombing of Madrid has not been so wholesale and so continuous as pessimists assure us would be the case if a foreign enemy were to wreak his wicked will on London, and it does not seem that the besiegers of Madrid have made an extensive use of gas. None the less, the civilians of the Spanish capital have had a terrible experience. It is a relief to read that they are being evacuated, doubtless to save them from the horrors of sack if the assaulting infantry break in. But bomb ing the civilians has not caused the surrender of Madrid. In fact, history is repeating itself by showing once again that " frightfulness" never has and surely never will beat a virile people to its knees. It would be interesting if military, as apart from poli tical, conclusions could be drawn from the use of aircraft m Spain, but, to judge from the article by Mr. Pem broke Stephens, special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, in last Monday's issue of that paper, the aircraft and the air defences alike seem to have been misused. Bombing raids on military objectives have mostly missed their mark, and the raids have been single efforts, not a continuous bombardment. Conse quently, such damage as was done was quickly repaired. Such a result condemns the higher command °* the bombers rather than the bombing aeroplane as weapon. Fast bombers missed by a greater margin jnan the slower Russian machines did. The tactics of nymg low over the target and throttling back to allow a surer aim do not seem to be have been practised, nurrih 8round elements of defence have been short of how t and °f trainin&- Tne gunners do not know that S aim' and the>7 have no Predictors. It is said from\i'lre re S1^ surPrised people in Spain, but about t ^P^ns' account there is nothing surprising «• The only surprising thing is that they do seem to have shot down a few aeroplanes. That sug gests that a really well-trained and well-organised system of defence ought to take an. appreciable toll of raiding bombers, as we feel confident that the air defenders of London would do if they were ever forced to open fire. One lesson, however, we may learn from Spain, namely, that the supply cf guns and searchlights must be ample. An Americanised R.A,A.F. ? T HE Australian Defence Minister, Sir Archdale Parkhill, has told the Air Ministry that he intends to order forty aeroplanes, mostly of an American general-purpose type (a note on which appears on page 43), from the newly formed Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. This doubtless means that a few specimens will be obtained from the United States to gether with drawings, and that the rest of the machines will be built in Australia. At the present time the Home aircraft industry is over full with large orders from the Air Ministry for the R.A.E, and could not, even if requested to do so, have supplied forty machines for Australia very quickly. It might, perhaps, ha\re been able to do so before the new Australian factory will be able to build the American machines. It may even happen that the new Australian factory will be slow in developing its full power of out put, and in that case permission may be given to it to complete its order within the time limit by getting from America the machines which it has not been able to com plete itself. Similar things have happened before. Everyone can easily understand Australia's desire to establish her own aircraft industry. It is a natural and worthy ambition, even though at first the aircraft must be more expensive than imported ones. In parti cular it is an insurance policy, for in the event of a war it might be impossible for Australia to obtain imports of aircraft from Great Britain, or, indeed, from any over seas quarter. What does seem regrettable is that the Australian factory should start by making foreign machines under
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