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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0834.PDF
3i4 FLIGHT. APRIL I, 1937. bility in any one operation. That there should be fight ing men on board His Majesty's ships who are not in the complete care of the Admiralty for recruiting, equipping, promotion, rewards, and possible punishment, is one way of asking for trouble in time of war. The Royal Marines are soldiers, and if they were lent by the War Office to the Admiralty there would be a precedent for the lending of airmen by the Air Ministry. But the Marines are raised by the Admiralty, and that precedent ought to be followed in the case of the Fleet Air Arm. Mr. Churchill has suggested a plan for improving the present unsatisfactory position which is very much the plan advocated by Flight. He called his plan "opera tional integrity, for want of a better term," and certainly the well-known ingenuity of the right honourable gentle man ought to have coined a better one. It will never become such a classic as his " terminologically inexact." In short, he would give the Navy what it really re quires for naval operations, and he would give it com pletely, bag and baggage, while reserving to the Air Force the whole control of air war in its larger sense. That is the plain, sensible way out of the difficulty. No one ought to ask for more than that, and we must add that nothing but unworthy departmentalism could object to giving that much. We would, however, add the proviso that, so far as flying training is concerned, all ab initio instruction should be in the care of the Air Ministry, and only specialised flying for naval purposes (deck landings and the like) should be handed over to the Admiralty. The Air Ministry should also remain responsible for the supply of aircraft, as well as continu ing in charge of meteorology and research. The country should not have to pay for duplication of such sendees. On all fours with the Fleet Air Arm are the ground elements of air defence. Admittedly, it would be incon venient for all concerned to convert the Territorial sappers and gunners into Auxiliary Airmen at the present moment, and perhaps that was why Sir Thomas Inskip was able to say that " The Air Ministry . . . are at this present moment very much opposed to any such sug gestion being adopted." Present convenience may post pone the application of a principle, but sooner or later that principle will have to be put into practice if the safety of the country is not to suffer. Sir Thomas was far less adamantine in last week's debate than he had been in the first discussion, and he '' conceived it possible that at a much later stage in the completion of the Government's programme the subject might be considered again." That admission is a good deal, and at the present stage it would not be reason able to ask for more. But whether the gentlemen com posing the Air Ministry at any given time are anxious or loath to take over the searchlights and the anti-aircraft guns, it is to be hoped that students of defence problems will not forget this matter and will bring it up again at the appropriate later stage in the completion of the ex pansion programme. The Air Ministry ought to have possession of those batteries and battalions, whether they say they wrant them or not. What is more, it is highly probable that the necessary number of recruits would be far more readily forth coming in answer to a call from the Air Ministry than to one from the War Office. The former has the better reputation for treating its men well, and, which is even more important, for equipping them with the latest weapons and instruments. NEW GENERATION : This exclusive Flight photograph of the production-type Hawker Hurricane single-seater fighter and the " P.4 " two-seater bomber in company near Brooklands anticipates the spectacles of formations of such impressive aeroplanes when, in the not-far-distant future, they are in service with the R.A.F. The Hurricane, which, like its flight companion, mounts the Rolls-Royce Merlin, has already been ordered in quantity. Fit. Lt. Bulman's homely headgear in this picture is a tribute to the civilising influence of the modern enclosed cockpit.
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