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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0353.PDF
FEBRUARY IO, 1938- FLIGHT. 123 UP WITH THE COMPOSITE : Though the first separation of the Short-Mayo composite combination, Mercury and Maia, is saidto have been witnessed only by bargees in the Medway estuary, the art of the aerial photographer brings us an intimate glimpse .. of this strangest of all aircraft not long before the " great event." A report of the separation appears overleaf. Brazil, a D.L.H. seaplane was able to alight beside him and take him on board. The lesson is not invalidated by the fact that the seaplane could not take off again. It remained afloat until the mother ship, Schwabenland, steamed up and took the seaplane on board. Had it been a landplane which discovered the Italian airman beside his burning machine it could only have circled round over- head and watched him drown. These incidents have a distinct bearing on the modern tendency to say that when flying over water it does not matter, from the point of view of safety, whether one uses a landplane or a seaplarie, and that it is only the facilities at the terminal points which matter. It is true enough that if a flying boat were forced down in a heavy sea it probably would not float for long, and in any case forced landings are now very uncommon—though Signor Stoppani was forced down. But other things beside engine failure may cause a forced landing. Seas are not always rough, and the ability to float for a considerable period may give just time for a rescue. For that reason it will be a good thing when Qantas Airways exchanges its present landplanes for C Class flying boats on the route between Singapore and Sydney. Carpentaria has been finished, and Corio is ready for delivery. The shark- infested Timor Sea has not yet claimed a landplane victim, but it would not be wise to trust it longer than is necessary. The Singapore Exercises T NT all martial exercises, and particularly in combined J^ (xercises by all three Services, it is very necessary to sound a warning against the tendency to ask which side won. Occasionally, of course, large-scale manoeuvres may be staged in which a free hand is given to the com- manders on each side with the object of testing to some "tent the tactical ability of Generals, Admirals or Air Marshals, but such occasions are rare. Usually, coast defence exercises or air exercises are simply intended to " run the engine up " and see if all the parts are function- ing with efficiency. That, undoubtedly, was the main object of the recent sham attack on Singapore. This great new fortress has been years in building at a cost of several million pounds. It would have been completed earlier had not a Socialist Government, in a fervour of pacifism, stopped all work on it while it was in power. But at last the main fortifications have been completed, and it was certainly desirable to hold some exercises which would bring all the elements of the defence into action, familiarise each element with the part it would have to play in real war, and to see if any gaping holes in the scheme.could be discovered. Nothing but real war could prove whether Singapore is impregnable or not. A huge fortress is not like a specimen aeroplane wing, and it is not feasible to test it to destruction. But much is gained if the three regular Services and the local Volun- teers and Volunteer Air Force are trained to work together, and to understand something of the powers and limitations of their comrades in arms. It is especially desirable that naval, military and air staffs should learn to work together in harmony, and this can only be practised in peace-time exercises. It might be fatal to enter on a war without such experience. - At the same time these, exercises at Singapore had a political object, and must have had a useful political result. Singapore can never be regarded as a threat to Japan, for it is too far away. Even if war were to break out between Britain and Japan, a fleet based on Singa- pore could not menace Japanese waters. But while the Far East is in its present deplorable state of bloodshed and aggression, it is certainly wise to remind all and sundry that Britain is a great power in the Indian Ocean, and that Australia, with its huge expanse and sparse population, is not outside the reach of the long arms oi the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. These exercise? preceded the visit of American warships to Singapore, and that visit, too, is not without its political significance.
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