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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0373.PDF
The,AIRCRAFT ENGINEER FIRST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD .- FOUNDED WOO Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer IOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (35 lines). 8-10, CORPORATION ST., C OVE N TRY. Te/ef rams Autocar, Coventry. Telephone: Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS NAVIGATION ST.. BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Aucopress, Birmingham. Telephone. Midland 197 1 (5 linos). 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. 26B, RENFIELD ST. GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone; Central 4857. SUBSCRIPTION RATES : No. 1677. Vol. XXXIX. Home and Abroad : Year, £3 10. 6 months, Registered a: the G.P.O. as a Newspaper. FEBRUARY 13th, 1941. £1 IS 6. 3 months, 17s. 96. Thursdays, Price 9d. The Outlooks FightersF ROM the pistcl and carbine carried in aeroplanes during the early part of the war 1914-18 to the multi-gun and shell-gun equipment of the fighter of to-day is a far cry. And performance, in the matter of speed and climb, has made equally startling progress. It is probably difficult for the modern generation to realise that only twenty-five years ago British and German pilots who happened to meet in the air over France or Germany used to wave to one another, and that, to quote a remark by the present A.O. C.-in-C, Fighter Command, "at the time this did not appear ^1 any way ridiculous." There was no armament on ooard, so what else could they do? And as Air Marshal Sholto Douglas points out in the quotation in the article on fighter development published in this issue, "there is a bond between all who fly, even between enemies." But war is war, and it was not long before armament of aircraft was introduced. From pistols and carbines it progressed through rifles fixed at an angle to miss the airscrew disc, and through fixed guns with interrupter gear, and movable guns on Scarff gun rings, to the wing- mounted machine guns and shell guns, and to the guns in power-driven turrets of to-day. All this is brought out in the article, which, however, is designed to deal primarily with fighters rather than with armament. One of our pioneer designers recalls early days at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, and one of our "old" pilots (old in experience rather than in years). gives his impressions of the differences between flying the fighters of 1917-18 and those of the present time. Mr. H. P. Folland,• who was largely responsible tor the S.E.5 design, reminds us that an even earlier type, the S.E.4, was before its time in many of its design features. A weak wheel caused it to be abandoned, as it was considered dangerous to land an aeroplane at 52 m.p.h. ! , Capt. Hubert Broad sums up the fighter position very neatly with his remark: "The weapon is bigger and heavier; the trigger finger remains the same." Col. Lindbergh's OpinionC OL. LINDBERGH is reported by Reuter to have said in his evidence before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate that he desired a British victory, but did not believe that Britain was in a position to win the war, and as a prolonged war would bring widespread distress, he preferred a negotiated peace. CoL Lindbergh is a very good pilot, not merely because he once flew the Atlantic, but on other evi- dence. He is also acknowledged as an authority on civil flying in general. None of these qualifications makes him an authority on major strategy or on international politics. He is entitled to his own opinion just as much as any other individual, but why an expert on various aspects of air commerce should be invited to give evi- dence on this subject before this Committee of the Senate is one of the curiosities of American life which Britons find it hard to understand. A negotiated peace now would be to all intents and purposes the same thing as a German victory. No form of negotiation would induce the Nazis to give up the European countries which they have overrun or would dissipate their ambition to break Britain and the British Empire as a precedent to tackling the American con- tinent. Nazi promises, whether verbal or in writing, have no value whatsoever. If a peace were negotiated and the treaty were signed, it would not be possible for the British Empire to disarm with a feeling of security. All the world would live for a short time in a state of
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