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Aviation History
1941
1941 - 0664.PDF
MARCH 2OTH, 1941. AIR ESTIMATES Sir Archibald Sinclair's Speech : New Aircraft Types Named SIK ARCHIBALD SINCLAIR, Secretary of State forAir, introduced the Air Estimates in the House ofCommons on March nth. The following are the most important passages of his speech : — Sir A. Sinclair said that in the last 10 months, in twotheatres of war, the R.A.F. had fought against very great odds, but not without success, as the destruction, mainlyby our incomparable fighter squadrons, of some 4,250 German and i.iod Italian aircraft for the loss in combatof fewer than i,8oo aircraft of our own, the security of our shores, and the part played by the R.A.F. in the dis-ruption of the Italian Empire, combined to testify. Our bombers had made 260 raids on aerodromes andseaplane bases, 300 on docks and shipping, 470 on railways and communications and 630 on industrial targets—all thesein Germany. In addition, very many heavy raids had been made on objectives in occupied territory. In all thevaried activities of the Coastal Command, reconnaissance across the sea, convoy patrol, attacking warships, U-boatsand merchant vessels, and photographing and bombing enemy bases in the last 10 months, aircraft of the CoastalCommand had flown 16,000,000 miles. The air war was not being fought on our side by the R.A.F. and the FleetAir Arm alone. The squadrons of Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Rhodesias, squadronsmanned by men from India and Newfoundland and from all the Colonial Empire were playing their part in thebattle. A great and increasing element in our strength was con-tributed by the Air Force of our Allies—like the famous 303 Squadron of the Polish Air Force, which had, in thelast six months, destroyed nearly 120 enemy aircraft. The number of officers and men for which provision wastaken for the coming year was. not, of course, shown in the Estimates, but he could say that .the strength of oneR.A.F. Command alone exceeded the total peacetime; strength of the R.A.F. by nearly 50 per cent. This ex-pansion would be- enormously accelerated during the year 1941-42. The Minister of Labour had agreed that, broadlyspeaking, the Schedule of Reserved Occupations should not operaie to prevent any man, whatever his occupation, fromserving as a pilot or observer. The Women's Auxiliary Air Force had proved itself anessential adjunct of the R.A.F. We had accepted no reduction in the standard of train-ing. The success of the Empire air training scheme had surpassed all expectations. The Air Training Corps scheme, the first to cover theyouth of the country as a whole, after 5J weeks of existence, had 1,051 units. The total number of boysenrolled was over 130,000. New Fighters and Bombers Later models of Spitfires and Hurricanes (the right hon.gentleman continued) are now in service, fitted with more powerful engines which have considerably increased theirspeeds and provided the ability to fight at much greater heights, while heavier armament has increased their firepower. The new Hawker Tornado is equipped with engines of nearly twice the horse-power of the fighters whichbore the brunt of the Battle of Britain, and can carry still heavier armament, and yet obtain speeds well in excessof 400 m.p.h. Other engines of as great or even greater power are coming on. Then in the twin-engine fighter types we have the Whirl-wind, and for long-range fighter operations and for night fighting the Beaufighter, each with a very heavyarmament. Of the bombers, the Hampdens, Wellingtons andWhitlrys have in the past constituted the R.A.F.'s main offensive armament. The l:itest models of these are fitted with more powerful engines which give them increased per-formances and striking power. Some of them indeed, although the name remains," are really quite differentaircraft. But these are being replaced by a range of very muchheavier bombers, including the Stirling, Manchester 'aati Halifax. All of these have already proved their wortliagainst enemy targets. These bombers are more than twice the size of any earlier type. They are faster, and carrynot only a heavier defensive armament but also three times the weight of bombs for the same distance as their pre-decessors. Quality will also be maintained in the coastal reconnaissance types and in the types of aircraft employedin co-operation with the Army. The effect of the war on civil aviation had inevitablybeen restrictive. We must not repeat after this war our failure after the last war to foster and stimulate the develop-ment of civil aviation. The Royal Air Force was now on the threshold of itsperiod of greatest expansion. During the next 12 months we should be absorbing in rapidly increasing numbers theproducts of British and American industry. The Harvard trainer, built by the North American Company, and theLockheed Hudson general reconnaissance aircraft had proved the excellence and robustness of American design,and the latest make of Hudson had shown improvements upon its famous predecessor. The types of American air-craft which had reached units of the Royal Air Force throughout the world included such fighters as the BrewsterBuffalo, and the Mohawk and Tomahawk built by the Curtiss Company, whose products^, were comparable withour single-engined types. The remarkable performance of American aircraft was well instanced by the Glenn MartinMaryland, a medium bomber which had shown its ability to outpace Italian fighters attempting to intercept it, andby another medium bomber, the Douglas Boston, which was sufficiently fast and manoeuvrable for night-fighteroperations as well as its designed function. Despite their speed both these aircraft were capable of carrying muchheavier bomb loads than comparable bombers in service last year, while the Consolidated Liberator type of heavybomber would give us an aircraft with high speed and huge bomb-load capacity. The Consolidated Companyalso gave us the P.B.Y. Catalina flying-boats, which with their great range formed an essential reinforcement of theCoastal Command. The Coastal Command, whose operations have alwaysconformed to the requirements of the Admiralty, had been strengthened and was being strengthened further. Aircraftof greater endurance and longer range were being brought into service, and the technical apparatus which enabledaeroplanes more readily to hunt the U-boat was being steadily improved. To attack effectively we must attack from a secure base,and there were two dangers against which we were con- stantly strengthening our defences—the attack on ourshipping and the night bomber. Neither of these tasks was easy, and called for unremitting effort on the part ofscientists, designers, engineers, air staff, Command pilots and maintenance personnel. The story of the achievementsof the scientists, whenever it might be possible to publish it, would be found little short of miraculous, especially inthe field of radio. Leaving out of account reserves, we had destroyed halfthe Italian, first line, and we had certainly destroyed much more than half of the first line with which the Germansentered the war. But the Italian output was not entirely negligible, and some part of our Forces would thus con-tinue to be engaged by the Italian Air Force. Meanwhile the German output continued at a high level and augmentedthe German Air Force. There were grounds of confidence for the future.
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