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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 0530.PDF
212 FLIGHT MAKCH 5TH, 1942 Mr CHURCHILL AND THE AIR Ffc*KVA** IN U)l mentary Aerial Defence Committee in an endeavour to get the War Office and the Admiralty to take a serious interest in flying. Lord Haldane was at the War Office and Col. Seely (now Lord Mottistone) was Under Secretary of State for War. The actual event, so far as the flying demonstrations themselves were concerned, was not very exceptional, but. the attendance was quite remarkable for those days. It included the Duke and Duchess of Connaught. Mr. Asquith, Mr. Balfour, Mr. Lloyd George, Mr. and Mrs. Churchill, Col. Seely, and some hundreds of Army and Navy officers. At that time, we believe, Mr. Churchill had not actually flown, but hs wafe certainly beginning to take a serious interest in aviation, and this was further increased when, in October of that year, he became First Lord of the Admiralty. Com menting on the demonstration in the same leading article, Flight said: "To say that what took place on that historic Friday marks the apotheosis of the aero plane from the standpoint of the British Army and Navy is a mere commonplace which the man in the street has realised for him self." In spite of Flight's optimism, several years were to pass before- flying really got into its stride as a military arm. That was natural in the circumstances, and by November, 1913, Mr. Churchill, at a Guildhall banquet, was able to say: '' Even in the regions of the air, into which with charac teristic British prudence we have moved with some tardiness, the Navy need not fear comparison with the navy of any other country. The British seaplane, although still in an empirical stage, like everything else in this sphere of warlike operations, has reached a point of progress in advance of anything done else where." The Two Wings Here we must interpose a re minder that at that time the two sections of Britain's air arm were known as the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing) and Royal Flying Corps (Naval Wing). How very much in earnest Mr. Churchill was about air development, even in those days, may be gathered by a further quotation from his Guildhall speech. After paying a tribute to the officers who, in a very short space of time, had raised the Naval air service to a leading position, he uttered the following warning: "But that is not enough, and I have come here to-night to tell you that if is not only in naval aeroplanes that we must have superiority. 1 would venture to submit to this great company that the enduring safety of this country will not be maintained by force of arms unless over the whole field of aerial development we are able to make ourselves the first nation. In order to achieve that position you will have to make up your minds to spend year after year your money, and month after month to pay toll of precious life. The keenest—aye, the surest-- hand, the most undaunted heart must be offered and risked and sacrificed in order that we may attain, as we shall undoubtedly attain, that command and perfection in aerial warfare which will be an indispensable element, not only in naval strength, but in national security." Taking \Risks Mr. Churchill was quite Prepared to practise what he pieached. He had been in tAe habit of visiting air stations, officially for purposes of inspection but actually quite ..a^ much in Prefer to JMVJBJUI Opportunity to fly. We have ah K IN THE SMOKE OF H.M.S. "PRINCE OF WAL£S."-Tt« N*V»M»DW wi,l A. V ... X j , t. '"L, A 1914 MEMORY : Mr. Churchill flying over the battleship Prince 0/ Wales. The word " following " in the original inscription is scarcely correct in view of the fact that the vessel ;s going in the opposite direction at, as the speed cone shows, slow speed ahead. The Prince of Wales was broken up in 1920.
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