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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1420.PDF
28 FLIGHT JULY 9™, 1942 But, without carriers, how are we going to get short- range fighters to Malta ? No doubt both those distin guished officers were looking ahea,d and not thinking merely of to-day and to-morrow. It is certain that Malta must always have short-range fighters as part of her defence force. We all may hope and trust that when we have defeated the Axis the United Nations will take such steps that another war will not be probable for a very long time. But we have learnt from what happened between 1918 and 1939 that there is no getting away from the old Roman maxim, St vis pacem, para bellum: If you want peace, prepare for war. It follows that even though the teeth of our present enemies may be drawn, Malta must always have a garrison, and it must always be possible to get short- range fighters into Malta if she should need them. When Mussolini has been removed it seems unlikely that Italy will ever again be the henchman of Germany. We all look forward to the day when France will again be the true friend of Britain. Nevertheless, the security of Malta must not depend on the goodwill of any foreign Power. The answer seems to be that a carrier may have to be used as a transport for fighters, but will no longer figure as a fighting unit of the Mediterranean Fleet. Allocating Production F ROM one point of view, the announcement by the Minister of Production, Mr. Lyttelton, in the House on June 24th, that it was hoped that the Ameri cans would put their greatest emphasis on bombers, is to be welcomed. * Aircraft of the bomber type do, on the whole, lend themselves better to large-scale pro duction than do fighters, for example, arid as Flight pointed out in the earlier stages of the war, there is a great deal to be said for America building such types of aircraft as can be flown across the Atlantic. Deliveries are speeded up and shipping space is saved. The fighter, on the other hand, is a much more " indi vidualistic " type of aircraft, and it is far more dan gerous to freeze design than it is in the case of bombers. But if -' America for bombers, Great Britain for fighters," is to be our motto in the future, it is surely rather a pity that so much effort has been concentrated in this country on the production of large four-engined bombers. Mr. Lyttelton did not specify the class of bomber on which it was hoped America would concentrate, and it may be that he had in mind chiefly the smaller class. The Outlook War in the Air Avro Lancaster - - Here and There Mobility - North American " Mitchell ' Aircraft Characteristics - B.25C CONTENTS Work Service Flight at Work The Debate in Parliament- American Airliner Maintenance Behind the Lines - Book Review - - Service Aviation - 27 29 32 34 35 40 40, a and b 44 47 50 5o 5i AUGSBURG RAIDER : An impressive picture of one of cur new Avro Lancasters. Powered by four Rolls-Royce Merlins, the Lancaster is one of the fastest and most formidable of the heavy bomber types. Other pictures appear on pages 31, 32 and 33,
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