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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0789.PDF
and AIRCRAFT ENGINEER Editorial Director G. GEOFFREY SMITH, M.B.E. Editor - -CM. POULSEN Assistant Editor - MAURICE A. SMITH, D.F.C. (WING CDR., R.A.F.V.R.) Art Editor - - JOHN YOXALL FIPST AERONAUTICAL WEEKLY IN THE WORLD •• FOUNDED IQOQ Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices: DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I 1 Telegrams : Flightprcf, Sedist, London. Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (SO lino.) COVENTRY : 8 - 10, CORPORATION BIRMINGHAM, 2: CT KING EDWARD HOUSE, _. . _ NEW STREET. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Te/egrams : Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone : Coventry 5210. Telephone : Midland 7191 (7 lines). MANCHESTER, J : 260, DEANSGATE. Telegrams : Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone : Blackfriars 4412. GLASGOW, Cl: 26B, RENFIELD ST. Telegrams : Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4857 SUBSCRIPTION RATES : Home and Abroad : Year. £3 I 0. Registered at the C.P.O. as a Newspaper 6 months, £1 10 6. No. 2004. Vol. LI. May 22nd, 1947 Thursdays, One Shilling. lUe Outlook The FewA (TER the England-Australia race in 1934 there were many who announced loudly that the aver- ' age of British machines made a poor showing in comparison with the performance put up by the Douglas DC 2 flown by the Dutch pilots Parmentier and Moll, a commercial type which gained second place. The actual fact was, of course, that de Havillands designed and built the Gomet for the race, and won it in fine style with Scott and Campbell Black at the controls. One is reminded of this piece of British aviation his- tory by the Battle of Britain figures presented to Parlia- ment by Mr. Noel-Baker last week, which disclosed the fact that, whereas the official announcements made at the time indicated 2,692 enemy aircraft destroyed, in actual fact the correct figure, now ascertained from orn- cial German sources, was 1,733- Doubtless there are those who will be so disappointed with the smaller figure that they may be inclined to jump to the conclusion that the official British claims were deliberately cooked quite overlooking the fact that the R. A.F. achieved what it set out to do : win the Battle of Britain, and thus deny- ing to Germany the last possible chance to invade us_ -f No one with any claim to a knowledge of the way in Ihich air battles were fought can be surpnsed at he discrepancy between the original British claims and the figures disclosed by the German returns fo.aircraft required as replacements. During the opening and doting stages of the Battle of Britain, ;h«ttfig was less intense and relatively small numbers^ eneaeed it was not quite so difficult for aircrews to Xf a damaged GeSnan aircraft until it wa, seen to strike the ground or the sea. Consequently there was a tendency to underestimate enemy losses, man*.of winch must have ultimately crashed far out of sight ot our "When the air fighting really got going * ously next to impossible to ascertain with accuracy numbers brought down. There must have been many instances of more than one British pilot firing at a Ger- man aircraft and damaging it, each quite unaware that a fellow pilot, or even several, had also fired rounds at the same machine. It was not exactly a matter of sitting in a comfortable deck chair on a cricket ground and tick- ing off the runs. We think the Government did the right thing in pub- lishing the correct figures, which detract no whit from the gallantry of those few to whom Mr. Churchill paid his immortal tribute. They won the battle, and whether they did it by bringing down 3,000 or 2,000 German air- craft is of no great consequence. They saved the country ; that is what matters. Recessional RuminationsT HERE is always a tendency in Great Britain to think of the United States of America as a country flowing with milk and honey (or some rather cynical variants of the expression). That even a great rich nation like America can have its depressions is, of course, vaguely realized here, but the fact is apt to be forgotten when a slump has been supplanted by a boom. This week our American Newsletter gives an outline of present conditions in the U.S., and "Kibitzer," an Englishman resident in America, traces back the diffi- culties to their sources and forecasts what, in his opinion, is likely to happen in the next couple of years. Know- ing America's powers of recuperation, he is not unduly pessimistic about the ultimate outcome of, the " reces- sion " (a modern American euphemism for slump), but the well-being of America is of intimate personal import- ance to each of us in this country, and thus a study of this week's" Kibitzer " is of more than passing interest. Owing to pressure on our space, this American News- letter has had to be held over for more than a week, but more recent reports from America indicate a growing disquiet there over the state of the American aircraft
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