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Aviation History
1948
1948 - 0345.PDF
MARCH IITH, 1948 FLIGHT 291 AIR ESTIMATES DEBATED Concern for Britain's Striking Power : Operational Training THE Secretary of State for Air, Mr. Arthur Henderson,on going into Committee of Supply on the AirEstimates of 1948-49, said that the number of men and women in the R.A.F. to-day was approximately 274,000and it was expected that this would fall to 226,000 during the next twelve months. It would not be too much to say that what we were doing wasto build a third Royal Air Force. The first was demobilized in y^r^and the second had been undergoing demobilization during<fCif"*past two years, 1,122,000 men and women having left the Air Force since the end of the war. Our tasks were to ensure thatthe third Air Force was erected on the basis of the technical skill, the flexible organization, and operational experience which was sohighly developed in the second. There could be no hard and fast rule as to what the balance of the force should be between defensiveand offensive roles. It must be adjusted to keep pace with the development of weapons and technique. While research and development were being pushed on unmannedweapons, it was clear that, concurrently, we must continue research and development towards the production of the aircraft, armament,and other equipment, upon which our security must depend for a number of years. We could already see the next stage, whenstratospheric aircraft of the manned bomber and fighter forces would certainly require the very best crews we could produce, and specialnew equipment for navigation, bombing, interception and so on. We realized, however, that, under present conditions, our expendi-ture on current production must necessarily be restricted. At the present time, when we were still exploring fields opened up by thediscoveries of the war—the guided missile, the gas turbine and jet propulsion, to mention only the most obvious examples—it wouldbe unwise to go into expensive large-scale production of types which would soon be out of date. With fuller knowledge of future scientificdevelopments, and, in particular, of the strength and limitations of the equipment now under development, we should be able todetermine with greater confidence what new type of equipment must be brought into full-scale production. The Air Minister said with confidence that our jet fighters—theMeteors and Vampires—were the best in the world. We were con- fident that we could keep our superiority over all comers in theinterception-fighter class. Re-equipment of all Fighter Command interceptor squadrons with the latest jet types was virtually com-plete, only one squadron remaining outstanding. We had deferred re-equipment of our bomber force with jet bombers until the newjet engines with which future types were to be equipped had been fully proved. The prospect of jet bombers of exceptional per-formance was in sight. Meanwhile, the re-equipment of our bomber squadrons with Lincolns would be completed this year. The remainder of our re-equipment for the current year mostlyconcerned Transport Command, where the new four-engined Hastings and the twin-engined Yaletta were being introduced to start replace-ment of the York and Dakota. Organization for Mobility Exemplifying organization for mobility, Mr. Henderson statedthat we detached aircraft of Bomber Command at short notice and ..end them on operational exercises from airfields in the Middlei Other aircraft were sent to do the same kind of thing from in the Far East. Command exercises included the detach-of squadrons from their parent stations to operate inde- vndently from advanced skeleton airfields. All Hornet squadronsundertook long-distance flights from the United Kingdom to the Middle East and back, and goodwill visits had been paid to anumber of countries. Last December, seventeen Dakotas flew troops oi the North Staffs Regiment at very short notice over 1,200 milesfrom the Canal Zone to Aden without fuss or delay and without accident. Altogether, the number of permanent and temporary marriedquarters in use at home and overseas was now about 7,550. It Mas hoped that within the next twelve months it would be notless than 9,350. We still needed recruits for the twenty flying squadrons of theRoyal Auxiliary Air Force. Although these squadrons were at present flying Spitfires and Mosquitoes, it was intended that those.having suitable airfields should start re-equipment with jet fighters this summer The squadrons were all flying again with their ownpilots and with increasing help from their own ground crews. It was too early yet to see how recruiting would go for the new AirDefence Units and R.A.F. Regiment Squadrons. Over a thousand pilots, including twenty-four women, had been enrolled for theK.A.F. Volunteer Reserve. Some centres and Reserve flying schools would shortly be training signallers and navigators. In addition,the R.A.F.V.R. included the fourteen University Air Squadrons which now had 600 out of a planned total of 960 members to bereached in the third year of the Squadrons' post-war existence. Tlv strength of the Air Training Corps was now about 42,000 cadets'n ^13 units, compared with 47,000 cadets in 859 units a year ago. Pr 'vision was being made for the numbers to increase again, as itwas hoped they would during the coming year. The Royal Observer Corps reopened on January 1st, 1947, and at the end of January, 1948, had enrolled 12,150 observers and 326 officers. The full-timestaff of some fifty officers was almost complete. As far ahead as we could see clearly, the R.O.C. would remain indispensable. Concerning the Air Ministry, Mr. Henderson drew attention tothe fact that, whereas the Ministry had a staff of over 5,000 in 1939, not counting the staffs now replaced by the Ministry of Supplyand Ministry of Civil Aviation, it would have in the year 194S-49 no more than 7,300 to administer a force nearly three times aslarge. This included the National Service clement and, as a result of scientific development, was much more complicated to administer. Mr. Macmillan said that the House and the country would berelieved if figures could be given for the R.A.F. such as have been quoted for the United States Air Force. He feared that the truthof it was that the Americans, like the Wise Virgins, had not destroyed the old Air Force before they built up the new. Anti-aircraft development was tending towards the use of theguided missile to counter the guided missile. This was a tremendously difficult conception because it amounted to trying to stop a golfball in flight by driving another golf ball to collide with it in mid-aid. Who was going to direct this operation? Were Terri-torials, with a fortnight's training a year, coming in three days after mobilization, to undertake this delicate and complicatedmaneouvre? For the immediate future, guided missiles had achieved neither the accuracy nor the range to make the conven-tional bomber obsolete. We further needed the nucleus of a power- ful air striking force of fast, high-flying bombers, together with asmall but highly efficient fighter component. Imperial Strategy Mr. Macmillan recalled that a Commission, in a report to President'Truman, had reached the conclusion that atom bombs in sufficient quantities, or other forms of weapons of that kind, would not belikely to be in the hands of potential enemies before the year 1952 or 1953. When, if ever, such weapons became available, wehad no hope of being able to maintain a high production of aircraft and other munitions in the United Kingdom during a periodof war. We would be more likely to build bombers in Winnipeg than in Manchester G/C. Wilcock felt that it was not fair to make a comparisonbetween the American Air Force and ourselves because we cer- tainly could not keep large numbers of bomber aircraft availablein this country. They could not be stored in the open and he was afraid they would very soon deteriorate. G/C. Wilcock wished toknow what liaison there was between the R.A.F. and the Ministry of Civil Aviation in relation to transport aircraft. The best air-craft for troop-carrying w-as the best transport aircraft for pas- sengers. The interior fittings were merely frills. A standardizedpassenger plane would reduce costs, conserve manpower and enable us to put down a common spares service throughout our routes. Mr. Max Aitken suggested that the striking force had been frit-tered away by the Government. The conference between Presi- dent Peron and President Videla, set to the music of Royal Air ForceRolls-Royce engines, would have been a very different conference, and that went for Guatemala as well. We went into the fight likea lamb and came out like a lion. Now we seemed to be a lamb again. He did not think that the number of bombers we couldsend out on an actual operational trip was much above a hundred. The Minister might get a few more on paper. As for FighterCommand, he did not think that this was strong enough to repel an airborne attack on the same scale as Arnhem. He had commanded an Auxiliary squadron for more than two years, and they had not yet fired their guns because they had no range. Mr. Ward said that if we had not a conventional bomber comingalong, and if the jet-propelled bomber is not capable of penetrating beyond the " iron curtain " it was a very disturbing thing, andsomething ought to be done about it. It would be complete folly to rely in a future war on the output of the aircraft industry ofthe United Kingdom. Already, de Havilland, A. V. Roe, Fairev and Hawker had established contacts in the Dominions. Mr. Quinlin Hogg supposed that the figure for bombers whichcould be put into the air that night was very much more near twenty-five than the figure of a hundred spoken of by Mr. MaxAitken. We were spending upon armament generally more than we had ever spent on armament before in time of peace, and weseemed to have secured an Army that could not produce an effec- tive striking force on land, a Navy that could not fight at sea, andan Air Force which could not fight in the air. A. Cdre. Harvey said that we wanted development of a high-performance jet bomber capable of delivering an atomic bomb at long range. The Lincoln was a fine aircraft, but was really outof date. It was a good solid aeroplane, but its altitude was re- stricted with a full load and its range was restricted. He had heardthat there was to be an intermediate bomber. His estimate was that we should not get long-range jet bombers capable of carryingan atomic bomb for eight or*ten years unless something was done in the immediate future to give development and production avery high priority. He had grave misgivings about the situation. Mr. de Freitas said that Canada made Lancasters and Mosquitoesduring the war and was making aircraft like the North Star and the Chipmunk. Australia was making Mosquitoes, Mustangs, Lincolnsand even Vampires.
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