BRITAIN'S AIR FLEET.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1702, 19 March 1913, Page 7

BRITAIN'S AIR FLEET.

DIFFICULTY IN OBTAINING ENGINES. , By Telegraph—Press Association-CopyrlgHt London, Marc 17. Colonel Seely, Secretary of Sti<te for War, in a memorandum, stales that the \increases in the Army Estimates aro principally due to aviation and insurance. Tho Fifth and Sixth Air Sqaadrons would Be raised during the current year. The supply of aeroplanes was' proceeding slowly, owing *o the difficulty in obtaining British engines. .The Wr Office, in. conjunction with the Admiralty, was, however, providing a remedy. The memorandum announces t) at the aeronaut officers and men for the current year will number over 1001.

COMPARISON WITH GERMANY. Mr. Churchill, the First Lord of the replying to Mr. Norton-Grif-nths (U., W ednesbury) in the Coirimons in December, gave particulars of the relative positions of Great Britain and Germany in regard to airships. As to Great Britain, ho said, tlie Royal Flying Corps possesses the following airships:— Military Winfl., Naval Wing, £eta ; ' One Willows. ' Gamma One Astra Torres Delta. (on order) A new Gamma One Parseval. under construc- • (on order). tio. . Germany possesses airships as follows— One naval. Nine military. Fourteen, private—but of these 6even are under 8500 cubic metres volume, and aro of little value, and one other, tli© Suchard, is built for an attempt to cross tho Atlantic. 3lr. Churchill added that .£97,847 was voted in the_ German naval estimates for 1912-13 for airships and experiments with airships, and that' .£141,325 is included in the German naval estimates for 1913-14, not yet, voted, , for aeronautics, aviation, experiments, and special -allowances.