GETTING READY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1740, 3 May 1913, Page 5

GETTING READY.

ADMIRALTY ORDERS FIVE AIRSHIPS.

ALSO DIRIGIBLES.

By Telegraph—Press Association—Oopjrlihl (Rcc. May 2, 8.40 p.m.) London, May 2. The Admiralty has placed orderd for the construction of five airships with Yickcrs, Limited, of lian'ow-in-Furne-s, of which some are to be Farsevals, and the others of the rigid type. Orders liavo also been given for (ho building of dirigibles by the Whitworth, Armstrong Company, at Ehwick. WOMEN'S AERIAL LEAGUE. London, May 1. The Women's Aerial League is appealing to tli6 women of Britain for funds to cncourago tho more rapid development of air defences. BEST AERIAL FLEET IN THE WORLD, REMARKABLE TESTS. Colonel Seely, Secretary for War, speaking on tho Army Estimates in tho Ifouso of Commons on March 20, mado somo highly interesting statements about tho progress Great Britain was making.,in, aviation, lie said there was extraordinary misapprehension of England's position, and this" was duo to two causes. Ho hojied to re:novo them. 'Iho first cause was that officers engaged in. the dangerous business of flying mado it a point of honour that they would never allow any of their performances to appear in tlio press, and consequently the most remarkable and important achievements, somo of which lie would refer to, had passed absolutely unnoticed... Tho second reason- was that in its nature tho Whole business ought to be highly confidential. If anyone tried to find out what foreign nations were doing in aviation ho ■would find himself confronted with a blank wall.

When, ho introduced tlio Estimates last year there were eugaged in aviation duties li officers and 182 men of other ranlcs. Of the H officers 12 were flying officers. 'Die next step was tlio formation of a flying corps, Progress had been rapid. To-<lay, excluding tlio navy, t'ho total strength of tlio Royal Flying Corps was 12ti olfieers. They had 12 living officers a. year ago; t'hey had 123 fly Log officers now. 'l'h?y had liot yet begun to train l many of tho GS2 men. Eight wero qualified fliers, but they-had decided at present that officers should lead the way, and an overwhelming majority of thoso' who flew wero officers of the corps. Forty-five-of tho officers had passed f ho' flying test., wliicli was much more exacting than that asked. for from any other flying officer in any part .of the world; 82 had almost finished their cour.se, and tho remaining 3G had the Royal Aero Club certificate and wero qualified fliers, though they had not yet passed the test. Tho army was not in possession of any largo rigid dirigible balloons; not because they were afraid of expense, but because it had been laid down fiom tho start that the British Army did not .require wliat ho might call Zeppelins. Our army was an expeditionary army, and to use Zeppelins in, say, tho reinforcement of Egypt, or for sending out a body of men to defend her territory in India, would bo obviously impossible. These gigantio engines could not bo taken there, and if they could, it would ba with tlio utmost difficulty; and tho provision of hydrogen would be an almost insoluble • problem. They had, therefore, decidcd that tho army should have small dirigibles, which could bo packed up and sent away wherever they had to go: They had got exactly what they meant to have. They possessed three, and tHcy were superior to any other form of portable dirigible. Tho army had no intention of embarking iipon a policy of large rigid baljoons, for they could not see tliat this would be wiso expenditure.. The main division between the army and navy in aviation was that tho should tnko lighter than air machines, and the army thdso that. wero. heavier than air. The navy should take nifships. no excluded hydroplanes in his suggestion and army aeroplanes'.

They proposed to have ultimately seven aeroplane squadrons with 18 aeroplanes to each squadron. Last year they had in tho possession of the country 17 aeroplanes capablo of flying, and now that ho looked back on the tilings said in the public press iii tho last few weeks, it had been with difficulty that he had restrained himself from explaining tho extraordinary mistakes into which the critics had fallen. If there was no delay in supply they would havo by May 1 11S aeroplanes. It might bo 1 asked how this compared with other countries. If they wore to tako aeroplanes iii tho same way as they took the artillery part of the army,' they had in proportion enough excess over any foreign Power, and four times as many iii proportion As Gfcrmany. Beyond that ho was going to make a bold statement', and say that wo had got tho best aeroplanes in tho world. They had evolved a type far superior to that in tho possession of any other nation. The great problem of aeroplanes for tho purposes of war and especially of this country, was to have ail aeroplane which would fly at great speed, and also which would fly at a low speed. Tlio second was even of moro importance than tho first. This country had gouo nearer tho solution of that problem than any other nation, Mid far nearer than was thought to bo possible six months ago. We were now in possession of a machine which tlio day before was flying about at over 80 miles an hour, anil which could fly at 10 miles pei\ hour. There was also a machine which had just completed its tost, a biplane, which in a scries of four tests averaged 91.4 miles an hour,.flying backwards rind forward, with and against tho wind. Allowing for turning and so forth this was equal to a speed of over 100 miles an hour.