AIRCRAFT IN THE WAR
FIVE MONTHS* DEVELOPMENT; HOW BRITAIN STANDS ; Five months' experience of the uso of aircraft in the war has led to results in no field more satisfactory tlian those obtained by tho Royal Flying Corps. Britain started, as usual, somewhat later than others in aviation. Restrictions imposed as the result of prejudice, as well as lack of public imagination, proved very severe handicaps But, writes Mr. H. Massac Buist in the "Morning Post," there ascertain characteristics in the race and in our srtuatioti that were in our favour. As soon as it began to be generally realised that, object to it as we might, tho age of aerial navigation had arrived and other nations would not cease to avail themselves cf all its advantages whether wo cared to do so or not, the factors which were in our favour began to assume the ascendancy. Our stock-in-trade consisted primarily of personnel. In the early days of flying, man ventured into a viewless element, every condition of which was unknown to him. It could be mastered only by experience in circumstances every one of which represented an emergency wherein the pioneer flier had only his own instinct and inspiration to do precisely the right but always unprecedented thing on the instant or lose his life, and, with it, all the experience he might have gained for the information of his fellows. We are a sailor race. The instinct that has enabled us to navigate the seas of the world has come out in extraordinary fashion in this business of aerial navigation. It is our good fortune, too, not our handicap, that these islands present conditions which, on the average, make flying more difficult than inland on the Continent. Therefore, from the outset, circumstances compelled our pilots to be comparatively more skilful and resourceful than those flying abroad. An Early Established Superiority. The first result when we Went to war was that within four weeks of our Expeditionary Force commencing operations on the Continent our airmen had secured a moral ascendancy over the enemy. Given equal machines tho British flier, handled his to better purpose and with more confidence than the German or Austrian. But flying is not all, though it meant much in the beginning. During the first three months of war,, in battles of the air and so forth, we accounted for the cream of Germany's flying personnel. It is exceedingly gratifying to note that she, ha 3 since produced nothing of equal quality in the western theatre of operations, whereas we appear to have any amount of material to draw on of the same temperament ?.nd quality as tho nucleus personnel of the Royal Flying Corps at the outbreak of war; in addition to which we have not lost more than one flier, killed 1 , wounded, or prisoner for three if not four German ones accounted for.
British, French, and Cerman Characteristics. The significance of this lies in the fact that we must give mtr enemy the credit for realising the military phases of flying with her characteristic thoroughness. Therefore, though her average airman, like her average sailor, born and bred in a central European State, has not the navigator's instinct inherent in the British race and standing him in such good, stead to-day, nevertheless the German. haG made a very thorough study of aviation from tho strictly military point of view/ By way of illustrating tho bearings of the matter still further, let us 'have in mind that, though not an island, race, "the French have au inherent ability to fly. It appears to be derived primarily from threo things: firstly, that the movement uppeals to the artistic, imaginative instinct of the Latin; secondly, that flying comes to. him as second' naturo through his pioneering the world in the practice of motoring; and, thirdly, that navigating the air comes the easier to him by reason of the pioneer work France has done for over a century in the exploitation of the balloon before the aeroplane became practical. The war reveals that the Frenchman i 6 as strong, a flier as the German is comparatively a weak one, and that the German is relatively a more valuable military flier than the average Frenchman. Properly to appreciate the work of the Royal Flying Corps, therefore, we must pay a tribute to the man who conceived the scheme of it as it is exploited today, Major-General Sir David Henderson; From- tho outset he appreciated that knowledge of airmanship was but one feature of many necessary to reap the full benefit of the possession of an aerial arm. Ho therefore devoted the most special and'detailed attention to ensuring that the members of the Royal Flying Corps should be highly trained in military matters.
Why We Have Triumphed. The result lias been that from- Xaa outset of war our airmen have shown ttying qualities and experience second to none in the world. From an early stage in the war if. French Generals required a very difficult piece of reconnaissance to be undertaken in which it was absolutely essential to ensure accuracy they asked the Chief of the Royal Flying Corps to lend them one of our fliers to undertake the work. Our airmen have been tought that, however romantic is their work, they must exercise no imagination in the execution of their duties, but must proceed with the coldness and detachment of the mathematician. The instinct of the averageFrench airman, on the other hand, *s wholly artistic; therefore it is extremely difficult for him to avoid jumping to conclusions.
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Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2382, 11 February 1915, Page 8
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928AIRCRAFT IN THE WAR Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2382, 11 February 1915, Page 8
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