AIR POWER

Evening Star, Issue 19659, 12 September 1927, Page 7

AIR POWER

.- RUSSIA LEADING THE WAY. A FORMIDABLE FORGE Press X ssociatipn— By Telegraph—Copyright. LONDON, September 11. (Received September 12, at 11 a.m.)

Lord Thomson (formerly Secretary for Air), in an article in tho ‘Observer,' says that it is curious and significant that Russia, in addition to creating a formidable air forco, perceives more clearly than any other Government the essential of air power. It is using State machinery to instil air sense into the Russians, making a study of aviation compulsory in schools, and facilitating adult flying as a pastime. The Ukraine alone has 4,662 aeronautical societies, with a membership of 360,000. Two other .aviation societies, with a united membership of 2,000,000, cover nineteen aero clubs and 1,200 libraries. The air force has 1,500 military aircraft. A national industry has been founded in building machines and specialising in all-metal machines constructed of a new alloy—koltchou-galu-minium—which has a tensile strength of 8,5001 b per square inch. Russia a fey years hence may control the Asiatic air routes eastward. Italy, it is reported, intends to construct 2,800 military aircraft by 1930. If Moscow makes tho Russian peasants air-minded Italy, France, and Germany together will be unequal to Russia’s air power.—Sydney ‘Sun’ Cable.