THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR.

King Country Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 347, 25 March 1911, Page 7

THE CONQUEST OF THE AIR.

The War Office return issued recently shows that we are terribly behind the other chief Powers in making state provision for an air fleet. The official statement shows that against our expenditure of £5,720 for the year 1908-9, France had laid out £47,700, and Germany £133,731, or over twenty-five times as much as England. Strictly speaking the phrase "the conquest oi the air" (says the "Pall Mall Magazine") comprises many different ideas : for instance, the property of the atmosphere of spreading electric waves for electrical intercommunication at great distances ; the taking from air of its property of gas and reducing it to liquid ; its decomposition into constituent parts, and the creation therefrom of substances and forces of tremendous import for various physical and technical processes. As regards reliability, the first thing necessary is two motors with their respective propellors. There is not, and never will be motor absolutely free from risk of failure. A train suffers no damage from stoppage, and a steamer at worst remains afloat, but an airship, directly the motor stops working, must immediately descend and remain down, until repairs are effected. . . Navigation of the air to a fixed destination, of course, presents difficulties which do not confront those who sail only on rivers and seas. Seamen need to know only their course, with its currents, rocks, and shoals ; and captains of sailing-ships must know, in addition, the regularly blowing winds, which have long been registered, and can readily be learned. So long as the air sailor crosses land on a sunshiny day he can tell whither to steer by keeping his eyes open ; and so long as he has not to circumvent high mountains, his difficulties are at an end. But if the storm tears down from these mountains with its surprising changes, its alternate strength and weakness, in this case he needs sleepless caution, and great experience.