AERIAL FLEETS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 91, 17 April 1912, Page 3

AERIAL FLEETS.

CONTRAST IN EXPENDITURE. Colonel Seely, speaking in the House of Commons a few weeks ago, explained the Government’s new plan for providing aviation services for the army and navy. It was thought that only forty or fifty aeroplanes could be purchased with the sum provided for the purpose iu the Estimates, and the announcement that no fewer than 131 were to be ordered naturally created quite a surprise in aeronautical circles. The Government means to acquire the machines with as little delay as possible, and in addition to orders placed in France, a number of the leading Home manufacturers, such as Messrs Short Bros., Messrs Martin and Handasyde, Mr Roe, and the Bristol Company have already been commissioned by the War Office to supply them with certain specified types of aeroplanes. Tint, admirable and comprehensive ;is Colonel Seely’s scheme is for the development of aviation in the Army, there is no disguising the fact that Britain’s fleet of 131 aeroplanes will have to be considerably reinforced before we are able, in the words of the Under-Secretary for War, to hold our own in the air as we have done by land and sea. Against the £308,000 Great Britain will he spending this year on her aerial fleet, France will provide £1,280,000 for a similar purpose, and Russia a round million. In Germany the official sum allocated is £300,000. It must, however, bo borne in mind that a wave of enthusiasm is just now spreading over Germany for presenting aeroplanes to the Kaiser’s army, and the people have been invited to subscribe no less a sum than 20,000,000 mark's with that object in view. The Kaiser himself is, offering a prize of £2500 for the best aerial engine that dan be evolved, and orders that must be completed by the beginning of May have just been placed by the German War Office with the principal firms in the Fatherland for 50 aeroplanes at once. In France, apart from the huge sum voted by the Government for aerial defence, the national subscription for providing additional “avions” for the army amounts already to nearly £36,000. It is estimated that the effective force of the French aerial fleet will be brought before the end of the year up to 600 units, with a contimrent of about 5000 officers and men.