AVIATION

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4, 9 May 1913, Page 2

AVIATION

A ROYAL FLYING CORPS. [By Electric T elec. ra ph— Corv rig tit] [United Press Association, j London, May 8. A crowded meeting at Liverpool inaugurated the Liverpool Flying Corps. .Colonel Seely wrote that the equipment of a Royal flying, corps would cost £40,000. It would be of the greatest value to the State. IS ENGLAND READY? PROGRESS IN MILITARY AVIATION. COLONEL SEELY’S ASSURANCE. (From the Special Correspondent of the Sydney Daily Telegraph.) London, March 20. Colonel Seely, speaking on the Army Estimates in the .House of. Commons, made some highly hi'ere,sting statements about the progress Great Britain was making in. aviation. He said there was extraordinary misapprehension of England’s position, and this was due to two causes. He hoped to remove them. The first cause was that officers engaged in the dangerous business of flying made it a point of honor that they would never allow any of their performances to appear in the Press, and consequently the most remarkable and most important achievements (some of which ho would refer to) had passed absolutely unnoticed. The second reason was that in its nature the whole business ought to be highly confidential. If anyone tried to find out what foreign nations were doing in he would find himself confronted with a blank wall. Growth of the Air Fleet.

, When he introduced the Estimates last year there were engaged in aviation duties 14 officers and 182 men of other ranks. Of the 14 officers, 12 were flying,officers. The next step was the formation of a flying corps. Progress had been rapid. To-day, excluding the Navy, the total strength of the lloyal Flying Corps was 126 officers. They had 12 flying officers a year ago; they had 123 flying officers now. They had not yet begun to train many of the 682 men. Eight were qualified flyers, but they had decided at present that officers should lead the way, and an overwhelming majority' of those who flew jvero officers of the corps. Forty-five of the officers, had passed the flying test, which, was much more exacting * that that asked for from any other flying officer ,in any? part of the world; ;32 had almost finished their course,, and remaining 36 had the Royal Aero Club certificate, and were qualified flyers, though they had, not yet passed the test.

Germany at a Discount. It might he asked how this compared with other .countries, If they were to take aeroplanes in the 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 in proportion as Germany. Beyond that, he was going to make a hold statement, and say that we had got the best aeroplanes in the world. They had evolved the type far superior to that in the possession of any other nation. The great problem of aeroplanes foi the purposes of war, and especially of this country, was to have an aeroplane which would fly at great speed, and also, which would fly at a low speed,.' The second was even of more importance than the first. This country had gone nearer the solution of that problem than any other nation, and far nearer than was thought to be possible six months ago. We were now in possession of a machine which the day before was flying about at over B*o miles an hour, and which; could fly at 40 miles per hour;, was also a machine which had just completed its tests —a biplane—-which in a series of four tests averaged 91.4 miles an hour, flying backwards and forwards, with and against the wind.. Allowing for turning, and so forth, this was equal to a speed of over 100 miles an hour. Ho claimed that credit was due to British inventive skill and genius which could work silently, sa\ nothing, and produce these remarkable results. Tremendous Test in a Gale. It might he asked could these machines. fly in violent winds. The commandant of the Flying Corps had tried in how violent a wind it iyas possible to fly. There had been many volunteers for the task. It vas a rule of the Flying Corps that nothing in the nature of spectaculai flying was to he permitted. In theparticular case two experiments wortcarried out. In the first instance a day was chosen when the wind wn. 1 blowing at its maximum power. A brave young man—ho did not mention his name, for names were never men ticned—was to make the test. Others also wished to go. This young rnanh machine was one which flew at o 7 mile; an hour in a tremendous gale. Ht ‘took up his machine with no one tc look on, no one to know of his damp; act, except the commandant, the timekeepers, and other officials of tin school. So violent was the wind that when the machine was let go it rose perfectly straight in the air. It rosi to 400 ft. to which height it was guid ed. For 16 minutes the driver directed it straight into the teeth of tin wind over a course of 400 yards That meant.that the wind must havi been blowing at a speed just undoi the speed of the machine, and tin latter was 57 miles an hour. Ye

only a year ago people hesitated to go up in a wind of 15 miles an hour.

Dirigibles Not Wanted.

The 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 from the start, that the British Aim\ did not require what he might call Zeppelins. Our Army was an expedi-

tionary army, and to use Zeppelins in, say, the reinforcement of Egypt, or for sending out a body of men to defend her territory in India, would be obviously 'impossible. These gigantic engines could not be taken there, and if they could, it would bo with the utmost difficulty; and the provision of hydrogen would be an almost insoluble problem. They had therefore decided that the Army should have small dirigibles, which could be packed up and. sent away where vis r they had to go. They had got exactly what they meant to have. They possessed three, and they were superior to any other form of portable dirgible. The Army had no intention of embarking hpou a policy of large rigid balloons, for they could not see that this would be wise expenditure. The main division between the Army and Navy in aviation was that the Navy should take Fghter-than-air machines, and the Army should take airships. He excluded hydro-planes 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 the 1 ' possession of the country 17 aeroplanes capable of flying, and now that he looked back oil the tilings said in the public Press 1 in the last few weeks, it had been with difficulty that he had restrained himself from explaining the extraordinary mistakes into which the critics had fallen. If there was no delay in supply they would have by May 1, 48 aeroplanes.

Remarkable Cross-Country Flight. Colonel Seely described next a crosscountry run of 22 miles in a wind of great violence. An officer was chosen to make this test. The wind was dead ahead. The journey of 22 miles occupied one hour and a-half, and the time for the return journey was four seconds under 12 minutes — a speed of about 115 miles per hour. The power of aeroplanes properly constructed and with brave men to guide them was most remarkable. A statement had appeared in the Press that the aeroplanes at Farnborough were rotting away, and a picture had been drawn of gloomy young men who could not fly because they had nothing t'd fly on! What were the facts? Since the date of the formation of the Koval Flying Corps in May, 1 flights had been in progress for 1550 hours, and 82,000 miles 'had been fld'wh-L-a distance more than three times round the world. He regretted that six valuable lives had been lost. They had now not only the best aeroplane in the world, but they could manufacture it in any numbers they chose.

England’s Weak Point, f t'/7 , n The weak point was that in England engines were produced in small numbers, and that they were less efficient than those of foreign Powers. It had been deducted tha't their host way to get over the difficulty was to offer British manufacturers a prize, and to promise a large purchase., The War Office and Admiralty would offer a prize of four figures for the best engine, and would promise the purchase of a largo number. The Aerial Target Difficulty. How far was it possible for a large engine of war to hover over this country and wreak, its will at one time? It was thought that the difficulty of hitting an aerial target was very great—for two reasons. First, because it would be very hard to overcome the mechanical difficulty of having really efficient quick-firing guns to fire at a height angle; and, secondly, because in the absence of anything to range at it would ho impossible to get a hit for a long time., Very careful inquiries and experiments had been conducted. He did not wish to go into details, hut he could say, from experiments he bad witnessed, that all the mechanical difficulties had been completely solved, and that the actual difficulties of bitting a target at a considerable height and moving at an unknown speed had been enormously exaggerated, and that everyone bad been surprised beyond measure at the comparative ease and the remarkable accuracy which could be attained in firing at aerial targets.