In the Air

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXX, Issue 46, 29 May 1916, Page 5

In the Air

AMERICAN FLYER DOWNS A FOKKER. [Ukimd Paa« VJ - ! .Paris, May 26. Lieut. Thaw, of the American flying squadron, fought and downed a Fokker. The American corps consists of thirty university men, who recently arrived in France. SMYRNA BOMBED. Amsterdam, May 26. A Turkish communique says: Two aeroplanes dropped sixteen bombs on the civilian quarter of Smyrna {Asia Minor) on Wednesday, killing three people and injuring three women and a child. BRITAIN’S UNPREPAREDNESS. London, May 26. At the Air Inquiry, Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, detailed the difficulties he himself and others had experienced in endeavouring to speed up aviation progress. It seemed that the Government was asleep, and his warning had fallen on deaf ears. There were changing and drifting policies until the war started, and Britain was not then possessed of serviceable and rigid air ships to act as eyes to the fleet. There were some aeroplanes, but we were wholly unprepared for war, and our superiority in the early stages was entirely due to the pilots’ skill and pluck. The Royal aircraft factory ought to be devoted to research, instead of competing with private manufacturers.