WHERE ARE ENGLAND'S AIRSHIPS?

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 104, 29 May 1909, Page 3

WHERE ARE ENGLAND'S AIRSHIPS?

London, April 8. The British public is beginning to awaken to the fact that in the conquest of the air Great Britain is being left behind. This week saw the first evidence of public activity on this question, in tlie shape oi a meeting at the Mansion House under the auspices of the Aerial League of the British Empire —a league which aims at securing for the Empire the same supremacy in the air as it now enjoys on the sea. Among those on the platform were Admiral Sir Percy Scott, Sir Hiram Maxim, Colonei Cody, Sir William l'reece, and the High Commissioner for New Zealand. The speeches that were made and the letters that wore read all laid stress on the backwardness of England in regard to aviation, and contrasted English apathy with the spirit of progress shown and the results achieved by other nations iu this new science.

| THE GERMAN OBJECT-LESSON. For aviation is now a practical science, ' and supremacy will rest with the nation [ which is the first to master it. Last year, when Count Zeppelin's first airship was wrecked, the German people subscribed £275,UU0 in a few weeks 'o rebuild the ship, and to that sum the German Government added £24,001 i. The spirit shown by the Germans is an object-lesson to slow-moving England. Last week the Zeppelin airship not only rode out a gale iu but completed a journey of 250 miles. Presently Gsrmany will have a fleet of airships capable of equalling, and perhaps excelling, Oils'" performance, while England has Ipnly one small airship oi obsolete type, and is spending a few thousands on elementary experiments where Germany is spending hundreds of thousand's in building an aerial fleet. Every voyage that the Zeppelin .airship makes adds to the Germans' knowledge of the air and puts them further ahead of the English. LAGGARD ENGLAND.

It is the same with aeroplanes. While foreign competitors are spending money on machines and gaining invaluable experience, o prizes have been offered tn enable tho British inventors to set to work. The solitary army aeroplane is a hopeless machine, which merely excites ridicule, and even it has not had a fair chance through lack of funds. Yet the only defence against Hying machines) will be to meet thcin with Hying machines, and when other countries ari building them England cannot afford to lag behind. Admiral Scott told the Mansion House meeting that he had designed a gun which would "play old Harry" with airships within a distance ,oi 0000 ft; but he was careful to point out that airships would make their ai tack in the darkness, and he had yet to meet the person, who could tell him how to hit an object that could mot be seen. If airships are to be a menace to the navy and the cities and arsenals of England they will have to be met by airships. PROBLEMS OF THE FUTURE.

Scientists are amazed at the advance that has been made in aerial navigation during the last year or so. No one anticipated such extraordinary progress in so short a time. At the present rate of progress, says Sir Hiram .Maxim, we shall certainly have machines within a few years that will travel at the rate of sixty miles an hour, and be able to carry a load of 15001b. It will therefore be seen that a perfectly unique system o?f warfare is at hand.' It hae come, whether We like it Or not. and it is a problem that has to be faced. Of this there can be no question. We have, in fact, arrived" at the beginning oi a totally new epocn in warfare; the changes which are bound to take place will „e quite as great as the changes wrought by the discovery of gunpowder, and" on account of the facility of manufacture, tne change wilt be much more rapid, in Sir Hiram Maxim's opinion, however, the advent of the flying machine wili have a strong tendency to do away altoother with warfare between the iiioli'ycivilised nations. But that is a problem tor the future.