RIVALS OF THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 127, 26 June 1909, Page 4

RIVALS OF THE AIR.

HOW FRANCE AND GERMANY ARE COMPETING FOR THE COMMAND OF THE SKIES. France and Germany have just begun a terrific contest for the mastery of the air. Both countries arc devoting their iineßt brains, their energies, ana huge sums of money in the hopes of eventually obtaining that mastery in the iir which Britain has hitherto hold at sea.

It was Franco who begun it, for France has always 'been a pioneer in the development of aerial navigation. Jt was a Frenchman, who made the first successful balloon ascent that wag ever made. It was a Frenchman who invented the first navigable balloon.

GERMANY HUNDRED YEARS BEHIND FRANCE.

Then, again, the French were the first to make use of halloons in war, and quite recently the French were the first by several years to have, in the ill-fated "La l'atrie," a modern airship fully equipped for aerial warfare. They boast that in aerial progress thoy arc five years ahead of any other nation.

The Germans have started more than a hundred years behind their rivals in the fight for aerial supremacy. But they are nobly making up for lost time, and experts are divided at the present time as to which of these two nations' can claim to have the finest aerial navy in the world.

So rapidly has the process of theoretical experiment been replaced by actual' realisation by both nations, that few people have yet grasped its significance. France lias now twenty-four officers and 432 men engaged in airship experiments or in manning the ships s'he already has. She lias five fine military airships already finished, and six others being completed, and for which "stables" are already being built at various points clong the frontier. Germany has' six military airships built and six others building. She already has the twelve airship station* completed, mostly along the frontier, ready for their reception. She has twenty officers and 405 men engaged in the aerial branch of the army. She has also a number of specially-constructed guns to bring down airships "on the wing," some of which, of a very light type, are mounted on swift-moving-motor-ears.

So long ago as 1005 experiments were undertaken in France with the "Lcbaudy" under 'war conditions, ft was. found that photos could be taken without trouble, and the movements uf troops and the nature of fortifications, easily inspected and sent to earth. Ata height of over a thousand feet aerial' torpedoes were diA-linrgcd whilst travelling at a rate of about thirty miles an. Imiir.

One of the german airships, which was' secretly constructed about two years ago, is believird to ibc armed with'light guns as well as aerial torpedoes. This would enable it to fight any other airships it might meet, whilst others' could only fire on them by going nineli higher in the sky to discharge their missiles. The French Minister of War lias just offered a big prize for the construction of aerial cruisers capable of a speed of over thirty miles an hour; whilst Germany announces that in the forthcoming autumn manoeuvres her three finest airships, the '-(ires," the "Parsevnl," a'.ul the "Zeppelin," will take a largo part. All the military airships of both nn- ' tions have accomplished successful flights in various kinds of weather of more than a hundred miles'. GREAT BRITAIN'S EXPENDITURE. And so the contest goes on. In 1007 France spent -.€200,000 on her aerial navy. Last year she increasod her expenditure to £470,000. fierinixnv spent .€133,751. The rapid strides made bv the latter may be ganged bv the fact that two years ago she hail only Jive officers and 150 men engaged in airship experiments.

To realise the strenuous' nafture of f,be struggle which these two nations asrc making for the contest of the air, it should be remembered Hint last ve;U Great Britain only spent £sooo' on aerial experiments! This 'year £1!).00(I has been set aside for the, -purpose! Wc have one airship and one. aeroplane complete, but neither of them yet proved i fiicient. and another aeroplane, of which secret trials' have been made, and of which nothing is known. Pearson's Weeklv.