MONEY IN THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 161, 6 January 1912, Page 9 (Supplement)

MONEY IN THE AIR.

FUTURE FORTUNES IX AEROPLANE CONSTRUCTION. Writes Charles G. Grey, editor of the "Aeroplane":—A few days ago 1 was discussing the need of capitalistic support for aeroplane constructors with one of the shrewdest business men in London. He asked what inducement there was for him or any other moneyed man to invest in any aeroplane business; Obviously tho most immediate buyer of aeroplanes in quantities must be the Government. Our War Office admits thatwe must have air scouts in quantities, and is offering a bonus of £75 to every officer who gets his aviator's certifiieate. Under this scheme we shall have some hundreds of officer-aviators in thee onrse of the next few months, and hundreds more will follow them. Someone has got to supply the machines to mount them when trained. These machines can be built and sold to the Government at a profit. The firms who build them will grow and grow as the need for machines increases, and the capitalists who back those firms will reap the benefit. The ordinary man does not buy fieldguns, or torpedo-boats-, but the' firms who make such things make handsome profits for their shareholders. France has already over 250 military aeroplanes, and! M. Messimy, the French War Minister, said,.only the other day, that this was merely a beginning, and that he foresaw a time' when every battery of artillery would have with it light, faste aeroplanes, carrying one man each, to ,act as range-finders, and to communicate the effects of artillery fire. Every infantry and cavalry brigade will have its adr-scout section, And there will be'big, fast machines, ihg two or three or four men each, which will do the long-distance scouting far into the enemy's country. Such machines will be needed in hundreds. This Army will be a large buyer when once certain little obstacles have been overcome. , , One stumbling block is an institution called the Army Air-craft Factory, originally tho "Army Balloon Factory." It has built, so far as I can gather, two aeroplanes. One killed its pilot, the other is of the type which has the engine behind, and si regarded as obsolete for military purposes by everyone with practical experience. Some little dirigible balloons' have also been built there, hut the last and most ambitious effort is, I am informed, an abject failure. Now, this "factory" has to justify its existence, and I leadn frorc very reliable sources that it is the present intention of the War Office to obtain the best aeroplane existing, by offering a large cash prize for competition, open to the world, and then to give the winning machine to the "factory" to copy, as the "experts" there have proved their inability to design a satisfactory ma- 1 chine. But hardly any constructor will be so foolish as to spend money and brains in signing and testing a machine simply to provide a model for an incompetent Government department. Colonel Seely has already announced that the conditions for a competition are ' practically drawn up, and British constructors have naturally concluded that this competition will be confined to allBritish machines, just as the recent French military trials were confined to all-French machines, and that, as in France, the winners will receive large orders. i It is therefore probable that the question will be taken up in Parliament and that the intentions of the moment may be altered undor pressure from those far-seeing members who realise that the safety of our Army in our next great war, and the saving of many lives in our next little war, must depend on an adequate supply of efficient aeroplanes. It is obvious that these must be turned out by soundly established firms, similar to those which supply us with other military equipment, and that they must not merely be copies of foreign machines made by a Government workshop. As soon as this question is satisfactorily settled, the man who has money to invest and Who can wait for a year or so' for his first profit, can safely put his spare hundreds or thousands into an aeroplane business which has shown its ability to turn out machines suitable for military purposes.