MASTERY OF THE AIR.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 February 1918, Page 5

MASTERY OF THE AIR.

INDUSTRY. The fight fot tlie mastery of the ait will be tlie suprcmest struggle ever witnessed bv mankind, biivs the Daily MaiL Every hour of every day brings some new development; one day a 1000 mile, non-stop (light in a giant bomber, an« ; othei 100 'battleplanes engaged hi a fierce contest 12,(XM)ft above the tren» ches, and yet another £128,000,000 bill for the .construction oE aircraft. Such facts speak for themselves. ■ As the war goes oil We shall witness further developments. Particularly will this lie the case witlj squadrons , ; lighting aeroplanes—technically Ifeown as formations. At present such formajtions are employed either to clear the i air of ienemy craft or to support ai> infantry attack. At present, the number ■ of machines may be counted in tens and twenties. But in the future they will bo in hundreds and thousands; in brjgades and divisions, arid army corps, all directed from and in the air. Two hundred and eighty-five German aeroplanes were either brought or driven down during the month of September to a loss M 112 British. That is more in one month than iit the entire 1914 campaign. j The romance of the aircraft industry is the most wonderful in the history of commerce- From a mere handful tit badly-equipped factories it has sprung to hundreds and thousands •of well" equipped concerns in every part of the i country. Major Baird, early in the yeai stated in thft House of Commons that '■there are now 958 firms engaged with work for the Director of Aeronautical Supplies—3ol ns direct contractors and 057 as sub-contractors, with a possible output of ifi machines per month apiece." Taking this to bo the average output, the yearly aggregate would be 57.75*2 , ■ machines. One of these British firms commenced in 1915 with ft drill hall and' "■ 20 workmen. To-day that firm employs over 2000 workmen. The" workshops—equipped with all the latest and "most up-to-date machinery—extend over 30 acresf and the aerodrome provides 330 acres of landing grqund- Conditions are similar with evefy warring Power. France is turning out airships and aero« planes by the thousand- During the month of September alone the French brought down 07 German aeroplanes, and drove down 5S others; 275 craft r dropped 29 tons of explosives during daylight, and 824 aeroplanes droppedittT tons of explosives during'tlie niglit amr the German lines.

America, has allocated £I2BjOMyMO " for the immediate construction of 2O;0H0 aeroplanes and the training of IOOJOOQ flying men. Two of the best engineers in the country were locked up together in the room of a Washington hotel.fbr five days, charged with the develop- ' ment of an aeroplane motor for use by American aviators over the battlefields of Europe. They produccTTflle required engines within 28 days. The pant Ital* ian vaproni lias already won world-wide fame. Originally a clumsy and awkward craft, the Italians worked away at it so deliberately during the winter that to-day the have been' driven from the air at all points. In the enemy country, more than in any! aircraft construction is being carried on at fever pitch. Every consideration is .being swept away beforb the deepthroated call of the air-raiding Hun." Motor-building factories and aeroplane works are enlarging their plants and . doubling and trebling their personnel to '■ ' cope with the influx of orders. The Fokker iirm in particular have taken I over the great Barzinn piano factories in Schwcrin. The craft under construction are battleplanes—the total number of 'which will be doubled during the coming wiriter: fighting planes in large numbers; triplanes, remarkable for speed and climbing powers; and heavy three* seater bombers, capable of carrying between 17001b and 18001b of bombs, fitted with 200 h.p. 'Mercedes, with a climb of 12.000 ft in 35 minutes. A species ot aerial tsnk is also under construction This craft will lie built cntirelr of metal, and is intended for work with the in- ' frtntry, while a new type of Zeppelin, embodying several new inventions, is being constructed at Fricdriehshufen Germany i* the centre of the air war. Franc. Belgium, England, Italy can all attack her from every point of the compass. To meet these attacks tin* enemy must spread her defensive forcci over a very wide urea, thus rendering il im. possible for her to maintain any cxliu. i-ive offensive policy at the same time The most vital points in their lines of communication, the Khine. bridje.. lie at our mercy. Tliev number IS in all, will), in particular, the bridges at Cologne, Honn, Ooblentz, »ml Freiburg. Sncli important German military positions as Freiburg, Strasburg. Karlsruhe, Mannheim, Cologne, and Essen all lie within easy raiding distance of Nancy.