The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1919. BRITAIN'S AIR SUPREMACY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 June 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1919. BRITAIN'S AIR SUPREMACY.

It was the war th~t opened up the era of aerial navigation and pro duced one of the most thrilling and marvellous developments of all ages. When General Seeley, as British War Ministry, not long before the eommencement of the struggle, spoke hopefully about she army's infant Flying Corps, he

was accused of. misleading the House of Commons, inasmuch as > of the hundred machines which the corps possessed only a dozen could fly, hut when in March last, as Under-Secretary in charge of the air force he made a statement in the House he had a very different tale to tell. Within five years the little group of fighting airmen had expanded into a great aerial army of t\vo hundred squadrons for which new machines were being built in November last at the rate of fifty thousand a year. He said that British airmen, in gaining that marked superiority over the enemy which counted so much towards the final victory, fought over 40,000 duels and shot down 8000 enemy machines, while he pointed out that when Britain began the war she was far behind Germany and > France in the art of flying, but now load the world. The need arose and was met in characteristic British fashion. It offered just that scope for the full play of daring, courage and intrepidity which appeals so strongly to the race, and it was the determination to be first in peace achievements as well as in those of war that actuated Hawker and Grieve in starting to fly across the Atlantic. British aeroplanes have flown from London to Borne, over 1200 miles, in seven hours, including stoppages; also from London to Bagdad, and it is intended to establish aerial mail services between London and India. When the armistice was signed the British air force comprised 150,000 men, while the aviation estimates j for the current year amounted to sixty-six and a half million sterling. Remarkable as were the achievements of the air force in offensive they were equally if not more so in defeading Britain from enemy attacks. The details of this latter work are only now being made public. Chief among defensive means adopted wag a marvellous system afc-neti- suspended from balloons thousands of feet in the air, and it is apparent that, these nets must have been a source of terror to the German raiders, for, onee caught in the toils, enemy aircraft could nol possibly egj cape and tl.e fate of the aviators ! was sealed. It was the fear of these death traps, and the meteoric dashes made by British airmen, that practically put an end to the raids. When the full story of the services of the Royal Air Force in the war is written it will abound with thrilling episodes and dramatic incidents, while it will demonstrate how the Motherland won her place as mistress of the air. It is also evident that proud position will be maintained in times of peace, and that Britain will become and continue the leading nation in adapting aircraft tT commercial and passenger services. ' The huge airship with which the Admiralty is expected to attempt the Atlantic flight this year has already made an excellent trial trip. It was a beautiful sight to witness this aerial monster circling round Doncaster, York and Leeds, covering 125 miles in about three hours, and at times attaining a speed of sixty miles an hour at a height of 2000 feet. Some idea may be conceived of the size of this airship from the face that the aft gun position is 670 feet distant from the main control. At the recent dinner to the staff of .the firm's aeroplane works, Mr Handley Page, in recounting some of the achievements of the machines constructed there, said that one biplane, after blocking every route of Turkish retreat in Palestine, flew on to Damascus, Bagdad, and on to India, being the first and only machine to.fly half round the world. He also laexi-

tioned that another of their machines carried a pilot and forty passengers to a height of six thousand feet, concluding hy stating that if a long flight was possibb anywhere the firm would always be represented, not merely amongst the starters, but also at the finish of the race. This is the spirit which has actuated and will continue to actuate the makers of flying machines. 0 c the airmen it is unnecessary to refer for they have proved their metal, won for Britain the mastery of the air, and may be relied on to maintain this ■ supremacy against all comers.