AERIAL NAVIGATION.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9528, 28 June 1909, Page 5

AERIAL NAVIGATION.

A CORPS OF. AERONAUTS. MR HALDANE'S SCHEME. f United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph CopyrightLONDON, June 25. Mr R. B. Haldane,. Secretary for "War, is considering the formation of • a corps of aeronauts, on condition that owners place their machines at Government's disp3&al. ANOTHER FtYING MACHINE. . : . PERTH, June 26. A company is being formed to en able Mr Thompson, a local inventor, to bring his flying machine and airship inventions uuder the notice of the War Office. A GERMAN INVENTION. BULLET PROOF ARMOUR FOR AIRSHIPS. BERLIN, June 25. The new Siemens-Schuckert airship, constructed for Germany, is of Ihe non-rigid type, with 500 horsepower, and will carry 54 persons. The "National Zeitung" reports that Herr Tschemersin, an engineer, has invented bullet-proof airship armour.

Mr Asqnith made an important announcement in the House of Commons on May sth to the following effect:—The Government" is taking steps towards placing its organisation for aerial navigation on a more satisfactory footing. As the result of a report made by Committee of Imperial Defence, the work of devising and constructing dirigible airships and aeroplanes has been apportioned between the Navy and the Army.' The Admiralty is building certain dirigibles, while certain others of a different type will be constructed at the War Office balloon factory at Aldershot, which is about to be re-organised for the purpose. The investigation and provision of aeroplanes are also assigned to the War Office. With a view to securing that the highest scientific talent shall be brought to bear on the problems L which will have to be solved In the course of the work of the two departments,, the National Pbysical'Laboratory has been requested to re-organ- ' ise at its establishment at Teddington a special department for continuous investigation, experimental and otherwise, of questions which must from time to time be solved in order td'obtain adequate guidance in construction. For the superintendence of the investigations at the National Physical Laboratory and for general advice on the scientific problems arising in connection with the work of the Admiralty and War Office in aerial construction and navigation, I have appointed a Special Committee, which includes the following nauies: Lord Rayleigb, 0.M., F.R.S., president; Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, F.R.S. (Director of National Physical Laboratory), chairman; Major-General Sir Charles Hadden '-'■ (Master-General of the Ordnance); ' Captain R. H. S. Bacon (Director of Naval Ordnance); Sir A. G. GreenMH, F.R.S.; Dr. W. N. Shaw, F.R.S. (Director of the Meteorological Office); Mr Horace Darwin, F.R.F.; Mr H. R. -A. Mallock, F.R.S.; Professor J. B. Peavel, F.R.S.; Mr F. W. Lanchester. English newspapers express great 'satisfaction at this step. The "Daily Msil" sajs that n<? foreign Government has so complete a. scientific organisation as this will be. In answer to a question Mr Asquith said "special and adequate" funds would be placed at. the disposal of the committee. The "Daily Mail" says furvther in in explanation of the Govern"nient's decision:—The use of airships and aeroplanes in war is a matter of extreme importance —and of much . vacertainty. All sorts of experiments are being made in different countries, but they are of a somewhat haphazard character Scientific knowledge is not sufficiently applied to inventive genius. Scraps of science are common knowledge, but it has nitherto heen- nobody's business to to ascertain by mathematical calculation and scientific experiment, the sound basis of natural law on which an inventor in aeronautics should work. The story is told of a clever inventor who flew, tens of thousands of paper aeroplanes to discover the laws of curvature.' It had not occurred to him that they could be worked out exactly by a mathematician. The Defence Committee of .the British Government have decided that, if possible, England shall be in the forefront of the world in the matter of scientific experiments concerning aviation.