Further Developments of Military Aviation

Extract

Last year the Aëronautical Society kindly asked me to give my views on Military Aviation. I then tried to show the objects for which military aircraft would be used, the results likely to be gained, and the general lines upon which it was expected that progress would take place—in a word, the military aspect of aviation. Airships have now been handed over to the Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps and I propose to–night to deal almost entirely with aeroplane work, in the light of a year's progress. I make no excuse for reiterating the strong links which I feel bind soldier, sailor, designer and aircraft constructor in this matter. Rapidity of progress is essential and it can only be gained by cohesion of effort, lack of friction, and mutual understanding. The Service must remember that the aeroplane designer has to live and is not always merely chasing “X” with a slide rule; the constructor, that the soldier is not only pipe–clay and red tape and that there is sometimes method in his madness.