BY
G.B.E., K.C.B., C.M.G.
Late Chief of the Air Staff
and
Controller-General of Civil Aviation
LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD & CO.
1922
[All rights reserved]
| PAGE | |
| Introduction | 7 |
| Chapter I. Pre-War | 9 |
| Early Thoughts on Flight. The Invention of the Balloon.First Experiments in Gliders and Aeroplanes. The WrightBrothers and their Successors in Europe. The FirstAirships. The Beginnings of Aviation in England. TheInception and Development of Aircraft as Part of theForces of the Crown: the Balloon Factory; the AirBattalion; the Royal Flying Corps, the Military Wing,the Naval Wing. Tactics and the Machine. Conclusions. | |
| Chapter II. War | 44 |
| General Remarks on War Development. Co-operation withthe Army: Reconnaissance; Photography; Wireless;Bombing; Contact Patrol; Fighting. Co-operation withthe Navy: Coast Defence, Patrol and Convoy Work; FleetAssistance, Reconnaissance, Spotting for Ships' Guns;Bombing; Torpedo Attack. Home Defence: Night Flyingand Night Fighting. The Machine and Engine. Tacticsand the Strategic Air Offensive. Organization. | |
| Chapter III. Peace | 96 |
| The Future of Aerial Defence. Civil Aviation: as aFactor in National Security; as an Instrument ofImperial Progress; Financial and Economic Problems;Weather Conditions and Night Flying; Organization; theMachine and Engine. Air Services: British, Continentaland Imperial. | |
| Conclusion | 131 |
Since the earliest communities of human beingsfirst struggled for supremacy and protection, theprinciples of warfare have remained unchanged.New methods have been evolved and adoptedwith the progress of science, but no discovery,save perhaps that of gunpowder, has done somuch in so short a time to revolutionize the conductof war as aviation, the youngest, yet destinedperhaps to be the most effective fighting-arm.Yet to-day we are only on the threshold of ourknowledge, and, striking as was the impetus givento every branch of aeronautics during the fouryears of war, its future power can only dimly beseen.
We may indeed feel anxious about this greataddition of aviation to the destructive power ofmodern scientific warfare. Bearing its terrors inmind, we may even impotently seek to check itsadvance, but the appeal of flying is too deep, itselimination is now impossible, and granted thatwar is inevitable, it must be accepted for good orill. Fortunately, although with the other greatscientific additions, chemical warfare and thesubmarine, its potentialities for destruction arevery great, yet aircraft, unlike the submarine, canbe utilized not only in the conduct of war but in[8]the interests of pe