THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1909. AERIAL NAVIGATION. The Advocate.

Bush Advocate, Volume XXI, Issue 301, 24 June 1909, Page 4

THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1909. AERIAL NAVIGATION.

The Advocate.

[Established 1888.]

[PUBLISHED DAILY.] OLDEST . ESTABLISHED PAPEB AND &UABANTKED LARGEST OIBOULATIOK IN THE r>IBTKIOT.

The rapid development that is taking place in the produet-'on of a machine capable of being propelled through the air at the will of the operator is a feature of the times. The extraordinary success already won by Count Zeppelin in Germany with his airship, and the achievements of the Wright Brothers' with their flying machine,, are distinct evidences of solid progress, and other inventors in different parts of the world are being encouraged to persevere with their experiments. Even in New Zealand there are two separate inventors engaged in working out the details of aeroplanes which may at some future time have a practical value. In. England special attention is being given to the subject, and strenuous efforts arc being made to protect the interests of the nation in the fight for tho best airship. This need not bo a matter for surprise ■when the insular position of Great Britain is considered, and how peculiarly liable her chief towns might be to damage from innumerable airships armed with explosives despatched from tin? Continent. As a contemporary remarks: '"There is, therefore, a consensus, of opinion among those who have studied the subject, that Great Britain ought to strain every effort to keep abreast of other nations m this now form of defensive and offensive- warfare. Major Baden-Powell points out that ten thousand aerial machines, would probably not cost much more than one battleship, and contemplates the possibility of an invasion, of Great Britain, by such machine.-* deacon din 2; liko a flight of locusts in a. quarter where they wi-ro least expected. Captain T. G. Tiilloch (late), "R.A.. draws a horrifying 1 picture of London being set in a blaze, and millions of pounds worth of civil property and warlike] material being destroyed, anil ho urges that by thus attacking tho he-art of tho country and other means the entire country might bo paralysed." The aimhip as a means of attack in war time is thus coming slowly into future possibilities. Many

years may yet pass before it. will be effectively used, but the great amount of attention now being given to the subject in Great Britain is sufficient to indicate that military men are becoming keenly alive to the future of this new engine of war. Yesterday's cables supplied some interesting news in regard to aeroplanes. It was stated that an airship of enormous proportions is approaching completion, which is expected to sail from London "tc Paris before the session concludes. In the meantime fciia Morning Post is appealing to the public for £20,000 with which a dirigible balloon for the nation ■ n;sy be purchased. France is building four large dirigibles, Belgium and Spain one each, while Germany is building a machine of 500 horsepower. It would therefore appear that it will be necessary, as Sir Percy Soott recently declared in London, for the Mother Country to set up a two-power standard in aerial machines.