ROYAL AIR FORCE EXPANSION

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21938, 12 November 1936, Page 13

ROYAL AIR FORCE EXPANSION

TWENTY-SIX SQUADRONS ADDED SITES ACQUIRED FOB NEW STATIONS (raoii on owv cob&*spohdmt.) LONDON, October 10. Twenty-six new squadrons— 23 is the regular service and three auxiliary—have been added to the strength of the Royal Air Force under the terms of the expansion plan announced by the Government in May last. Forty-five more units must be added to bring up the strength of the Metropolitan Air Force to the 123 squadrons then proposed. A further extension of 129 squadrons, backed by full war reserves and representing a vast augmentation of the striking power of the service, was outlined in the White Paper on defence last March. Bombing squadrons predominate among the units formed up to the present. Eighteen new squadrons—--15 regular and three auxilary—are equipped with bombing aircraft, and five regular squadrons with fighters. Three squadrons of the new “general reconnaissance” category are now in being. Seven of them—flying twin-engined landplanes—will be employed ultimately on coastalpatrol and reconnaissance at distances from the shores of Britain of up to several hundred miles, thus in effect pushing out Britain’s frontier in the air much farther than her coastline, which is perilously near the capital and other vital centres of the national life. Sites for no fewer than 40 new Royal Air Force stations have been acquired. On 32 of them, the erection of buildings and site levelling are well under way. Thirteen special civil flying training schools, where initial tuition for young Royal Air Force pilots is given, have been created- Contracts for the same number of training centres for the new Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve , are being placed. Men are joining the service in satisfactory numbers and quality. Lord Swinton, Secretary of State for Air, says that between April, 1935, and the end of March this year the force has taken on 940 pilots and just under 15,000 airmen.