AIR POWER

Dominion, Volume 20, Issue 296, 13 September 1927, Page 9

AIR POWER

ESSENTIALS PERCEIVED BY RUSSIA MORE CLEARLY THAN BY OTHER GOVERNMENTS * STUDY OF AVIATION COMPULSORY IN SCHOOLS Lord Thomson, who was Secretary of State for Air in Mr. J. R. MacDonald's Ministry, states that Russia, in addition to creating a formidable air force, is making the study of aviation compulsory in schools and facilitating adult Hying as a pastime. BY TELEGEAPH.—PRESS ASSOCIATION. Copyright. London, September 11. Lord Thomson, ex-Minister of Air, in an article in the “Observer,” says:— “It is curious and significant that Russia, in addition to creating a formidable air force, perceives more clearly than any other Government the essentials of air power. She is using State machinery to instil the air sense into the Russians, making the study of aviation compulsory in schools, and facilitating adult flying as a pastime. The Ukraine alone has 4662 aeronautical societies with a membership of 350,000. Two other aviation societies have a united % membership of two millions, and cover nineteen aero clubs, and 1200 libraries. The air force has 1500 military aircraft. A national industry has been founded, building machines on Russian designs, successfully specialising in allmetal machines constructed of a new alloy, Koltchou galuminium, with a tensile strength of 85,000 pounds to the square inch. Russia a few years hence may control the Asiatic air routes eastward. Italy, according to report, intends to construct 2800 military aircraft by 1930. If Moscow makes the Russian peasants air-minded, Italy, France, and Germany together will not have equal to Russia’s air power.