AIRSHIP RIVALRY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 97, 24 April 1912, Page 6

AIRSHIP RIVALRY.

Britain may or may not still rule the ■waves, but there can be no doubt of the fact that the tricolour of France dominates the air. The wonderful success of the French military aviation trials, coupled with the triumphs of French aviators in open flight competitions, are proof in this direction. Britain, which lagged behind so long, is making a greater effort now to overtake her rival, and Germany in pushing forward with the building of airships and aeroplanes and the training of aviators with a feverish haste. Last year, while Britain was content to spend over £133,000 in this direction, France's expenditure wae almost three-quarters of a million. In most of the leading European countries, such as Russia and Austria, the respective Governments are showing themselves alive to the necessity of keeping pace (or attempting to keep pace) with th* new development. Germany, spurred to greater efforts by the success of her eternal rival, France, in the air, and with her eye on the military advantages of the aircraft, projects an aeroplane fleet on a large scale. The German estimates for 1912 provide- for £124,750 of additional funds for the Verkehrstruppen, the greater part of which, it is understood, is destined for the expansion of the aeroplane fleet and the institution of "flying garrisons." The successful flight of the British War Office dirigible "Gamma," mentioned in our cable messages to-day, and the proposed establishment of a Royal Flying Corps in addition to an aviation school on Salisbury Plains draws attention to the fact that the Wai* Office is°out to take this tremendous question seriously. The "Gamma" made a similarly successful flight last September. For a considerable time inventors have, devoted close attention to perfecting an aircraft other than the aeroplane which will prove commercially useful and capable of carrying a number of men wilh accoutrements and supplies. Germany had great hopes of the rigid- airship, the Zeppelin typo, but the Zeppelin, like all dirigibles to date, proved both expensive and unwieldy, and unmanageable in a heavy wind. The latter drawback has proved an almost insuperable barrier to progress so far, and practically all th© flights of the best dirigibles, .such as the Pareeval (German), Adjudant Reau (French), and the "Gamma" have been made in easy breezes. Disgusted with the serious disasters that overtook her dirigible balloon, Germany has turned with a fierce enthusiasm to the aeroplane, and this year a .series of events hava been planned in which, most of the competition* will be open -only to

Austrian and German airmen, the central idea being to develop flying for the exclusive benefit of the two great allied armies. Germany is not deserting the airship altogether. As a matter of fact the German Admiralty is negotiating with the Zeppelin Company for the supply and delivery of four or five of the most powerful Zeppelin airships within the next three years, the airships to bo used for navy purposes. Tennyson's dream of v "batLie in the bhio" may yet be realised. But it must be a long way distant yet. The aeroplane has proved its speed, but the dirigible has not yet proved its stability in all weathers, The rigid typo is now almost a voject in such places as France, and th« non-rigid (such as tile "Gamma") has a long way to go before it can bo accopied as an economic possibility.