FLYING BOATS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 75, 30 March 1932, Page 9

FLYING BOATS

THEIR FUTURE IN WAR

AN AIRMAN'S CONFIDENCE.

(From "The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, 25th February.

Wing-Commander R. M. Eayley's bold challenge to set ideas of Imperial defence^ outlined during a lecture before the Royal United Service Institution, is causing considerable interest. Basing his arguments on the perform-1 ance over several years of certain types of large flying boat employedby the Royal Air "Force, the lecturer put forward a powerful ease for the employment of marine aircraft in impdrtai.t aspects of defence, even to the replacement for some " duties of light cruisers by the flying machines. He qupted figures to shqw that the practical range of the biggest boats yet used by the E.A.F.—2100 h.p. threeengiued "Iris" biplanes—is approximately 1000 miles "when fuelled' and armed for reconnaissance and 820 miles with no less thah 2000, pounds of bomb load also on board. The smaller twinengined "Southampton" boats have an effective, range varying between 400 and 600 miles according to the amount j of bomb load. Much larger boats are j now being built, and they are certain to possess improved abilities, iii load carrying and range as well as in. seaworthiness and capacity for duty on the high seas. Wing-Commander Bayley disposed of the popular naval view "which Holds that a flying boat is a vulnerable war vessel on the ground that a very few bullet holes in the hull render the craft uuseaworthy. Two or three flying boats working together, each heavily armed with machine guns, would, Tie thought, | bo a stiff proposition even for the most | formidable single-seater fighters, and the flying boat was not likely to be incapacitated by pieces of shell -from an-ti-aircraft guns. Plugs were provided on board for •stepping smaller holes in. the hull, which is also subdivided by bulkheads, and with the modern system of metal construction the quick patching of larger holes wa,s simple. '■ He showed that in the future the flying boat would operate with the Navy in tho narrow seas, along rivers, and inland seas and with the Army near the sea. In times of war flying boats would safeguard water communications, locate commerce raiders, and discount "surprise attacks at dawn" on a fleet or a vital land objective by its ability to scout over an immense area each j evening. He emphasised that the arrival of a flying boat, because of its great range and speed, reinforced not only a garrison at one particular point, but a whole area. Finally, he saw no reason why flying boats should not "visit and search" suspected shipping, contradicting flatly .one of the Admiralty's cfiief arguments against the extended use of flying boats. He pointed out that two' flying boats could easily do the job, provided that water conditions were reasonably good, and reminded his listeners that the Navy itself declared that eight men were sufficient to make a prize crew. The first ship caught by the two air boats could serve as a "place of safety" for crews of vessels subsequently captured.