IN CLASSES APART

Evening Post, Volume CXX, Issue 132, 30 November 1935, Page 15

IN CLASSES APART

DEFENCE AND BUSINESS

In the main,, commercial aircraft, except for special types, are little more adaptable for -war purposes than the average merchantman, said Mr. E. A. Gibson and Mr. D. S. G. Marchbanks in their paper on aerodrome and avia-| tion route development to the Welling-i ton branch, of the New Zealand Society of Civil Engineers last night. \ | All aircraft have some war use, and even as, a fast passenger vessel can be equipped as.a minelayer or commerce raider, so can the average civil trans-1 port aeroplane be used fbr recon-' naissance, or bomb carrying.; One the i other hand, just as the finer'would fall an easy prey to the average cruiser, so would the average commercial aeroplane be inadequate to deal with attack from its military counterpart. The parallel can be carried.from the machine to the,. ground,. ', in that the military aerodrome can be' likened to the jiaval dockyard, and the civil aerodrome to the ' commercial ■ port. Apart from the fact that the civil aeroI drome or landing field forms!a haven to the military aeroplane, ev.eri as the port of commerce does to the cruiser, no civil aerodrome has any' special military significance. The real relationships ,of the i two branches of aviation is firstly the reserve of trained, pilots, personnel, and material that the civil branch maintains for, the military in time of need, and secondly,,that the development of civil'flying establishes a very, complete systemof what is known, as "ground organisation," without' which' military ayiatton would be unduly circumscribed. >