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Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1918, Page 8

for no other craft can carry bombs of sufficient size and in sufficient numbers to do serious damage to places of .military' importance, such as "munition -factories, bairacksi,Vaud so forth ; but they have to be used skilfully and with a properly thoughtout tactical plan if they, are .to be successful: in this direction. .

There is a tendency in some quarters to regard the relationship . between the big aeroplane and the small .one as similar to that between the battleship and the destroyer. This analogy isi entirely. false. The battleship depends for safety on-her heavy armour and her superior guns. The big aeroplane has no such ad. vantage. If one imagines a battleship with plating only as thick as that of a. destroyer, and carrying guns of the same, calibre, then one has an exact analogy- But none Avould think of building a. ship for fighting purposes under euch conditions. Heavy armour and heavy guns (beyond a certain limited calibre) are impossible on a big aeroplane; and, if big gungi were possible, they would have little chance of hitting a small high-speed aeroplane. Therefore one may conclude definitely that, if there be such a thing as a "battle-plane" at all it is certainly not the "Dreadnought of the Air" visualised by writers of romance in our news sheets. The fiehtincr aeroplane is, however, a very distinct entity, and is now assuming a very definite shape in the scheme of things'aeronautic.