AIRMAN’S RETURN

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXV, Issue 78, 15 March 1935, Page 5

AIRMAN’S RETURN

FLYING-OFFICER WHITE Royal Air Force Impressions BRITAIN'S FLYING PRESTIGE The vulnerability of London by air attack, and tho prospects for New Zealand youths in the Royal Air Force, were among the interesting points of an interview given to the “Tribune” to-day by Fly-ing-Offtcer Gordon White, of Hastings, who has just returned home after completing six years’ service in the Air Force. Mr. White, who did 1100 hours’ flying, referred also to the excellent training that is given to members of the force, and spoke of the need for New Zealand to develop both civil and military aviation. One of the most striking remarks that he made wae in answer to a question about the preparedness of the Air Force in Britain, when he said: “There is a great deal that the public does not know, and that it would do them good 'x> know if it could be told to them, but I can assure you that the aviation people at Home are just about three months ahead of anybody else.” What Mr White had to cay of British aircraft and personnel would have sounded very reassuring to thoee who imagined that two recent cables praising American machines above all others were anything else than propaganda. “Every year,” said Mr White, “the Royal Air Force carries out a largescale scheme of air attack and defence, and the results have given cause to believe that it will never be possible to defend London really effectively from attack by an enemy air force. Even if one or two modern machines got through, they would be able to do tremendous damage. However, the defences are improving year by year, and though it may be true to say, as 1 believe, that an enemy force could not be entirely cut off before reaching London, I do not think it likely that more than a small percentage of machines would get right through, and I don't think any would get back. An •ir attack on London would be to my mind absolutely a suicide expedition. AIR NEEDS OF DOMINION. For young New Zealanders between the ages of 16 and 18 years entering the Air Force School at Cranwell, there were good prospects of a permanent career as airmen, Mr White continued. The short-service and medium-service •fficer would soon disappear, for the reason that non-permanent commissions were being granted at present only so that the Air Force could build up a large reserve of fully-trained men. An Air Force officer could live on his pay, and in fact the Air Ministry had laid down such regulations that officers were more or lees compelled to do so. Extravagance of living certainly did not count in a man’s favour. “The young man who enters the force,” said Mr White, “has a fine and happy life ahead of him, but it should not be necessary for all our young airmen to go Home for training, or to stay there if they are trained at Home. If New Zealand ‘did its stuff’, and brought its military and civil aviation up to the standard that it should already have reached, there should be plenty of scope for the flying-man in this country.” Now Zealand waa too small to bear the expense of maintaining a naval f see adequate to its defence, or an army more than sufficient to garrison coast defences. “The only thing that would give us a show of defending ourselves io an a(r force,” he said. causes of accidents. According to Air Force statistics in England, Mr White stated, 98 per cent, of accident* were attributable to failure to observe standing orders, or to what is described as the human element—and that latter explanation, he said, covered many things. In only two per cent, of instances could accidents be put down to etructural faults or to the faults ol engines. Considering the tremendous amount of flying done by Air Force machines, however, the number of accidents was marvellously small. Referring to Air Force training, Mr White explained that the first jear'a training was largely a year of disciplinary training and of sport and fun, but the keynote then and throughout the whole time of service was discipline. After the first year's service, he added, the officer was at liberty to make a choice of what branch of the Air Force he would enter, and he himself took up the flying of night bombers and day bombers. Night flying, he said, was of immense value in teaching navigation, and the flyer of the night bomber became an expert navigator. He had to be an expert. The personnel of the Air Force ; was excellent, and even the rankers, both mechanics and riggers, had to 1 pass an examination which was more or less the equivalent of the New Zealand University Matriculation, and which included such subjects as phy- ' sics and chemistry. The officer class were a splendid type, and the Air Force was gradually building up a re- I serve of first-class men both from the point of view of skill and of character. ; BRITISH MACHINES SUPREME. | “No Air Force in the world, in my opinion, can compare with the Roxal I Air Force in the thoroughness of its I training in the maintenance oi much- I ines and equipment,” Mr White i added. "The British machines are so , perfect, and so perfectly looked alter. ' that there is only the very slightest I chance of auvthing ever going wrong I with them The greatest impression | that I got was that the Air Force is i working for efficiency and dipt ndal’il>ty, and that they are getting it. The machines of to-day are pretty will perfect, and the whole thing now torganisation and training. “England to-day is supplying not only the whole of her own needs in aircraft but the needs of other eoun- I .rie« a* well 1 he Americans can per-*

| haps In at them for speed, tor the reaJ son that America considers speed more j important, as it is iu any country | where long distances have to be tra- ’ veiled. Hut the English, if the occaI jioii demands, can build just as fast I a machine as anyone else. 1 am prei pared to say, however, that fur reI liability not only ot engines but of airframe as well, the English builders • can beat anyone.” One tvpe of English machine that i was gaining immensely in popularity I at Home was the D. H. Dragon, of I which there was only one (Messrs, j Hewett and Kay s) at present in New | Zealand. Others were being sent out to the order ot the air-line organised by Wing-Commander Grant Dalton, and no doubt more of them would be I seen in this country in time to come. “1 am not, saving that the Americans ! are not building good machines,” said I Mr White, “but they will take a | chance where the British manufacturer won’t.” THE DITCH AS AIRMEN. ! There were some 150 New Zealanders in the Air Foice, and among them was Air Commodore Cuthbert McLean, formerly a curate in the Anglican Church at Devonport, Auckland. New Zealanders were very well thought ot by their Air Force comrades both as men and as flyers, and a number of them had permanent commissions. “I have not heard of a single New Zealander in the Air Force putting up a black show,” sail Mr White. “They have a first-rate reputation. If a fellow is good enough to get into the force, and it doesn't make a man of him, then he will never be any good.” The Dutch, he said, had made a great reputation for themselves as airmen, principally because of their thoroughness and their methodical intelligence. Once when he was at Croydon he saw a Dutch pilot land his machine with a slight bump. It was not more than that, and was a landing that" the average airman would have been not at all dissatisfied with. But an old hand standing beside Mr White remarked to him: “Well its a very long time since 1 saw a Dutchman do a thing like that.” “I have been told,” Mr White added, “not by one or two people, but by dozens who are in a position to know' what they are talking about, that people living on the route along which the Dutch fly from Holland to Java actually set their watches by the passing planes. I have heard it said —and I believe it—that their machines are punctual to a minute, no matter what the weather may be.”