THE BIRD’S-EYE VIEW.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 20, 8 September 1911, Page 3

THE BIRD’S-EYE VIEW.

If there was ever any doubt as to the utility of the aeroplane in war—and doubts have been freely expressed by prominent military authorities quite recently—that is dispelled by a cable message relating to the French army manoeuvres (remarks the “Wellington Post.”) Therein it was stated that a remarkable aeronautic reconnaissance was rnadfe by M. Verum, who, using a telescopic lens, successfully photographed fortifications from an altitude of 1290 metres. The height —about 4000 ft.—is important, as at that elevation an aeroplane would be for all practical purposes safe from any marksman on land, whether with rifle or patent airship-destroying artillery- Such reconnaissances in war might be equally effective when applied to the movements of the enemy’s forces. Nothing in ordinary'weather would bo safe from the bird’s-eye of the aviator. Probably the result of the aeroplane’s advent in military operations would be that these would Very largely be carried out, wherever possible, at night or in stormy, cloudy, or foggy weather. The experience of M. Vedrines, who lost his way several times and with it the prize in the “Daily Mail” 1000-mile air race, shows that the aeroplane in the clouds is even more difficult to navigate than a ship in a fog. It would bo very awkward if the aviator were to miss the path in a reconnaissance. If be tried to descend to rind it, ho might find himself in the hands of the enemy. Still ,in this, as in the rest of the science and art of airmanship, a great deal depends on the man. Vedrines lost Ids way in the famous race. Beaumont meeting the same weather and passing over the same course never deviated very much'. But ho is a lieutenant of the French navy trained to navigation, while Vedrines was simply a great mechanician promoted aloft. The airman, especially the military airman of the future, will not only have to know' how to handle Ids

aircraft, but bow to steer through all weathers to bis predetermined destination And here let it be mentioned that the French arc first and the rest nowhere in all the branches of the art of flying. They are professionals, while our British exponents arc simply amateurs. In the 1000mile race we made no showing worth the mention. Why? Because neither the public nor the rulers, nor the airmen themselves, seem to take the thing seriously. There is comparatively a more handful of competent pilots in the Old Country, and the War Office is the laughing stock, of experts for its lumbering efforts to keep up with the times by importing machines from Franco and building airships after the pattern of Germany’s Zeppelins. The aeroplane and its most successful motor are purely French. British inventors are engaged in fantastic frilling while our allies across the channel are Hying like carrier pigeons whither they list. They have mapped out the surface of their country for the use of the navigators of the air, and with the skill that developed the motor car, they are improving, in rapid stages, the aeroplane. Perhaps old England will follow with the Hying machine as successfully as she has done with the land motor—in other great inventions she always led. In the meantime she is a poor second. What arc our own inventors doing?