MILITARY AVIATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 54, 18 October 1911, Page 4

MILITARY AVIATION.

With war so much in the air it is of interest to note the attitude ol the various European governments towards miiitarv aeronautics. France

it goes without saying is far ahead of all other countries hath in the rnatfer of construction and the application of the science. Curiously enough, Belgium and Russia arc next in the list of countries that have made serious progress. The French General Staff, has considered the

science of aeronautics of such military value that it has divorced the •‘Troupes d’Aerostiers” from the Engineer Corps to which they belonged, and has established the “Corps d’Acrost iers” as a separate branch of the army. For the maintenance of tins now service it has appropriated no less than £232,000 in the 1911 Estimates. Schools for aviation have now been formed by the War Office at Mourmelon, Vincennes, Satory, liheims, Etampes, and Douai. Seven other schools are projected, one of which will be in Algiers for the purpose of studying the desert air currents. The French declare' that the training of officers as pilots is greatly facilitated by the number of different types cf machines available for study. At Vincennes one can sec thirty-two machines, viz., five Wrights, four Bleriots, eleven H. Carmans, four M. Farmans, two Breguets, four Sommers, and two Antoinettes. This is, of course, far in advance of what' Britain has in her primitive schools at Aldershot and Lark Hill. On Salisbury Plain there is capacity for even aeroplanes, and accommodation for four more is being- arranged. England has "a naval school at Eastclmrch. Germany, on the other hand, has not publicly entered the field of military aeronautics. The Prussian General Staff has during the past few months been carrying out some experiments at the military school of aviation. These experiments and the results are regarded as a General Staff secret. Experimental work on behalf of the navy has been begun on a small scale at Danzig, where the chief naval engineer has been granted about 6000 marks for experimental purposes.