AVIATION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12176, 27 November 1917, Page 8

AVIATION.

_ + ROLLING UP GERMAN I.TNE. "If any one element, could decide the war, that element. I believe, would certainly he the air," writes Mr Glpnn H. Curtiss. the. American aviator. "That seems to be the clear answer of the war map. From Nicuport on the Belgian coast, to the posts in Lorraine, which France holds, the western fighting front is one continuous fortification. An old military rule says that a fortified position is not to be taken by a direct attack, but by turning and isolating it. The advances made in the recent offensives met that rule; assault waves in attack and counterattack broke down whore. tho objectives had not beer, turn"! o/' isolated by the squadrons of airmen. If ihf German line in France and Belgium is to be rolled up before too many American lives pay'the cost of an offensive, the, Grrman positions must be turned by fleets of aviators so many and so powerful that thry can sweep the German fliers from the skies, blind the enemy gunners and cut off tb'ir supplies'of'food and munitions a hundred miles back of the lighting line.

" Germany is making feverish preparations, we. are t-'do, to enlarge hfr air forces with powerful, speedy aircraft, and man them with pilots and gunners. There is little question now of the. slowly won supremacy in th-" 1 air of the Allies alike over the land and the sea ; but it. is possible that tli P present superiority in numbers could be overcome, by the Teutonic Powers, inasmuch as France and Groat Britain have practically reached the limit of their aircraft production. Tremendous as that production has become in the. last two years it is limited now by the lack of raw materials, lack of men for training a,s pilots, lack of labour because of the draining of all industries of men for the munitions factories. So while Great Britain and France cannot materially increas- their aircraft production beyond its present high point, the United States can. We have already undertaken that work. Here js unlimited raw material. Labour is hardly a problem. Thousands of young men are eager to fly. Industry has been mobilised for war. Congress has made the first appropriation for building and manning the air fleets expected from us.by the spring and summer of next year. In a few months the aircraft manufacturers must bridge the gap between the experimental and the quantity production stages, of their industry, and ;n effect attain probably within six months the results which the automobile industry, for instance, did not reach in ten years.

" As to the types of planes. I do not believe that, our problems of air mastery will he solved by any one type of machine. Just as an effective navy does not consist of all batt'/ships, nor all submarines, nor all light cruisers, neither docs an effective air service, consist of any one. type of plane, however successful its performance, in its designed purpose. While France, and Great Britain had to give their attention to actual fighting, they asked American firms to produce training machines for the warplanes they could build. If fighting planes ■such as we hear of from France havp not been built here, that is because there were no orders for them, hut we have been planning ahead, and their development has not been neglected. The question of obtaining the proper combat, machines is not, however, the only big problem; rather it is thp question of how to get men to man them efficiently in the shortest possible time.''