AIR SUPREMACY.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXXVII, Issue 7917, 11 August 1917, Page 1

AIR SUPREMACY.

BRITAIN’S GIGANTIC PROGRAMME. STANDARDISED AEROPLANES. DAY OF EXPERIMENT IS OVER. LONDON, July 21. The great increase in the air activity on the various fronts, which was announced recently, has been followed by an announcement in the “Daily Mail” giving the outline of the Air Board’s plans for aeroplane construction, which is of importance and interest. It reveals the fact that the Government is organising the air-construction policy on a scale commensurate with Mr Lloyd George’s shell-production campaign in 1915. The effect of the increased shell production was abundantly seen in the Arras, Vimy, and Messines battles. The effect of the new aeroplane campaign will be felt during the closing period of the war. The methods of standardisation on a large scale of the output which Mr Lloyd George applied to the production of shells will now be employed in the manufacture of aeroplanes. The organisers of the British air fleets spent the last six months eliminating inferior designs, finding the best, and concentrating upon them.; searching for material; placing contracts for supplies even two years ahead, continually looking forward, and making ready for victory. The “Daily Mail’’ states that from to-day the output will become the chief and the greatest consideration. Experiments will be continued. Progress has been made in designs, but neither the hope for perfection nor the call for improvement will be allowed to interfere with the creation of great, active working fleets, standardised to accepted patterns, which will be utilised on proved lines of success.

The “Daily Mail’s” special correspondent, after talking with leading men behind the air fleet’s supplies, says: “The future of this country and of the Allies rests in the hands of the men who are building and using the Allies’ air fleets. The war must end for good or ill in the air. If the nation stands behind the new mammoth plans all will be well. We shall rise to a power of great strength. Germany will fall lower and lower, until she crashes to the ground in disorder, a helpless wreck.

“The vast new plans have been a difficult task to prepare, as they are coupled with the necessity for keeping up the supplies of aircraft on every front; but the organiser informed me: ‘Thank God we’ye done it without letting these boys down. They have had their machines at the front.’

“Were we now at peace with the world, with all the markets and seas open to us, the programme of*the new construction would be difficult to carry out. No war industry requires so many and such varied elements as the manufacture of aircraft. The requirements of our air fleets are so vast that a year’s output of Honduras mahogany is insufficient. The air industry stood at a low ebb at the commencement of the war; now, after three years, we resemble a trained man ready to run a race. The day of experiment and trial is over; the moment of achievement has come.

‘ ‘ In this new and tremendous effort, America and Canada will participate in an important degree, supplying such vast quantities of raw material as to test even America’s wonderful resources. The only question is, will British man-power be equal to the new task?

“It will require the highest degree of courage to decide between the conflicting claims of the great national and war industries and the air. If such a task is difficult for the Allies, with open seas and the resources of America and of the Empire available to find sufficient material to carry out the new mammoth programme, it would be even more difficult for the Central Empires. They will be hard put to it for craft to meet the great air fleets from the British factories next year. If neither labor troubles nor shortage of material compromise British plans 1918 should see the Allies dominating the German lines with air fleets, bringing victory. ’ ’