BRITISH AIR FORCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 77, Issue 154, 2 July 1934, Page 7

BRITISH AIR FORCE

PLANS FOB, STRENGTHENING. BEADY FOB EVENTUALITIES. LONDON, June 12. The reported decision of Britain to increase her Air Force will mean, says the Evening News, that she will at last have parity with the greatest air Power within striking distance. The decision will necessitate the construction of 600 to 720 new aeroplanes, and 20 new aerodromes, sites for which have already been ear nArked. The Air Ministry will submit a detailed scheme to the Cabinet. Tho programme will take five or six years to complete. The Evening News emphasises that the project is only in the embryo stage, and must receive Cabinet and Parliamentary sanction. Any plan must envisage army and navy and Dominion co-operation. Tho increase in the Air Force will be a fulfilment of Mr. Baldwin’s pledge, that, if the Disarmament Confereuce failed to agree on a reduction of air armament, Britain would be satisfied only with parity, says the IDaily Mail. Tho re-armament of France and Germany makes action imperative, JAPAN’S ENTERPRISE FAST FIGHTING MACHINES. RECENT EQUIPMENT. LONDON June 11. The Evening News states that the Japanese Army Air Force has taken delivery of a batch of the world’s fastest fighting aeroplanes. The machines have water-cooled engines, which develop 800 horsepower, and they reach a speed of up to 250 miles an hour. Low-wing monoplanes, the machines have been built at the Kawasaki dockyard, to Japanese designs. The Evening News emphasises that while other countries are experimAting with high-speed machines, Japan has equipped herself with them. This is the more remarkable because until recently Japanese military aeroplanes were slow compared with European.