AERIAL WARFARE OF THE FUTURE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 90, Issue 106, 9 May 1946, Page 5

AERIAL WARFARE OF THE FUTURE

VISIT OF A DEADLY LANCASTER BOMBER

Existing aircraft, including the latest jei types, might be helpless against forms of attack employing guided pilotless missiles should they be used in future conflicts, according to opinions expresed in an interview with an “Evening Post" reporter yesterday by Group-Captain E. D. McK. Nelson, captain of the Lancaster bomber Thor, now visiting New Zealand with a mission from the directing staff of the Empire Air Annament School, Manby, Lincolnshire. “The trend of armaments to-day is for. pilotless-guided missiles,’ said Group Captain Nelson, “and they will be controlled by all sorts of methods. If guided missiles do play a big part in future warfare it is hard to say exactly what the outcome will be so far as defence is concerned. “The modern fighter may be useless because of the smallness and speed of the missiles—rdekets and similar devices—and the conventional fighter, even if jet-propelled, might not be any good. We don’t know.”

, Britain was keeping as far as possible up to date with developments in aerial warfare, and an advisory staff was constantly in touch with civilian manufacturing firms producing armaments and with the Ministry of Aircraft Production, which had control of many new developments. THE ATOMIC BOMB. Although the development of the atomic bomb had had no real effect so far on the training given by the school, it had led to the inclusion of nuclear physics in the syllabi. This was incorporated really for training the mind in acordance with modotf trends, said Group Captain Nelson. DOMINION MEN WANTED. “All through the war it has been our policy—and we hope very much that it will be coAtinued—that a proportion of the permanent staff of the Empire Air Armament School should be drawn from the Dominions,” he said, “What the exact proportion will be in future we cannot say, but we want as many Dominions people on our staff as we can reasonably get, and. furthermore, as many Dominions men undertaking courses as it is practicable to obtain.” The Empire schools, he said, were really five in all, including the Empire Central Flying School, the Empire Air Navigation School, the Empire Air Armament School, lhe Empire Test Pilots’ School and the recentlyformed Empire Radio School. The Empire Air Armament School contains the Central Gunnery School which, although a separate unit, comes under the Air Armament School for training. The Central Gunnery School carries out the fighter work ani also the free-gun-nery work, and by running the courses together the fighter pilots under training are abl? to carry out attacks on the bombers being trained at the same time. Both categories thus learn from each other and a free InUrchange of ideas is possible immedately.” As new equipment was issued to the R.A.F., said Group Captain Nelson, it was supplied to the Air Armament School for testing in order to ascerain the best methods for instructing airmen throughout the Empire in its handling and application. Britain, now that the war was over, was going for complete standardisation with British equipment.

Sleek and businesslike, with shiny silver fuselage and wings glistening in the sun, the Thor made a perfect picture of graceful power as she rested on the apron outside the big hangars at. Ohakea. She was chosen for the mission because she reuresents the most efficient aircraft used on any scale by Bomber Command up to the conclusion of hostilities. BLIND-FIRING SIGHT.

Thor carries all the latest devices for attack and defence, including the special automatic bomb-sight of the type which aimed the bombs which destroyed the Tirpitz. Her three power-operated multi-gun turrets are equipped with the gyroscopic gunsight which was used with considerable success in the later stages of the European war, and the tail turret, fitted with .5-inch guns, has a special radar blind-firing device which not only detects attacking aircraft when they are completely invisible to the human eye, but shows the gunner exactly where to aim his guns. If he operates his sighting mechanism correctly it is almost impossible for him to miss.

Notable among the other radar devices on the aircraft is H2S, one of the most striking achievements of British science, which enabled lhe R.A.F. on the darkest nights to find and devastate the cities of Germany with unerring accuracy. By means of this instrument, a picture of the ground below is throvyn on a screen in the aircraft, and in complete darkness or from above dense cloud the bomb-aimer can pick out his target from the land, rivers and towns over which he is flying. While in New Zealand the leader of the mission will confer with leading armaments and training officers of the R.N.Z.A.F. on the question of the most satisfactory methods of training and interchange of ideas. The machine will visit Wigram shortly, and will later return to Ohakea prior to the continuation of its work in Australia and the South-east Asia theatre.