NOTES.

Progress, Volume V, Issue 12, 1 October 1910, Page 20

NOTES.

In the multiplicity of aeroplanes the question of their usefulness is once more being raised. In this connection enthusiasts have revived the war aspect. One writer of some distinction in the aero world is very emphatic in his declaration that the progress of aviation will make war impossible. His line of reason is not that the aeroplane will carry marksmen all over the lines of hostile armies armed with bombs and ready to smash whole battalions. Neither is it that these bombs can be hurled down on the decks of Dreadnoughts, because it has been long demonstrated that no aeroplane could come within shooting distance and live, and that no amount of bombs from aloft would ever do serious damage to any deck properly armoured. The line is that there is nothing to prevent the aeroplane destroying unguarded property to any extent. The capitalist will squeak so loud that everybody will be afraid to go to Avar. It is somewhat of a jump at a conclusion, but the aeroplane devotee is anxious to say something for his machine, and he ends by saying anything. "What he calls "the peace of Dives" (after Rudyard Kipling) is a little fanciful. Still the nations require money for war, the fat man has to find it, and the fat man will not hesitate to refuse if he finds that the sacred rights of "proputty, proputty" are infringed. All of which is very well. But take the case of the American railroad kings and their fights, which are incidentally connected with the destruction of much "proputty." The said destruction does not deter the war spirit. "Why should it do so in other matters'? Sometimes the destruction may even be the incentive to war. Still it is beyond doubt that war will not by reason of the suffering of private property be made harder. But there is another point. The immunity of a great deal of private property in war by land is now the international law of the world. The flying machine simply cannot go about in war destroying property for amusement. That settles the enthusiastic aeroplanist. His machine will not stop war any more effectually than the "study of Shakespeare and the musical glasses." It cannot be denied, however, that the use of the machine has done something. For example, at the manoeuvres of the French army the other day the commanders in some cases were obliged, in consequence of the successful spying of the aeroplanes, to greatly modify their dispositions. Just a short while before that the German commanders "bluffed" a. flying air man by setting up dummy guns, a dummy camp, and a few squads masquerading as an • army corps. The report of these spies proved eminently valueless. For the present it seems as if much water must flow below the bridge before the effect of the flying men on war can be gauged. As we write, the cable informs the world that the English artillery has produced a gun which gives the air men no chance whatever. Krupp told the same story two years ago arid we published pictures of the gun for the Ger-

man money. Any other coinage, we presume, will secure a business lot. The air men ought to confine themselves to their business, leaving prophecies severely alone. That, of course, is the last thing they are doing. Indeed, the slight set back of late in matters aerial and the startling increase of the butcher's bill takes the edge off aviation somewhat, and the inventors feel a desire to sharpen it up a little. Hence these imaginings among the fleets armies and fat man properties of the near future. The speed plea is, however, the best, and may have something to recommend it. Says the newest authority: — "Ultimately one can see the perfected aeroplane outdistancing even the motor car. For those who wish to progress rapidly from point to point the aeroplane will be a cheaper and faster means of progression than the motor-car, for petrol is cheaper than tires, and in order to compete with the aeroplane in speed a motor car must either be driven at a rate which is dangerous to public safety, or all the roads all over the country must be straightened out at enormous cost to the public. In time to come, no doubt, all fast passenger traffic will be carried by aeroplanes, while the roads will be relegated to the use of slow going motor vehicles conveying goods to, and produce from, country districts at rates which will enable the agriculturist to live, because the motors will compete with and reduce the piratical charges of the railways, while, owing to rapid transit by means of the aeroplane, the country will once more become the residence of those well-to-do people, and comparatively well-to-do people, who have of recent years forsaken the country and crowded themselves as near as possible to the business centres of the towns in what are known as "desirable residential districts." Harold Begbie has incurred the wrath of these aviationists by a fierce article he has written against the flying art. He denounces aviation as a danger to humanity, "because it is a step further to the ultimate perfection of all things mechanical." He therefore declares that poor Mr. Eolls, who lost his life so tragically, was not a martyr." This has, of course, given immense offence, and it is not in the best taste, abviously. He ends by dubbing aviation "a palpable and shameful danger to humanity. " The other day Mr. Frederic Borden, the Canadian Minister for the Militia, viewed an interesting exhibition, in which an aeronaut dropped sand bags as bombs at a target. The spectators drew conclusions very flattering to the air man and the air machine. But the thing to do; is to arrange a match at a height sufficient to keep the air man out of the reach of shot, several thousand feet above terra firma. Dropping a bomb at a target a mile below, while travelling thirty-five miles an hour, is a sport which will not score to many bull's eyes. It is demonstrable that for the present the flyers will have to be content with the fact that the sport developes courage, capacity, resource, and endurance all in great perfection. It is true the scope of these benefits is in a sense limited. But in the broader sense of benefit by example to a race which is forgetting pluck, selfreliance, self-control, high ideals,, there is. no limit to the good the sport may do.