FUTURE OF FLYING WIMPERIS 499 



was due, it is true, in some measure to the existence of strong profes- 

 sional interests and to the relative lack of attention to the needs of 

 the ordinary man, but it was due also to the inherent difficulty in the 

 then state of the art of distinguishing between military and civil types. 

 Even suppose, it was asked, that one could abolish all military air- 

 craft, how would one deal with the civil types which could be so easily 

 converted. In those days this was a germane question. But is it now ? 

 I think not, and for this reason. 



The speeds of military aircraft are now in excess of 400 miles per 

 hour and will rise still higher. But civil aircraft rarely go faster than 

 250, and it is doubtful whether it is economically advantageous to have 

 even so high a speed as that. This at once makes a great difference in 

 the types. Again, the comfort and space needed for civil transport 

 tends to produce a design of body which does not in the least resemble 

 military requirements. Insofar as the civil types in their really large 

 sizes come more and more to take the flying-boat form, so are they 

 the less like military types. Perhaps I should say here that I am 

 leaving aside reconnaissance duties and troop carrying, and thinking 

 mainly of the aggressive type, the bomber. 



Hence, as I have previously suggested in a recent address at Chat- 

 ham House, the position has been reached when, so far as technical 

 considerations are concerned an agreed limitation could be set on 

 military production without the effort being nullified by the existence 

 of civil types to which no such limitations applied. It must be 

 remembered, however, that when a political man talks about "parity 

 in the air" he may not really imderstand what he is saying. What 

 he probably means is equality in offensive force, for mere parity in 

 numbers might be got by the absurd equation of putting 100 bombers 

 plus 1,900 interceptor fighters as equal to 1,900 bombers plus 100 

 interceptors, because both sides add up to 2,000. It cannot worry any 

 peace-loving country if one of its neighbors builds 1,000 or 10,000 

 interceptor fighters any more than it would if that neighbor built 

 immense numbers of antiaircraft guns and searchlights. In fact, 

 as a gain to the general strength of defense it would be rather 

 comforting than otherwise. 



The right way to arrive at a proper balance of air armaments is 

 to seek reasonable parity in respect of bombing aircraft and leave 

 everyone free to build as many defensive aircraft as they care to 

 afford. Civil types, by reason of their low speed, would be incapable 

 of acting as fighters, and would be speedily shot down if they tried 

 to act as bombers. 



The discovery of the art of flight has certainly raised terrible 

 problems, but it does at last seem as though mankind is beginning to 

 see his way out of the morass. That the laws of nature impose a 



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