Leading Articles in the Reviews. 



6i 



NAVAL USE OF AIRCRAFT. 



Lieutenant Boothby, R.N., contributes to the 

 Juurnal of the Royal United Serviee Institution for June 

 an exhaustive paper on aircraft for sea service. 



THE RIGID AIRSHIP. 



He advocates both aeroplane and airship for this 

 purpose. Of airships he says : — 



I think it will be granted that the riyid is the most promising 

 type for us to develop for sea service, though the non-rigid may 

 be of great use for harbour defence and training purposes. The 

 main characteristics of a rigid or modern type are a number of 

 longitudinal girders, generally built up in triangular form, 

 running from bow to stern, and joined together in some cases by 

 I spirally winding round them a system of similarly constructed 

 girders, or else by connecting the longitudinals by transverse 

 frames and staying them to each other by wires for mutual 

 support. Inside the frames go the gas-bags, si.\teen or so in 

 nuniljcr, and on the outside the outer cover, leaving a foot or so 

 air space between the two. The engines are suspended below. 



HOW TO DOCK AN AIRSHIP. 



How the airship not in use may live through a gale 

 is a serious question. He suggests having a fixed post 

 in the centre of a lake, the top being just the same 

 height as the bow of the airship when the gondolas are 

 just touching the water, or the building of large airship 

 harbours : — 



There are several natural harbours I know of, such as 

 ja valley between liarrow-in-Furness and Dalton, where it 

 is practically always calm, and there must be very many such 

 places in hilly countries. Old quarries may be useful in this 

 direction, or even large dry docks. On the whole, however, the 

 post in the centre of a large sheet of water seems to hold the 

 balance of advantages, and will probably be the method adopted 

 where local circumstances permit of it. 



The airship, unlike the aeroplane, can receive as well 

 as send a wireless message. In this way it may avoid 

 storm-centres. 



SCOUTING VALUE OF THE AEROPLANE. 



The aeroplane could search the whole coast of 

 .South-West Ireland in four and a half hours, and regain 

 her ship. The twenty-one knot scout, if searching all 

 the bays and harbours herself, would take fifteen hours 

 to do the work, and if the days were short two days 

 would be required. The aeroplane will probably prove 

 of great value in locating mines and submarines in 

 narrow waters. In the estuaries of rivers and other 

 muddy places, mines will, of course, be invisible. In 

 ;lear, smooth water everything should be visible, 

 3specially with a bright sun. It seems probable that 

 ieroplanes will attack submarines with success, pro- 

 :' /ided the submarine is submerged, by dropping a 

 . charge of gun-cotton arranged to explode well under 



''T. 



ADVANTAGES OF THE AIRSHIP. 



I U\ the other hand : — 



\ tremendous advantage that the airship has over the aero. 

 ' is that it can work at night as well as by day. It seems 

 d)le that from a height of 1,000 feet the glare of the funnel 

 warship woulil be visible at night, and, should this prove to 

 irrcci, an airship should have no difficulty in hanging on to 

 iiemy's fleet by night".-is well as by ilay, and keeping the 

 .ir.U infurmed of their movements. For blockade work, too, 



tlicy can be in a given position for long periods. For instance, 

 taking the mean of tliirly-five years' observations from the 

 .Sailing Directions, an airship could have watched Pembroke 

 every day, except for twenty-three in the year. 



WIRELESS THE MOST IMPORTANT EQUIPMENT. 



The writer thinks that the replenishment with fuel 

 and oil from a ship at sea will probably not be found 

 difficult, even in bad weather, as it can be blown into 

 the airship very rapidly with compressed air through 

 torpedo charging pipes : — 



In searching for hostile submarines the airship has an advan- 

 tage over the aeroplane in that she can hunt slowly and carefully 

 with four times the number of lookouts. She can also attack 

 them, as an aeroplane might, by dropping gun-cotton, but she 

 could not come so close to her target, so she would have less 

 chance of dropping the charge sufficiently close to do any 

 damage, though this might be more than compensated for by 

 the superior instruments and greater charge she could carry. 

 To keep aircraft off, submarines would have to remain on the 

 surface, where they are liable to be attacked by ordinary ships, 

 so, when once they are located, their position will not be very 

 enviable. Once the battle fleet know the whereabouts of the 

 submarines they can easily avoid them, and the long-range 

 wireless telegraphy of the airship is a very great advantage here, 

 as she can pass information without losing sight of the enemy ; 

 in fact, wireless is at present the most important part of the 

 equipment of aircraft, practically doubling their range and 

 utility, and once they have got important information through, 

 it does not so very much matter what ultimately becomes of 

 them. 



AIRSHIP AS FLAGSHIP. 



Another possible use of airships is that of repeating ship in a 

 fleet action. Being clear of smoke and out of range of hostile 

 fire, signals could be easily made and re.id ; in fact, the general 

 view of a fleet action will be much better obtained from aloft, 

 so much so that it is conceivable in future that a commander-in- 

 chief may find it advantageous to direct his fleet from an 

 airship at a good height, notwithstanding his natural desire 

 to le.id his fleet into action personally 



A STRIKING ANALOGY. 



The writer concludes his comparison by saying : — 

 The airship bears to the aeroplane the same relation as a 

 battle cruiser does to the torpedo boat. Building battleships 

 whilst not neglecting torpedo craft has always been Great 

 Britain's policy on the sea, and appears to be (Jerniany's policy 

 in the air, whilst the French still continue their policy of 

 depending largely upon torpedo craft on both sea and air. I 

 trust that in the future our policy in the air will be the same as 

 it has been at sea ; and I have little doubt that as the science of 

 aeronautics develops the command of the air will prove to 

 be necessary for us if we wish to keep the command of the sea. 

 The fleet without aircraft to assist it will lie at a tremendous dis- 

 advantage as compared to one with them. 



liadminlon this month assumes a much-improved 

 appearance. Its letterpress is printed in double column, 

 and its illustrations are even better than before. The 

 chief feature is a series of eleven full-page pictures of 

 the Henley Regatta. Tagalie figures in frequent 

 portraits and pictures. Peak-chnibing in the Dolomites 

 is vividly described by Mr. Abraham. Mrs. Syers 

 illustrates the swimming and diving of women, with 

 interesting pictures. Mr. E. H. Osborn, in view of 

 the fifth Olympiad at Stockholm this year, describes 

 previous Olympic games. .Mr. H. C. Kennedy tells of 

 his shooting boars in Morocco. 



