SUPPLY OF AIRCRAFT 



[The above recital indicates generally what steps have been taken 

 in matters of administration and control.] It should be supple- 

 mented by some general account of the measures taken as regards 

 supply of aircraft and the development of that supply. 



In endeavouring to describe the measures taken to meet the aircraft 

 needs of the Navy and Army, the writer is at once confronted by the 

 fact that the information desired by the country is precisely the infor- 

 mation desired by the enemy. What the country wants to know is 

 what has been the expansion in our Air Services ; whether we have 

 met and are meeting all the demands of the Navy and of the Army, 

 both for replacement of obsolete machines by the most modern types 

 and for the increase of our fighting strength in the air ; what propor- 

 tion of the national resources in men, material and factories is being 

 devoted to aviation ; what the expansion is likely to be in the future. 

 These are precisely the facts which we should like to know with 

 regard to the German air service, and for that reason it would be 

 inadmissable for us to supply Germany with corresponding infor- 

 mation about ourselves by publishing a statement on the subject. 



It can be said that the expansion of our Air Services is keeping 

 pace generally with the growing needs of the Navy and the Army. 



The brilliant part played by the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal 

 Naval Air Service in the battles of the Somme, Vimy, Messines and 

 Ypres has been described by the Commander-in-Chief, who has also 

 borne frequent testimony to the inestimable value of the work per- 

 formed daily and nightly by the two air services. It is fair to say 

 that not even the well-known superiority of our airmen over those of 

 the enemy would have enabled them to have earned the Commander- 

 in-Chief's praise in so unstinted a measure unless they had been sup- 

 plied with satisfactory machines and equipment from home. It is 

 rather the fashion to criticise the quality of our machines. Most of 

 the critics, however, are ignorant of the technical and manufacturing 

 difficulties which have to be overcome in order to keep up a constant 

 and increasing supply of the most up-to-date machines. Not only 

 are the technical difficulties and the resultant research and experi- 

 mental work formidable in themselves, but the task of building 

 up in war time, without seriously affecting the requirements of other 

 services, a new industry of a most highly skilled character neces- 





