The Aeroplane in War

Produced by James Simmons.
This file was produced from page images at the Internet Archive.
Transcriber’s Note
This book was transcribed from scans of the original found at the Internet Archive. I have rotated some images. The name Blériot in the original book has the accented e only in captions to illustrations. I have used the accented version in the rest of the text as well. There are several variant spellings in the text which I have left alone.
Although it is still a crude machine—in view of the perfected apparatus which is the aim of thoughtful designers—the aeroplane has demonstrated, in a conclusive way, its value as an instrument of war.
In peace manœuvres in France and Germany, and under actual war conditions in Tripoli, scouting machines have proved their ability to pierce most effectually what is known as the fog of war. Air-scouts have, indeed, revealed the dispositions of an enemy so precisely as to make it necessary to alter—at a moment’s notice—an entire plan of campaign.
Ceasing to be fair-weather craft, powerful, modern-type aeroplanes can combat high and gusty winds, and are already capable of being used, for reconnoitring flights, on at least 80 per cent of the days of the year. No longer unreliable, they have become practical weapons.
A squadron of war aeroplanes, carrying pilots and observers, can, as has been shown again and again, lay bare the disposition of a widespread battle-front. In one hour, they can perform the reconnoitring work which has hitherto been carried out in a day, and in a necessarily hit-or-miss fashion, by cavalry and other scouts.
The use of well-trained corps of military airmen will revolutionise the tactics of war. No longer will two Commanders-in-Chief grope in the dark. They will sit, so to speak, on either side of a chess-board, which will represent the battlefield. Each will watch the other’s moves; nothing will be concealed. From a blundering, scrambling moving about of masses of men, modern warfare will become—through the advent of the aeroplane—an intellectual process.