Under the same heading, also, should come the workshops—some of them portable—necessary to cope with repairs and renewals in connection with machines. This, too, is an important item, as first-class repair work is an essential feature in the organisation of any air service.
An estimate of the money that should be expended upon sheds and repair-shops—for a fleet of a hundred aeroplanes—places the amount at £20,000. Money should not be stinted in this direction; good sheds, and efficient repairs, should both tell their tale, when the aeroplane is used in a campaign.
[Illustration: PILOT AND "OBSERVER."
Photo, M. Roe.
The above photograph shows a military-type Breguet biplane, as used in
the French manœuvres, with pilot and observer in their places.]
Now it is necessary to touch upon the question of military flying grounds, and the expense incurred in keeping them in proper order; also the sum of money necessary to provide a sufficient number of motor transport lorries for the air-fleet. As has been explained, the plan generally adopted is for an aeroplane to be transported from point to point on a lorry, and followed by a repair-car.
In regard to the English trials of war aeroplanes, a point is made—in connection with the size of the packing-cases for machines—of the possibility of transporting aircraft by railway in time of war. Undoubtedly, under favourable circumstances, this would provide a rapid method of bringing up machines from a distance.
Under the headings of the expenditure upon flying grounds, and the provision of motor-lorries to follow aeroplanes, and act as transport waggons, a reasonable estimate of the sum to be expended—in connection with a fleet of a hundred machines—is £20,000.
The sum of £100,000 should be sufficient, not only to purchase a hundred war aeroplanes, but to equip the corps with sheds and repair-shops, and also to maintain flying grounds, and provide an adequate number of motor-lorries.
This amount allocated for machines and incidentals, a Government would find itself face to face with the question of providing officers and men for the air-corps. Pay for this corps should, it is considered, be represented by an annual sum of approximately £60,000.
III. Question of renewals—General cheapness of an air-corps, as compared with other forms of armament.
A point of considerable importance, in regard to an air-corps, concerns the money which should be put aside, each year, for the provision of new machines. One eminently practical authority, Colonel J. E. Capper, reckons that, in connection with a fleet of a hundred aeroplanes, an allowance should be made for the purchase of forty new machines each year.