This much appears certain. No artillery-fire, however skilfully directed, is likely to nullify the effects of aeroplane reconnoitring. Machines will be hit; lives will be lost. But the value of the aeroplane’s work will lie in the number of machines employed. If fifty are sent out upon a reconnoitring flight, and if some of them fall victims to the enemy’s gun-fire, a sufficient number will return to impart, to a Commander-in-Chief, the information he seeks to obtain.
The only sensible policy, for any nation, is to do what France and Germany are doing. Both these countries are developing war aeroplanes; and they are also building, and experimenting with, special guns for the destruction of aircraft. While you cannot destroy an enemy’s air-fleet, the obvious policy is to cripple it as much as possible; and, recognising that no gun-fire can altogether prevent the aeroplane from doing its work, the equally obvious thing to do is to obtain an efficient fleet of machines, as well as batteries of guns.
THIRTEENTH SECTION DESTRUCTIVE POTENTIALITIES OF WEIGHT-CARRYING AEROPLANES
I. What a modern-type machine can raise—Load of two men, and explosives.
In previous sections, the reconnoitring capabilities of the war aeroplane have been dealt with; but there is now another, and an increasingly-significant aspect of its work. This lies in its power of destruction.
In its early stages, the aeroplane could, only with difficulty, raise its pilot from the ground; any weight-lifting was out of the question. But, with the development of engines, and the efficiency of machines generally, the carrying of appreciable burdens has come within the range of practical politics.
A biplane can be constructed, at the present time, which is capable of raising a pilot, an engineer, and a load of explosives, and of flying, thus loaded, for several hours without descending.
Not long ago, it was predicted that a fleet of weight-carrying aeroplanes might be able to leave foreign soil one day, fly over London, drop a quantity of explosives on the city, and return—by way of the air—whence they came.
When this prediction was first made, it was generally considered in the nature of an impossible dream. But, nowadays, it has ceased to be a wildly-improbable undertaking. With aeroplanes such as could be built at the present time, an expedition of this character could, as a matter of fact, be carried out.
But the aeroplane must first be perfected as a scouting machine. Afterwards, may come its application as an offensive weapon. To ignore the destructive aspect of military flying is, however, foolish.