Future Influences
Thus far we have dealt solely with the influences of aviation upon warfare and upon commerce; but such influences will by no means be confined to these two phases; there are many other features in international life that the development of aeronautics will influence greatly. Foremost amongst them is that of travel. For the first few years the cost of travel in the air will be appreciably greater than is now the case. One of the leading aeronautical experts of the day has computed that, to run a commercial service of aircraft, to cover the heavy expenditure that will be incurred, and to allow for the wear and tear of machines, it will be necessary to make a charge of 1½d. per mile, or a 50 per cent. increase on the rates for present day travel by steamer and railway. Once the project is in full swing, however, and the initial outlay has been recovered, such charge will be reduced to one halfpenny per mile, or 50 per cent. less than present conditions.
In the matter of speed and time, there will be a remarkable advantage; for example, some of the proposed air routes are London to New York in 18 hours, London to Capetown in 54, and London to Sydney (Australia) in four days. This added economy and speed will tempt the traveling public, and for that matter the non-traveling public further afield, and will serve greatly to help on education and the rapid development of the remotest of our colonies, thus drawing closer the bond of union between the different portions of our great Empire. Countries and tracts of land hitherto undeveloped and unknown will be opened up by the aerial explorer, and whole continents will, with the greatest ease, be policed by aeroplane and by airship.
A Future War with Germany
Will this war be followed by an aerial war between Germany and Great Britain at a no distant date? This depends solely on the future course and the conclusion of the present war.
After some fourteen years’ experimenting, inventing and developing, and the expenditure of several millions of money, Count Zeppelin, or rather the very considerable staff of experts which he has at his disposal, produced the modern Zeppelin: that is to say, the craft that has been in use since the outbreak of the war. What Germany’s policy was in constructing these huge craft it is not difficult to discover. Previous to August, 1914, when her navy was inferior to only one other in the world, and that our own, and she was gradually gaining upon us both in the number of ships and personnel, very little was heard of the airship program: the industry was given State encouragement; but then, to our cost, we know that the enemy has always encouraged any new enterprise that was likely to prove of value from a military point of view. War was declared. Our gallant Fleet, by a series of brilliant engagements, succeeded in driving the enemy shipping from the seas of the world, and in bottling up the Kaiser’s grand fleet in the Kiel Canal, where it has ever since remained. What effect did this have on the aircraft, and more particularly the Zeppelin, industry in Germany? Labor was instantly withdrawn from the shipbuilding yards, and turned over to the construction of Zeppelins. In the early stages of the war the output stood at approximately one a month; this soon crept up to a couple a month, then to three, then to one a week, and now to-day they claim that two Zeppelins per week are being turned out by the factories that have sprung up in nearly every large town in the German Empire. What do all these events portend? Those who know the German and his characteristics intimately, tell us that at the back of every German mind, the keenest of all desires is an invasion of England. The reason for this bitter hatred is that the British Empire is on every hand an obstacle to the development of Germany; we were their keenest trade rivals, their most dangerous enemy in the matter of world supremacy, and we were successful in establishing colonies, an ambition dear to every German heart.
There can only be two objects in view in the mind of the German Imperial Staff: the one is a gigantic air raid on this country, as a last resource during the present war; the other, a determination on the part of Germany, after the present war is ended and forgotten, to gain a considerable ascendancy in the air, and thus once more to take her place as a martial power among the nations. To prevent this, it will be necessary for us not only to destroy her armies on the land, and her fleets at sea, but also her fleets of aircraft; for Germany, though beaten by land and sea, and still in possession of her aircraft, will remain for ever a menace to the civilized world.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.