Part 1 (1/2)

Aviation in Peace and War

by Sir Frederick Hugh Sykes

INTRODUCTION

Since the earliest coled for supremacy and protection, the principles of warfare have reed New ress of science, but no discovery, save perhaps that of gunpowder, has done so much in so short a tiest, yet destined perhaps to be the -are, and, striking as was the i the four years of war, its future power can only direat addition of aviation to the destructive power ofits terrors in mind, we may even i is too deep, its eliranted that war is inevitable, it h with the other great scientific additions, chemical warfare and the subreat, yet aircraft, unlike the submarine, can be utilized not only in the conduct of war but in the interests of peace, and it is here that we can guide and strengthen it for good Just as the naval suprereatest seafaring people in the world, so will air supre aviation a part of its everyday life, beco co to its geographical situation and by tradition, to interest itself in the broader aspects of marine policy and development It requires to take the same interest in aviation, a coreat extent by preconceived notions and therefore offering greater scope for individual thought

The following sketch[1] has been written in the hope that some of those who read it may be inspired to study aviation in one or other of its branches, whether froical, or commercial point of view Any opinions expressed are, of course, my own and not official

[1] First written and delivered as the Lees-Knowles Lectures at Cae University in February and March, 1921

I propose first briefly to trace the history of aviation fros to the outbreak of war; next to describe the evolution of aircraft and of air strategy during the war; and last to estimate the present position and to look into the future

CHAPTER I

PRE-WAR

EARLY THOUGHTS ON FLIGHT

The story of the growth of aviationup of a new continent A myth arises, whence no one can tell, of the existence of a new land across the seas Eventually this land is found without any realization of the importance of the discovery Then coe But the interior re convinced, for no scientific reason, that flight was possible With the first ascent by balloon cained ht that can be controlled at will To-day we are still in the stage of colonization The future resources of the air remain hidden from our view

The Daedalean elic host sho the huht, but the first design of an apparatus to lift man into the air, a parachute-like contrivance, was only reached at the end of the fifteenth century in one of Leonardo da Vinci's manuscripts About the sa practical aviators, without whom success would never have been achieved, one John Damian, a physician of the Court of Jas, and to that effect causedfastened upon hi, but shortly he fell to the ground and brake his thigh-bone”

Nearly 250 years later the aeronaut had not ress, for we read of the Marquis de Bacqueville in 1742 attaching to his ar himself from his house in the atterettably, he fell

Meanwhile the seventeenth-century philosophers had been theorizing In 1638 John Wilkins, the founder of the Royal Society, published a book entitled _Daedalus, or Mechanical Motions_ A few years later John Glanville wrote in _Scepsis Scientifica_ ”to them that cos to fly into reions, as now a pair of boots to ride a journey,” the sceptic proving a truer prophet than the enthusiast By 1680 Giovanni Borelli had reached the conclusion, in his book _De Volatu_, that it was iht by his own strength Nor was he ned in 1670 by Francesco Lana, which was to be buoyed up in the air by being suspended fro, each of thelobes the air was to be exhausted, so that each, being lighter than the atht of two or three men A hundred years elapsed before Dr Joseph Black of the University of Edinburgh estion, that a balloon inflated with hydrogen would rise

THE INVENTION OF THE BALLOON

It was in 1783 that Montgolfier conceived the idea of utilizing the lifting power of hot air and invited the assembly of Vivarais to watch an exhibition of his invention, when a balloon, 10 feet in circuht of 6,000 feet in under ten minutes This was followed by a demonstration before Louis XVI at Versailles, when a balloon carrying a sheep, a cock, and a duck, rose 1,500 feet and descended safely And on November 21st of the same year Pilatre de Rozier, accompanied by the Marquis d'Arlande,5 land, it is not surprising to learn, was behind with the invention, but on November 25th, 1783, Count Francesco Zaen balloon which fell at Petworth; and in August of 1784 Jah in a fire balloon, thus achieving the first ascent in Great Britain In the sae It was an Englishman, Dr Jefferies, who accoht on January 7th, 1785 Fashi+onable society soon turned to pursuits other than watching balloon ascents, however, and the joys of the air were confined to a few adventurous spirits, such as Green and Holland, who first substituted coal gas for hydrogen and in 1836in Nassau, and Jaan toon one occasion, in 1862, to have reached the great height of 7 miles

FIRST EXPERIMENTS IN GLIDERS AND AEROPLANES

The world seemed content to have achieved the balloon, but there were a few men who realized that the air had not been conquered, and who believed that success could only be attained by the scientific study and practice of gliding Proe Cayley, in 1809, published a paper on the Navigation of the Air, and forecasted the s In 1848 Henson and Stringfellow, the latter being the inventive genius, designed and produced a small model aeroplane--the first power-driven machine which actually flew It is now in the Sreater practical value were the gliding experilishman, at the end of the last century Both these men met their death in the cause of aviation

Another step foras rave, an Australian, who invented the box and soaring kite and eighteen machines which flew

Froley, an American, reached in his _Experiht could best be countered by speed Froned a steam-driven machine which flew three-quarters of a mile without an operator Seven years later, at the end of 1903, he produced a newless than 5 lb per horse-power; but this ht ht in a controlled power-driven aeroplane