anticipated that a total of about 5,000 machines will be required.[1]
The peace training of these vast numbers of flying-men would represent an organisation of immense proportions, especially if the author's anticipations in such matters as aeronautical tactics, formation flying, etc., come to be realised. The multiplicity of flight-grounds, training-schools, workshops, sheds, etc., with the necessary staff of instructors, mechanics, and other non-combatant members of the organisation, will render the whole matter a very big undertaking.
In view of the probable magnitude of the business, it is to be feared that the question of peace-time casualties in the Flying Corps will inevitably become a matter of the most serious importance. It is quite certain that everything possible must be done to minimise the dangers of military flying in peace time; this looks like a self-evident proposition, but apparently it is not. The author has frequently passed comment on the seriously defective nature of some of the existing flight-grounds, and has found himself met (quite unofficially) by the argument that since the men will have to alight upon pasture land, or even ploughed fields, when on service, it is best that they should have plenty of experience of rough ground when at home; further, that it is necessary to test the strength of the machines by using them in peace time under service conditions. So far as the machine is concerned, this kind of argument is altogether unsound. If the type is one which has been thoroughly tested in the first instance before adoption, and if the machines are properly inspected during manufacture, they will be far more reliable in the battlefield if they have not been knocked about by rough treatment over
- ↑ The fact should not be lost sight of that Great Britain may require to regulate the strength of her Flying Corps by that of her neighbours rather than by the strength of her own Army.
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