"chance of war," we must make up our minds to maintain it by any and every means in our power.
Let us not delude ourselves by supposing that the enemy will be content to allow us to retain our advantage without a keenly contested struggle; he is probably ere this fully alive to his past mistake, and will strain every nerve to rectify matters; there is already evidence of strenuous effort in that direction. The chief factor in the coming contest in aeronautical armament will undoubtedly prove to be the relative manufacturing resources available respectively to the two belligerent groups; here Great Britain and her Allies have an undoubted advantage.
In concluding the present work, the author claims that a clear case has been made out for an immediate and thoroughgoing overhaul of our programme and administration as touching the future of, the Aeronautical Arm, and to this end urges for immediate consideration the following:—
(1) That in view of the potentialities of the Aeronautical Arm, a comprehensive scheme of construction should be forthwith prepared, in which provision shall be made for organizing, utilizing, and developing every available source of manufacture and supply.
(2) That if possible certain of our present types of aeroplane be virtually adopted "for the duration of the war," and existing manufacturing facilities should be utilised for their uninterrupted production to the utmost of their capacity.[1]
(3) That where it is decided that new types are required, new sources of production should so far as possible be tapped or new works equipped, in order that
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- ↑ A given type of aeroplane may not be the best we know how to make, but the same may be said of our small arms, or our field pieces; it does its work, however, and is understood by the men who handle it in the field: these are points worth a great deal. It is not realised by those who are not intimately connected with manufacture the extent to which alterations or improvements during quantity manufacture are detrimental to output; especially is this the case when working at high pressure. Fixity of design should be looked upon as a sine qua non once manufacture has been embarked upon.
