AERIAL FLEETS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2515, 31 May 1909, Page 4

AERIAL FLEETS.

GERMANY’S PROGRESS

The German agitation for such a great aerial fleet need not astonish us. Thoughtful men on Britain also areseriously considering whether airships should not be built instead of Dreadnoughts. A few weeks ago an important meeting was held at Mansion House in London under the auspices of the Aerial League of the British Empire, a League which aims at securing for Britain the supremacy of the air that it now enjoys on the sea. Among, those on the platform were Admiral Sir Percy Scott. Sir Hiram Maxim, Colonel Cody, Sir William Preece and the High. Commissioner for New Zealand. The speeches that-were made and the letters that were read all laid stress on the backwardness of Britain in regard to aviation, and contrasted British apathy' with the spirit of progress shown and the results achieved by other nations on this new science. Aviation is now a practical science, and the supremacy will rest with the nation which first to master it. Last year, when Count Zeppelin's first airship was wrecked, the German people subscribed £275.000 in a few weeks to rebuild the ship, and to that sum the German Government added £24.000. The spirit shown by the Germans is an object-lesson to slow-mov-ing Britain. The new Zeppelin airship has ridden out a gale in safety and has completed a journey of 250 miles. Presently German}- will have a fleet of airships' capable of equalling and perhaps excelling this performance, while Britain has only one small airship of obsolete twre, and is spending a few thousands on elementary experiments where Germany is spending hundreds , of thousands in building a fleet. Every voyage that the Zeppelin airship makes adds to the Germans’ knowledge of the air and puts them further abend of the British. Admiral .Scott told the Mansion House meeting that he had designed a gun which would "play old Harry ’ with airships within a distance of 6000 feet; but he was careful to observe that airships make their attacks in darkness, and he had yet to meet the person who could tell him how to hit an object that could not be seen._ If aii-shins are to be a menace to the Navy and the cities and arsenals of Great Britain, -they would have to be met by airships.