FLIGHT.

DECEM BER 5, 1935.

went to inspect a new machine and the publicity manager

of the constructors gave out some information with the

remark : " Th at is all we are allowed to tell you , b ut you

will find all the rest in (naming a certain foreign paper)

of such-and-such a da te ."

Most Government departments are liable to periodical

attacks of secrecy fever, but it is a futile proceeding to

dash round in a panic shutting the doors of empty

stable s. Th e effect is mere ly irritating to loyal subjec ts.

Com mercial Bombers

A

N Air Ministry representative spoke up the other

day at a sitting of the Royal Commission on

. the Private Manufacture of and Trading in

Arms, and disagreed with the suggestion that a

commercial aeroplane could be fitted with bomb-drop-

ping ap par atus within eight hou rs. The exact numb er

of hours which such an operation would take is of minor

importance, but it is a very good thing to see some official

protest being mad e now and- again ag ainst the statemen t

so often repeated by the uninformed, and so little com-

prehended by the generality of people, that every civil

aeroplane can easily be made into an efficient bomber.

Of rn urs c, if th r D isa rm am en t Com mi- '•>• , < :<>

succeed in abolishing all air forces, then every civil and

commercial aeroplane would become a potential bomber

of grea ter or less efficiency. Th e ord ina ry priva te tour-

ing machine, provided that it had the range to reach

enemy territory and return, could carry a few bombs,

which might be dropped overboard by hand, as was

done in the early day s of the war by the R.F .C. But

to supplement an established and trained air force to

any extent which would be worth while by the conver-

sion of civil aircraft w ould be quite ano ther m atter. Such

machines would have to run the gauntlet of an organised

air defence, for which they would not be well equipped.

Then there is the question of defence for the converted

bom ber. It would not be at all a simple matter to

arrange gunners' cockpits in a civil machine so as to

pro vide a good field of fire. A bom bing formation by

day relies entirely on cross-fire to enable it to fight its

way throug h the defensive fighters to its objective. Eve n

in the case of machines expressly designed as bombers,

any one which falls out of the formation becomes

an easy prey to the fighters. A night bomb er relies

more on the darkness than on its guns to get through to

its objective, but its crew would not be the happier or

the more confident for the knowledge that if attacked

they could not count much on their machine guns.

SETTING THE PACE : A welcome stranger, the new Haw ker monoplane fighter, being taken for an early test flight by Fr L '

W. S. Bulman. Powered with a Merlin, the latest liquid-cooled V ee-twelve Rolls-Royce, it uses almost every modern aid to

performance. This Flight photograph indicates how carefully its designer, Mr. S. Camm, and his colleagues have considered

aerodynam ic cleanliness in order to reap the fullest advantage of the immense power outpu t. Doubtless the Merlin does not

"ove r-rev " in attaining the magic 300 m.p.h. mentioned in Parliament by Sir Philip Sasson. Other photographs appear

on pages 612 and 613.