Frederick William Lanchester

“ If the aeroplane pilot is prepared to sacrifice himself, and has at his disposal a powerful machine of modern design, no dirigible can stand against him. Thus, if, as a matter of experience in actual service, men are found of sufficient grit and grim determination to adopt ramming tactics, and to hurl themselves and their craft bodily at the gas-bag of the dirigible, its destruction is immediate and complete. ”

“ As a counsel of perfection, the fleet should be of one design, mounting one standard type of gun, using one kind of ammunition. Owing to the need for aeronautical ascendancy, we have seen that the armament cannot be of the heaviest; it may more often than not be individually less powerful than that of its opponent. The independent air fleet must therefore base its strength on its numerical superiority. It is precisely here that the need for homogeneity becomes manifest. Properly to assert the power of numbers, the whole fleet must come into action as nearly as possible as a single unit ”

“ The cast-iron system of closing the programme at the termination of each financial year without carry forward is destructive of good management. Thus the position of a Government factory is equivalent to that of an army with no Minister of War, no strategic scheme, and a capricious and fitful transport and supply. The larger institutions, such as dockyards, etc., represent a national interest of sufficient magnitude to escape some of the disadvantages of Government control, but here the circumstances are exceptional. ”

“ In the general theory of propulsion we are not concerned with the machinery of propulsion, i.e., the form of propeller—paddle, screw, jet, or other known or unknown mechanism; we merely take account of the fact that forces are exerted between the propelled body and certain parts of the fluid, and investigate the conditions that obtain and the proportion of power that may be utilised and lost. The theory of propulsion on this broad basis is the common foundation of propeller theory generally, and the conditions deduced from the Newtonian principle are essential to every form of propeller. ”

“ There is rarely any intention in the case of a shield to give full and complete protection as is done with armour. It is an error to suppose that partial protection is of no value; every square inch covered diminishes proportionally the chances of a fatal hit, and so increases the fighting value of the machine, just as would a commensurate increase in rapidity of gun-fire; on the other hand, as already insisted, either armour or shield which is insufficient in thickness is worse than useless. ”

“ If we had to deal with a plane devoid of thickness, so that its whole boundary surfaces might be said to lie in one plane, then there is only one possible kind of tangential force, i.e., that due to the viscosity of the fluid ; there must not only be viscosity within the fluid, but also physical continuity between the fluid and the plane itself capable of transmitting viscous stress. We could imagine this source of tangential force disposed of, either by making the fluid inviscid or by supposing the surfaces of the plane frictionless and not attached to the fluid in any way. ”

“ As a matter of fact, there are no experts in military aeronautics. There are experts in the various branches: in flying, in scientific research, in the design and construction of aeroplanes and engines, in military organisation and tactics. But, as yet, there is little opportunity for the expert in one branch to gain definite knowledge of the others, except by hard personal experience; in every direction there is progress, in every section of work opinion is fluid, and the views of the workers are not yet sufficiently crystallised to permit of definite instruction to others. ”

“ Thus it is well recognised that one of the main duties for which the cavalry have hitherto been responsible—namely, reconnaissance—is a duty to which aircraft are pre-eminently suited. It is at the outset important to realise that cavalry, in face of the improvements in small arms and artillery, [1] with the advent of the armoured motor-car, and with the greater mobility of the main bodies of troops in modern warfare, have been finding the difficulties of effective reconnaissance continually on the increase. ”

“ Once war is declared the successful waging of war becomes the first duty of a belligerent Government, it obviously cannot do or countenance any act, or the neglect of any act, which could by any possibility compromise the issue, without thereby proving false to its trust. There is really no escape from this. Unquestionably, the destruction of a capital city such as London, with the administrative centres aforesaid, would be a military achievement of the first order of magnitude ”

“ History has shown again and again that when a state of war exists, no rules, codified or otherwise, will compel a war-vessel or fleet to display its national flag, or prevent it from using the flag of any other nation that may commend itself at the moment; and if it were not for the interest of neutrals, the practice of employing any distinguishing flag or mark in war-time might fall into desuetude without affecting anything or anybody. ”

“ The Military and Naval importance of aeronautics, more especially of mechanical flight, has in the past been slow to receive adequate recognition. Even to-day, in spite of the awakening which has been brought about by the Great War, we are far from a full appreciation of the extent to which, as a nation, our destiny will be determined by aircraft and by military aeronautics.
The early pioneers of mechanical flight were but little concerned with the prospective future of flying; they were rightly occupied in overcoming the difficulties standing in the way of achievement. ”

“ The kinetic energy in the field of flow round a body in motion is imparted to the fluid when the body is started from rest, and is given up when the motion is arrested. The effect of the fluid motion is thus to add to the apparent inertia of the body, so that a given force requires to act through a greater distance to impart a given velocity than for the same body in vacuo. Not only has a force to act for a greater distance, but also for a longer time, which means that the body possesses in effect a greater store of momentum for a given velocity. ”

“ If it be conceded that in any particular case a given weight in the form of shell is of greater effect than the same weight in the form of bullets, then we have a prima facie case for the use of artillery. If, on the other hand, it is conceded that the bullets would do the greater mischief, then a machine-gun armament is indicated. However, although the weight of ammunition is a matter of first importance, the weight saving and convenience of the machine-gun in itself are sufficient to give it a preference where the other advantages are not overwhelmingly against it. ”

“ Manufacturing by private firms under contract, therefore, has considerable advantages; but even here the want of regularity in the placing out of orders is not conducive to high economy; a private firm, however, is able to work in one job with another, and execute a Government contract in lieu of other work for which there may happen to be a lull in the demand. This is especially the case in war time, when (as at the present moment) a large proportion of our engineering works and factories, having little demand for their regular products, are mainly occupied in turning out munitions of war. ”

“ Case 2.—If, on the other hand, the particles and the surface of the earth be perfectly elastic, the former will rebound with a velocity equal to that with which they strike, and the system as a whole will not lose energy. If the body be arranged to deal continually with the same set of particles, none being allowed to escape, then it may be supported without any continued expenditure of energy—that is to say, without any work being done. ”

“ The modified Newtonian medium of our present hypothesis resembles in many ways the perfect gas of kinetic theory, but differs in one very important respect. The molecules of a perfect gas are not only in a state of motion, but are undergoing frequent encounters one with another. Whether these encounters are due to gross impact or to some kind of action at a distance is immaterial from the point of view of the present discussion. The particles or corpuscles of the hypothetical medium have no magnitude, consequently they do not encounter one another, and therefore the medium has no continuity. ”

“ The position of aircraft in connection with naval warfare requires to be studied almost as an independent problem, since many of the circumstances and conditions are utterly different from those which obtain on land. Apart from differences in the constructional features which, particularly in the case of the aeroplane, are considerable, the questions which arise in the matter of attack and defence are so entirely modified, at least as affecting the primary function of the arm, as to influence fundamentally the question of armament. ”

“ In order to effect anything decisive, an organisation of an entirely new character is required: an air fleet absolutely free from any routine or other set duties, whose one and only object is to seek out the enemy's aircraft wherever reported, and effect their destruction with the utmost swiftness and despatch; in brief, an independent air fleet, whose unchallenged existence alone stands for the command of the air. ”

“ Firstly, it is evident that the attack will essentially be on the side of the aeroplane; the dirigible can do no more than act on the defensive. The great disparity of speed alone, whatever armament the airship may carry, settles this definitely; it is within the power of the aeroplane to choose precisely when, how, and where it will engage in conflict. The dirigible, like the submarine, is too slow to run the enemy to earth or to bring him to bay, and, to its disadvantage, cannot, like the submarine, make itself invisible and attack by stealth. ”

“ It is generally recognised that in its employment in connection with military operations a most valuable property of the flying-machine or aeroplane is its mobility; it is mobile to a degree which can scarcely have been dreamt of in the warfare of the past. When, therefore, we look for uses in co-operation with an army in the field in which the aeroplane may show to advantage, we naturally turn to examine the duties at present fulfilled by the cavalry, hitherto the Arm to be employed wherever mobility is of importance. ”

“ The main factors that have contributed to the production of the machines of outstanding merit, which are upholding our reputation in the field to-day, are unquestionably the greater scientific knowledge possessed by our designers, and the conspicuous ability shown by the staff of the Royal Aircraft Factory in making practical use and application of the latest and best information at their disposal, and in their own full-scale experimental work and study of the many practical problems outside the range of purely scientific research. ”

“ But the defence of modern arms is indirect: tersely, the enemy is prevented from killing you by your killing him first, and the fighting is essentially collective. As a consequence of this diff"erence, the importance of concentration in history has been by no means a constant quantity. Under the old conditions it was not possible by any strategic plan or tactical manoeuvre to bring other than approximately equal numbers of men into the actual fighting line; one man would ordinarily find himself opposed to one man. ”

“ All fluids are viscous to a greater or lesser degree; the viscosity of water is small, that of air still less, whilst lubricating oil and treacle are highly viscous substances. Now just as in the study of ordinary mechanics it is found expedient initially to neglect the effects of friction, so, in connection with the present subject, we can afford to ignore the fluid friction to which the viscosity of the fluid gives rise, and in the first instance deal with resistance as a function of density alone. ”