Abstract
THE Air Ministry has acquired a De Havilland Dragon Rapide and an Avro Ava, two well-known commercial types of aircraft, for R.A.F. use. Such purchases indicate two possible lines of attack on the problem of rapid expansion recently announced. The degree of military usefulness of such machines, and the amount of modification necessary, can be studied in actual experiment by the R.A.F. personnel concerned. Also the more immediate problem of obtaining a sufficient supply of machines for training and flying practice, for the increased establishment under the new R.A.F. expansion scheme, will be helped, if civil machines are found suitable, and can be built immediately in factories already in production of them. It is understood that the first two of the five new training schools are to be opened this month, each school having the equivalent of three squadrons. Thus the problem of equipment is not only to supply these, but also a progressively increasing number of machines for the use of these pupils as they pass out into the service. It has to be discovered whether it is best to allow constructing firms to accelerate the production of their own aircraft, modified to R.A.F. requirements, or to change them over to contracts to build other machines specifically designed for R.A.F. work. Large contracts have also been placed for the construction of aeroplane hangars in various places.
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Civil Aircraft in the Royal Air Force. Nature 135, 949 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135949a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135949a0