A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE article by Major Oliver Stewart on German Air Strength in last Sunday'i Observer was of very consider- able importance. It contained an estimate of the number of Germany's first-line aeroplanes, which were put at somewhere about 5,000. Everything, of course, depends on the authority behind such an estimate. All that can be said about that is that Major Oliver Stewart declares his information to have come from "a completely trustworthy source," and Major Stewart does not use language of that kind without reason. First-line aeroplanes are machines organised in fleets and squadrons, and vith the necessary reserves to replace wastage over a reasonable period. The total strength is not expansible at will, even if there are machines available, for the training of pilots for a ingle new front-line squadron is a considerable undertaking.
s to the total strength of the British and German air-forces jor Stewart is content to quote an article by Mr. T. P. right, of the Curtiss-Wright Corporation, in the January issue the American paper Aviation. Mr. Wright puts the figure t 35,000 and 25,00o respectively, a proportion of 7 to 5. He timates output at 2,000 a month in the case of Germany, 65o in the case of Britain, or not quite 5 to 4, and America's resent monthly production as a little over 75o. That was, in act, about the American figure for December. Since then, owever, Mr. William Knudsen, the controller of production, as stated that the January output was 1,036 machines, with a rospect of consistent and rapid increase.
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