AviationBanter - View Single Post

~Nins~ · March 23rd 06, 02:36 AM posted to rec.aviation.military.naval

John Dallman wrote:
|| In article lJ2Uf.838592$x96.5146@attbi_s72,
|| (~Nins~) wrote:
||
||| Post-WWI, Britain, didn't they build up their air power during that
||| period, number of planes?
||
|| Not my field, but the Ten Year Rule - that military spending could
|| be cut very hard given that there was no prospect of major war
|| within ten years - was applied to all the UK services from about
|| 1920 to about 1935. Then there was a considerable build-up.
||
|| Just after WWI, the problem was disposing of the vast numbers of
|| surplus planes. We were fortunate in the that engine that some fool
|| had decided to standardise on for all RAF aircraft hadn't quite made
|| it into service. The "ABC" was hopelessly heavy and unreliable, but
|| thanks to the end of the war that only cost money rather than lives.
||
|| The RAF did get to experiment with colonial policing from the air -
|| bombing people is not calculated to make them think you're policing
|| them fairly - but basically did not get to grow very much until
|| Hitler started to look like a serious threat. Progress in aircraft
|| design was fairly gradual until the all-metal monoplane with heavy
|| wing-mounted armament popped up at just the right time.
||
|| The RAF's notable achievement between the wars was building the
|| world's first Integrated Air Defence system. That, plus Goering, won
|| us the Battle of Britain.

Wow, that was interesting, sparked my curiosity. I'm off to read about the
system now. There are some interesting posts in this group. Unfortunately,
the most I can contribute to it are inquiries, so I guess I'll just read
here and there. Although, when I was a little girl I thought I could fly.
I made cardboard wings, managed to strap them on after getting out the glue
and cutting open my mother's fav feather pillow, my brothers helped me up
into the mulberry tree, and I jumped, but alas my wings failed me, and I hit
the ground hard. My father was a bit upset, not so much with me, but with
my brothers for helping get up the tree. Mama wasn't too happy about the
pillow either. I was lucky I didn't kill myself. The sky, day and night,
still fascinates me though (maybe I was a bird in another life). G