Word: aire
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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Britain. Last week in the House of Commons Air Secretary Sir Kingsley Wood laboriously reviewed the war record of the Royal Air Force to date: it flew 1,000,000 miles of reconnaissance and patrol, escorted 100 convoys, sighted submarines on 72 occasions, attacked 34 times, made 1,000-mile flights at high altitudes. In cold figures such as Sir Kingsley cited, the R. A. F. last week had about 6,000 trained pilots, about 3,000 first-line planes. But it had, as well, spirit, ingenuity, determination, and a new plan...
...fight. Heavyweight Boxer Len Harvey (himself an R. A. F. sergeant) teaches them how to take it on the chin. Psychologists teach them how to make the most of their brains and nerves. Officers teach them to respect the authority of such crackerjack leaders as their Chief of Air Staff, Sir Cyril Newall...
These Britons want to learn to fly, for they want to beat Adolf Hitler, and they respect the air power he can call up. But Britons encounter two insurmountable difficulties in their learning: the sun shines over Great Britain only one hour in every three; the island is too small and crowded for extended training flights...
Another difficulty the British have had to overcome-they have done so with amazing rapidity-is their slow rate of plane production. It was in 1936 that Britain finally woke up to the appalling state of her Air Force. At the end of last year Britain was producing only about 200 planes a month, but by last week they had almost achieved a rate of 1,000 per month, bade fair to overtake the German rate soon...
Chief. Concerned with the production of both men and machines, Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Louis Norton Newall was last week one of the hardest working men in Europe. From nine o'clock sharp until dusk each day he conferred with Sir Kingsley Wood, with air counsellors, plane manufacturers, training experts. Most nights he did not get home for dinner, some nights did not get there to sleep...