Just Finished Reading: England and the Aeroplane – Militarism, Modernity and Machines by David Edgerton (FP: 1991/2013)

In this highly entertaining and illuminating polemic the author has a definite axe to grind. This particular axe is aimed at a persistent myth surrounding England: that we are a country of lone eccentric inventors who muddle through in desperate times producing machines that arrive just in the nick of time to save us against a seemingly more prepared and technically proficient foe. That is, of course, our supposed experience of WW2 in a nutshell. Faced with the supposed inevitable defeat at the hands of the Luftwaffe we pulled the fabled Spitfire out of a hat at the last moment and snatched victory from the jaws of certain defeat. It’s a nice story and one which has enough of a grain of truth to seem reasonable at first glance. Of course it wasn’t like that at all.

You see, as the author points out with repeated examples, the English are actually a country of engineers and damned good engineers at that. Since the very earliest days of manned flight we have improved, invented and perfected new techniques, new machines and new ways to use them. Just look at the difference between the barely flight worthy planes in 1913/14 and those 5 years later. The difference in every sphere is astonishing. Critics point to the decline in production and innovation between the wars but even here new designs where commissioned, records broken and great aircraft produced. There was, again as the author points out repeatedly, much more going on in England that the production of the Schneider Trophy winning craft from Supermarine that morphed into the iconic Spitfire.

Of course, when war came in 1939, most of our aircraft where obsolete or close enough but we were far from alone in that. Yet enough in the earliest days of the Battle of France and the later Battle of Britain we had more long range bombers than Germany and used them from the earliest days with some effect. Already tooling up for war our industry raised itself to the challenge and consistently produced more aircraft than Germany throughout the war – and constantly improved existing ‘stock’ whilst creating new machines such as the, again iconic, Lancaster bomber. This is hardly the act of a backward looking, technophobic nation of cottage industries. This was in fact the act of a country used to prosecuting war through air power and with the industrial might to produce some of the world’s best aircraft and engines in enormous quantities.

Post-war things got a bit difficult as they tend to do even for the victors. But a much reduced industry still managed to build the first Meteor jet fighters, the English Electric Lightening, the Vulcan bomber and much else besides. Innovation was far from dead either in the military or civilian side of aviation as proven by the Harrier jump-jet and Concorde. So tales of resistance to innovation and change, whilst hardly unknown, are very much exaggerated. If things had been as bad as some commentators relish in pouring over then most of the craft built and used to great effect in the last 100 years would never have left the drawings boards never mind the ground. Tales of decline and hidebound obstacles put in the way of brilliant individuals are part and parcel of our national myth – the story we constantly tell ourselves about ourselves. Just don’t believe it tells the whole story and never believe that it’s the historical unvarnished truth. It clearly isn’t. Recommended to anyone with an interest in the Aviation industry.