Aviation

ARMY & NAVY

Last week, in two hours one afternoon and with comparatively little ado, the House of Representatives passed a bill that is the chief net outcome of the great excitement created last fall by Colonel William Mitchell's sensational attack on the Army Air Service (TIME, Sept. 14 et seq.).

It authorizes* the expenditure of $150,000,000 over a period of five years. At the end of that period 2,200 first-class fighting planes are to have been provided, and 1,650 regular flying officers and 550 reserve officers are to be on active duty. There will also be 15,000 enlisted men in the service, 500 of whom are flying cadets.

The provisions of the bill are so framed that ultimately every man in the Air Service will be a flyer, that at least a fifth of the pilots shall be enlisted men, that there will be an equitable promotion list for air officers, that there will be some eight instead of three flying officers on the General Staff (composed of 93 officers), that the Chief of the Air Service must be an actual flying officer.

There was so little objection to the bill that the "ayes" and "noes" were not even taken.

* Not to be confused with an actual appropriation. Before the money is spent, the Budget Bureau will have to approve the expenditure which it is desired to make from time to time, and Congress must actually appropriate the money out of the Treasury.