Says British Army Has Best Aeroplane.

New York Times 100 years ago today, March 20, 1913:
War Secretary Seely Creates a Sensation in the House of Commons by His Statement.
CAN GO SLOWLY AND FAST
English Army to Have 148 Aeroplanes by May — Small Dirigibles Preferred to Vessels of Large Type.
    LONDON, March 19.— The British Army possesses the best aeroplane in the world and has perfected a type of flying machine far superior to any in the possession of other nations, according to Col. Seely, the Secretary of State for War, who caused a sensation by making this announcement in the House of Commons when introducing the army estimates today.
    For British purposes, Col. Seely said, the great problem had been to obtain an aeroplane that could fly both slowly and fast. The British Army now had machines that had gone faster than 80 miles an hour and which also were able to reduce their speed to 40 miles an hour. An army biplane yesterday had passed all the tests at an average speed of 91 1/2 miles an hour.
    Col. Seely said the British Army would have 148 aeroplanes by next May. He claimed that Great Britain had deliberately rejected large airships as being useless for her purposes. The War Department was devoting its attention to small dirigibles, which could be packed up and sent abroad with expeditionary forces.
    The War Secretary said that the mechanical problem of repelling attacks on air craft had been solved by experiments carried out by the army service.

    WASHINGTON, March 19.— Aeroplane experts in the War and Navy Departments to-day scouted the idea that the British Army has evolved a flying machine superior to any in the possession of other nations.
    Capt W. Irving Chambers of the Bureau of Navigation of the Navy Department was inclined to accord the highest aeroplane honors to the French Army experts. "Recent improvements in the British Dunne machine," said Capt. Chambers, "show that it possesses a remarkable degree of inherent stability, but I think it will be found that the French machine of M. Drzweicki, with tandem planes, is superior in both stability and efficiency."
    Officers of the Signal Corps of the army also expressed doubt as to whether the British experts had made any revolutionary discoveries. Incidentally it was pointed out that United States Army experts had just perfected a new radio-aeroplane device.