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§ 91 absolutely free from any routine or other set duties, whose one and only object is to seek out the enemy's aircraft wherever reported, and effect their destruction with the utmost swiftness and despatch; in brief, an independent air fleet, whose unchallenged existence alone stands for the command of the air.

§ 92. ''The Independent Air Fleet. Air Tactics.'' It may be laid down that the independent air fleet, in order that it shall be capable of fulfilling the duties assigned to it, must be strong by virtue of numbers. In order to destroy—i.e., not merely to drive away—the active aircraft of the enemy, it must be of decisively higher speed, so that the enemy, whether reconnaissance or fighting machines, will be compelled to surrender or give battle. An exception may be made in the case of the strategic scout, which, being designed purely for speed and being burdened with neither armour or armament, may be taken as, within reason, faster than anything that can be brought against it. This need for superiority in the matter of speed means evidently that the air-fleet type must suffer in some degree in the matter of armament; alternatively it must be a heavier type machine for machine. Closely allied to the question of speed is that of climbing power. Other things being equal, whether for increased speed or for increased climbing power, a greater horse-power per unit weight is necessary. If we assume some given value for the horse-power per unit weight, then a machine may be designed either to develop the highest flight speed possible or to obtain the greatest rate of altitude increase—i.e., vertical velocity. Any actual design is of the nature of a compromise; maximum flight speed is kept as high as possible consistently with obtaining a sufficient rapidity of ascent. The independent air fleet must be, without question, the master of the service machines whose