The Portland daily press., 1897-06-24
AERIAL SHIPS IN WAR.
A Military Expert Points Out Tn cir Great
Destructive Possibility.

Capt. Sir B. Baden Powell, distin-
guished military authority, warns the
government of all nations that they had
better put bomb proof roofs on their forts
II they want to stand any chance what
ever OF winning the next war in which
they engage. Capt. Powell says that
an aerial warship is an absolute certainty,
and that what the military genius of the
future will have to look out for will be
bombs overhead instead of in front or
behind. In other words, Capt. Powell
states that the fort without roof will be
about as useful as the fifth wheel of a
wagon, according to the Pail Mall Bud
get.
When questioned about the matter Capt.
Powell said: "While we have time let us
take what precaution we may for our de-
Tense. 1t may be possible to protect to
some extent our Notifications by means
of sloping, bomb proof roofs over the
more vulnerable portions. The guns
must be made capable Of firing upward
During the siege Of Paris the Germans
had number of guns specially made on
swivel mountings for firing at balloons,
though it is also true that very few of
them were hit during the siege. Rockets
might, perhaps prove more useful. The
only really efficient means of defense,
however, will undoubtedly be for every
army and every government to make them
selves equal, If not superior, to their
enemies with aerial ornaments.
II think we may at all events consider
it fact that aerial machines will figure
to great extent in the wars Of the fu-
ture. These may be the existing cumber-
fourteen miles an hour, or they may be
balloons SO improved as to go twenty or
thirty miles an hour.
sit is also possible that slow progress
ing flying engine may be introduced, or
that finally some swift, darting 'aviatiya,
traversing over 100 miles in the hour and
outstripping the fastest flying bird, will
be the foe with which we shall contend.
Even if the existing navigable balloon be
not greatly improved upon-if we consider
the advantages that France actually pos
sesses tOday-we see, then, many Occas-
ions on which this invention will be of
the greatest value.
Every nation has this problem to con-
slider as it is attpresent. situated, with the
possible exception of Russia. Should
some foreign nation produce an engine of
war such as dynamite carrying aerosta
| there Is no certainty that the others
would be able at once to initiate it and
employ similar tactics. 1t is more than
probable that the new inventions of this
sort could easily be kept secret, since the
difficulties chiefly lie in the details.
"In fact, 1t may be said that efficient
machines of many descriptions could
probably be easily made if only we could
| turn out a suitable lightweight motor.
| Now, a motor, whether it be steam, cleo
trio, gas, explosive or any other, can
easily be kept secret. 1t would be prac-
| tically impossible, then, for an observer,
on seeing an aerial machine in mid air,
! to discover and reproduce the details Of
the mechanism of its motor.
If two nations actually went to war
two great nations-that power which had
organized an aerial navy would possess
such an incalculable advantage that it's
| opponents would suffer g most crushing
| defeat. Within a few hours of the declar-
alton of war some aeromotors could be
dispatched quite out of range of guns,
and perhaps travelling at such a speed as
| TO insure safety from projectiles over the
| enemy's country. From them explosive
shells could be dropped where and when
| the aeronaut willed. By this means for
| tifications could be damaged, magazines
blown up, ships sunk and cities ruined
sis it not plain, then, that an absolute
necessity exists for the modern fort to
have bomb proof roof? The facts have
| presented are known to every careful
| student of military matters They are
not theories ripe for explosion, but facts,
the realization of which cannot come too
Soon -