Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-07-26
AERIAL WARFARE
HAS NEW STATUS
RAPID FIRE GUNS MAY BE
USED IN AIR
NEW PHASES OF AiRSHlP UTILITY
PROVED BY GERMANY
Now Possible to Build Air Graft Capa-
BILE of Tremendous Destruction,
with No Possible Defense
from Ground
BY GEORGE b. HARRISON

BY GEORGE b. HARRISON
The most important American article
so far published on the probable utility
of aerial craft in warfare appears in
the August McClure's Magazine, THE
Aerial Battleship," by carl Dienstbach
and r. r. MacMechen. 1t makes pub
! lie, probably for the first time, intor-
! nation of considerable value regarding
| the military experiments in Germany,
and these are stated so positively as to
| leave no doubt as to their derivation
! from a 6emi- authoritative source.
In brief, some of these statements
are:
Rapid fire guns have beer success
| fully fired from the German Zeppelin
airship. A specially built Krupp gun
weighing about 100 pounds and firing
a 1.9-inch shell at the rate of nearly one
a second, had a range of several miles
from the airship at the zone of safety
altitude.
Airships like those of the German
| type can use guns with perfect safety.
| If the Maxim silencer is attached even
the flash is eliminated.
Use of the unit system of balloon
! commandments as worked out by Count
| Zeppelin is practical for building an
airship capable of reaching every lead
| ing capital in Europe and getting back
| 70 Germany again, carrying a dozen
mon and at least five tons of arms ana
ammunition. The cost of one battle
| shin of the Dreadnougnt type will build
| and equip forty such sirships, iDclud-
| ing as armament equipment ten ma
| chine rifles, with ammunition enough 10
| fire 400 hCllets a minute for full hour;
! two machine guns and 400 shells for
! them, or, if desired to attack forts or
! cities. two and one-half tons of dyna-
| mite torpedoes instead of enc Of the
machine guns and it's shells.
Trfrs mile high may be made in
| choppy air currents, in winds of con-
siderable velocity, in snow storms ana
billiards.
The foregoing statements are not
SPECULATION, according to the contrib
utors of the article to McClure's. They
have been known in part by aerial eX-
perts for some time. More Information
than this of great value in anticipating
aerial warfare is contained in publ
cation printed officially by the German
war department and circulated only
among officers of the German army and
navy; among other things, this hand
book gives complete descriptions, Illus
trated by charts, of the experiments in
firing machine guns from the airshlp
decks These show that the range of
the gun is more than doubled as COM
pared with the range from ground
point.
ZeppeIins True Airshps
1t should be remembered, as the
writer's for McClures point out that
the Zeppelin is not a dirigible balloon
like those with which Americans are
familiar, but a true ship Of the air.
Compared with ordinary dirgibles-
even with the Baldwin airship now OPP
Grated by the United States signal
corps-Zeppelins in future will be like
Thus far the Zeppelins have built only
up to the beginning Of lifting power,
| The Zeppelin IL, the largest airShlp
in the world, is 446 feet long and 80 feet
across. 1t is automatically true that
lifting power increases according to the
cube Of dimension, while surface resis-
lance increases as the square. Beyond
the dimensions of the Zeppelin II. the
| lifting power grows by great jumps.
An aerial battleship having dis
! placement of 10000 cubic meters, which
| Count Zeppelin has proved to be prac-
! teal and to have a caEabilitY of reach
| ing all the main European capitals
| from German bases, would be $40 feet
| long and 81 feet across, but 10 per cent
! longer, although with twice the ca
pacity of the Zeppelin II.
Another feature, still however,
matter of speculation, but likely to
| become practical with early improve
| ment of aerOnefs, is the idea that aero
| planes may be attached in tow to the
big aerial gunboats. When desirable
| they may be manned and sent scout
ing, keeping meantime in touch by
wireless with the aerial fleet. Small
size and rapid speed will make aero
planes valuable for this purpose, while
| their movements do not reveal the pc
sition of the hidden airships.
| Where fog exists it will be possible
| to lower an observation platform from
which an officer may direct the move
ment of the airship, which is hidden
! and steered high enough in the fog to
be invisible. In fact, an airship may
be high enough into the fog to be en-
! Jirely out of sight from the ground
while the earth is plainly visible from
the ship. This was demonstrated by
a balloon ascension out of San Fran
cisco last May made by Roy Knaben-
shue and the writer. Starting from near
the old city hail, the balloon disap-
peared in the fog at Third and Market
streets from the view of watchers on
| the streets, yet we We're able to see
I the city plainly until the ferry was
reached, several blocks further. All
this time the balloon was rising
steadily
Ground Defense Impractical
Defense against aerial gunboats
seems only possible, according to
| consensus OF expert opinions, by OPP
posing aircraft, Even the efficiency of
the new artillery devised by the Krupps
| for shooting into the air is Of doubtful
character. The zone of safety is usu-
ally estimated at $50 Yards above the
ground and at attitudes below this it
will be exceedingly difficult to hit a
swiftly and erratcaly moving airship.
ION the other hand SAYS the article
in the current Mcclure =, nothing
alive on the ground can escape the fire
of an airship. 1T viii be armed with
rapid fire guns, carrying shells, but its
chief reliance in fighting infantry or
cavalry will be upon the machine rifle.
With this weapon it can turn stream
of 400 bullets a minute on any troops
within two miles, exactly as a man
turns the stream Of a garden hose
against a tree. It's gunners can see
any object on the ground with per
feet cleamess, impossible of realiza-
ton by any one who has not flown
i'm a balloon. They can thus mark the
striking of bullets perfectly. And the
range of their guns is nearly doubled
on account of their position. The fire
Of an airship will annihilate infantry
and cavalry beneatht 1t as surely as
the hand of God. 1t will not be di
rected long at any coherent body which
could be called troops. Human nature
| forbids the possibility of men remain