The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1910-07-31
Now Useless in War
American Naval Officer Says
~ SIDNEY espex.

~ SIDNEY esPgX.
Warrington. July 3O.-"Airships. d.
rigible balloons. seroplanes and other
kinds Of aerial craft. a. at present
built. are Of absolutely no practical
use to either the army or navy of the
United States"
This II direct quotation of one of
the highest naval ofIlcers Of the line
at present on duty in Washington. AL.
though q keen enthusiast over aerial
navigation AZ applied to the military
branches OF the government his prac-
tical ideas have led him to make an
unomcial statement which, 1t is stated
10 the concensus of opinion of both ar
my and naval omcials. For obvious
reasons he will not allow his name to
be mentioned. As the United Statets
cannot afford to drop behind other
nations In experimenting with various
means of offense and defense, expert.
ments will continue to be made in both
branches of the service. It is the hope
that the aerial craft will ultimately
become Of great value to these
branches as 1t Is pointed out that both
the army and the navy need an EN-
cient scouting corps. capable of OBJ
tanning advance information of an ene-
my's movements. For this purpose. 1t
is said airships would be of great ad-
vantage. Experiments SO far have
been made along these lines.
Bomb throwing from craft that sail
in the air. has 1t said. been rather
more spectacular than practical.
Quick starts. high flying and long
distance flying have not demonstrated
the efficiency Of the craft from q mill
tary standpoint. The only lessons
drawn from the airship maneuvers. it
10 said Is that in some instances they
might be used as scouts. This Is par
ticularly true In the army. for here. 1t
IL said. the airships and balloons have
much wider scope of duty and EN-
cheney. In the navy, however, the
airship as we'll as the balloon has a
| restricted use and will not be adopted
into general use for years to come
or until some other inventions are pat.
ented which will revolutionize the art
One of the experiments upon which
naval ohicers have based their opin
ions is the one conducted some time
ago by various aviators of throwing
bombs from the air upon naval yes
sells. Usually 1t Is said. that the air
craft sailed at about 800 feet from the
object and dropped the bombs. Al
800 feet. the heaviest gun carried by
any warship could put q flying ma.
chine out Of business. Taken for
granted that bombs could be thrown
with some accuracy Of aim, the dam
age inflicted upon q modern warshir
or even little torpedo boat. 1t is said
would only amount to q ''locaP' mat
ter. But pursuing their line of rea-
soning just q bit further. oncers say
that an airship, to be of any value In
war, would have to ny at $500 feet
above the sea level, to get out Of the
range of guns, II they wanted to In
hict any damage on any enemy. Al
this altitude bomb dropping would b
the merest of guess work. Unlike
gunnery In the navy, airships would
not be able to find the range of ar
enemy.
In the navy. gunnery is to a certain
extent guess work. Range finding II
obtained by firing q preliminary shell
The splash that necessarily follows in
dicates to the officers the distance o
the object and the second shot is us
ually placed where 1t is intended.
With airships. however. sailing a
a height of $500 feet and firing O.
dropping a small bomb, it's mark coult
not be distinguished by the aviato
and he consequently would have moth
ing to indicate to him where his mis-
sile has fallen. Hence his accurac,
would necessarily suffer. In the arm!
however. 1t Is said his markmanshil
would be better, but the damage In
fiicted would be very little.
To make the airship better mean
Of defense, range instruments woul'
have to be carried by the aviator ant
besides an extra passenger for tn
purpose OF determining exactly wha
damage the airship could infiict.
It Is also pointed out that men skill
ed in the art of navigating ship an
of gunnery or rather bomb throwing
would have to be employed. Evel
with an eficient crew the results a
obtained by this means OF warfar
would be approximately small. eithe
In the army or the navy.
In the army few men would b
killed once in a while one Of the oil
lime ofYicers remarked. A gun woul'
be smashed here or there or perhaps
lpart Of q defense would be torn apart
but 30 you would think for one min
lutte that any air ship full OF small es
lplosive bombs could seriously crippl
an army? l think not. but We can
afford to do away with these expert
ments as they might lead to other val
liable things necessary to an army
equipment"
On the other hand omcers OF bot
the army and the navy. who hav
been actual participants in the demon
strations that have been conducted ar
very enthusiastic over the new mean
of carrying on warfare. They point on
that the air craft will mean the rev