Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1910-09-05
ADMIRAL EVANS VIEWS
Tie Does Not Favor The Aero
Plane For ] he Navy
LET NO NAN DEcRY AIRSHIP
The aost Prod gious OF Human lnveG-
tisns -Aa Achievement Not To BE
DiSparaged


Iisns -Aa Achievement Not To Be
Disparaged
Referring to Admiral Evans and his
comment on the aeorplane, the New
/ York Sur has the following:
General James Allen, Chief of the
/ Signal Corps of the Army. will rec
ommend in his next report that the
Government provide him with aero
palanes and dirigible balloons for
reconnaissance and other field pur-
poses. Rear Admiral Robley d.
| Evans, retired, admits that the aero
plane is indispensable to land forces,
but he does not consider it a desirable
acquisition to the navy. He says
somewhat airily:
"A few oranges or confetti bombs
have been dropped from a height of
a hundred or hundred and fifty feet
upon a target representing bat
tleship. much TO the amusement of the
nursery maids and children. This is
no evidence that the day of battle
ships, torpedo boats, ETC., has pass
ed I"
Nor was it evidence that their day
had passed when an exploding mine
blew up the Russian battleship Pc
tropavlovsk at Port Arthur and Ad
miral Makarotf and several hundred
men died at their posts. Whether it
will ever be feasible to drop on the
decks of warships explosives power
ful enough to destroy them is a ques
tion that cannot be answered offhand
at this stage of the development of
the aeroplane. Admiral Evans scouts
the idea:
When approaching ship or a mum
ber of ships the operator of the aero
plane will be discovered when about
10, 900 yards away. At about 5000
yards 12-inch shells and shrapnel will
begin to crack about his machine. At
5000 yards the 6-inch and 5-inch
guns will be sending their shells to
him at the rate of ten or twelve a
minute, and when within 1000
yards the 3-inch guns will add their
music to the tune of fifteen or twenty
each a minute, and the service rifles,
sighted to 1900 yards will make his
seat veritable hornets nest."a
Has Admiral Evans ever seen an
aeroplane in the sky 10000 yards (or
more than five and half miles,
away? Has he seen one at distance
of eight or six thousand yards? The
aeroplane looks like an insect when
it irst swims into ken, and the idea
of aiming a l2-inch gun at it, if the
thing could be done, is grotesque.
Mighty little heavy artillery will
deck upon the artificial dragon fly we
call the aeroplane. Perhaps the three
pound guns would be used, and GER
tainly the magazine rifle would be
practicable for tumbling an operator
from his seat or for disabling the
engine and wrecking his machine.
But Admiral Evans assumes that the
aeroplane would be available only in
broad daylight.
Now, there is no reason why it
should not be used at night in still
air, and we contend that it might fly
low over warship and attempt its
destruction. Moreover the Admiral
forgets that human life is cheap in
warfare. A complement of 600 men
goes to glory as the impact of mine
with the hull of a great ship worth
$40, 900, 900. Surely an active and
resourceful enemy 'could afford to
sacrifice a hundred men in fifty aero
planes costing $3.50, 600 in all. They
might collect over warship on a
starlit night, or at the first sign of
day, and drop their explosives as they
passed. The experiment would be
we'll worth while, AMI there would be
/ plenty of volunteers. 1t seems to US
rather amusing for a veteran naval
officer to suppose that the poten-
tiality of the aeroplane for mischief
may be judged from an exhibition OF
orange dropping on an aviation field.
The truth is we now see only the
| beginnings of the aeroplane. One
may assume, without suspicion of in
tellectual decay that Improvements
will be made in the heavier than ali
machine such as are not now dreamed
of. If-it can be used for reconnoiter''
ing by the army, certainly the navy
can find the same employment for it.
The aviators have passed over wide
straits and held their way steadily
at great heights over sea and lake
They have sailed the air IN twilight.
Even now they ask only that tbe wire
does not blow too stong. Their flights
become longer and longer, higher anc
higher. swifter and swifter, and NJ
rejecting man can set bound t
them. The heavier than air flying
machine is one of he most prodigiou'
and pregnant of human inventions
Let no man decry and disparage it
sr speculate dogmatically about its fu
ture, lest he be confounded by tn
achievement of day.