Evening star., 1911-08-27
ARSHp RAIN HALTS A|RMEN ARREST ARSON GANG
Wright Aero Being Repaired
at College Park.
CURTISS MACHINE TESTS
Shortage Of Army Officers May Pre-
vent Further Details to Avi-
alton Squad.

College Park looked more or less like
| Goldsmiths deserted village yesterday
| afternoon. There was promise Of
rain in the air all the time the rain
was not actually falling.
| The Wright machine. which was
broken up on the return from Frederick,
was still undergoing repairs. Lieut..
Milling, who is the ldus achates of
| the Burgess Wright. had gone to
Marblehead to see If there was any
thing new in the aeroplane factory Of
Starting Burgess there, and the two
| Curtiss machines were waiting in their
| hangers for an official acceptance test,
! which may be started tomorrow after
noon.
There has been some talk of Glenn
Curtss coming down to fly the school
machine before it is formally accepted
by the War Department. 1t is possible,
| however, that he may depute Capt.
! Beck to act for him, and in this case
the flight will be made without his
presence. IF this is done it is not
known whether the machine will be
ceptance flight, or if the motor will
be worked up gradually to the official
| limit, in which case the demonstration
will take almost a week. AS soon as
will start training Lieut.. Frank Ken
/ nedy. who will be the first Curtiss pupil
at the aviation camp.
Speculation AS to Details.
There is considerable speculation just
now as to whether any more officers will
be detailed to the flying school. There
is great shortage of officers in the army
just now. owing to the fact that SO many
are detailed on special service. This
makes a shortage of about COO, and this
was proposed to be remedied by Con-
gress providing 200 additional officers in
the last appropriation bill These were
given, but 200 were Immediately assigned
to National Guard instruction. This left
the army 200 officers worse off than it
was before. There are also about 200 ap-
plicatiOnS for detail to the flying squad,
but as the shortage now has reduced the
army to about one commissioned officer
to company, to say nothing of the
shortage in the Coast Artillery, the War
Department authorities are rather at a
loss to see where any additional details
to the flying squad can come from.
1t is just possible that line officers may
be assigned temporarily to the school for
instruction, which will not take very long,
and then return to their regiments. At
any rate the President, the Secretary of
War and the chief of the general staff
have all expressed themselves as con-
vinced of the necessity of building up
! good aviation department, and the
officers will be secured If it is possible 70
do so.
Want Fifteen Aeroplanes.
1t is intended If possible to have an
aerial squadron of fifteen aeroplanes by
the end Of the present fiscal year. There
is money enough to buy and operate the
machines if the officers can be found to
man them. OF course all of these ma
chimes will not be stationed at Wash
ington. even if they are bought, but will
be distributed among several of the large
army posts.
1t is intended to buy one or two foreign
machines possibly by way of official COM
parison of their merits with those of the
American machines. 1t is understood that
Gen. Allan favors the purchase of a
Bleriot and a Farman but what type
of engine may be selected will depend
upon circumstances. Some of the officers
favor the purchase of a Renault engine,
which held the worlds altitude record
until this was secured by Lincoln Beachey
during the Chicago meet. 1t is under
stood that Lieut.. Milling will witness
tests of a Gnome motor attached to
Wright machine at the Burgess factory.