The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-06-28


Tests In France by Aviators Who
Reconnoitered Fortress.
Aeroplanes are to be used in the
United States army for directing ar
tillery fire. This matter has been un-
der consideration for almost a year,
the wish of the United States to install
such eYsteU for the control Of a-til.
lery fire following tn, bucc pssfni ex-
periments of the French army.
The present plan is TO detail two
aeroplanes for the work. Whether
they will be some of those now at
College Park, Nd, or some of the new
machines ordered has not yet been set
tied. The future station of the arti-
lery aeroplanes will be either Fort
Leavenworth, Kan. or Fort Sill, Okla,
both places being well suited to arti-
lery trials of the nature contemplated.
The necessity for aeroplane control
of artillery fire came from the fact that
all modern battery fire is masked. The
gunners do not see the object they are
shooting at. The French, who are con
ceded to have the finest artillery in
the world, developed the system of
masked fire. This was afterward tax
en- up by Germany and England. In
directing such fire there have been
portable towers made for battery OBJ
servers, and the artillery officers also
have taken advantage of trees, church
steeples and other elevations. Ere
quently none of these is available, and
they have never been satisfactory.
Tests by French Army.
The first extensive experiments with
aeroplane control Of gunfire were made
in August, 1911, by the aviators of the
French army from Verdun, who were
accommodating the French fortress of
Toul. There were four aeroplanes, one
monoplane and three biplanes used in
this experiment. The four aviators
height of from 5000 to 5000 feet
they made sketches, took photographs
and made notes and in two hours re-
turned to their home camp, having
covered a distance of 1SO kilometers.
Their reports were precisely what the
commanding general needed for an at
tack on the fortress.
One Of the most satisfactory results
of the expedition consisted of the pho
tographs, made by special apparatus
and carried by Captain Bellenger.
With this camera he had taken close
detail pictures from a height of 5000
feet and travelling at sixty miles an
hour.
On the following day experiments
were made in controlling the fire of
field battery. This is the work il is
intended to duplicate at Fort Leaven-
worth. The aeroplanes in this case
fly high enough to be out Of danger
from terrestrial fire and locate the OBJ
jectve of the artillery on a map. The
report is given to the commander Of
the battery, and the aeroplane again
takes wing, going this time to the rear
of its own battery. The battery has
located itself for the aviators by laying
down two broad strips of white cloth
pointing in the direction the battery is
trained.
Drop Weighted Cards.
The battery commander then fires
two salvos at ranges 200 yards apart
This constitutes a bracket" The
bracket may be short or 1t may be an
"over" The aeroplanes see which it is
and note the result on weighted cards
These are dropped down to the battery.
and the salvos are repeated till the
bracket incloses the objective. Then
the ranges are brought to converge on
the objective until it is destroyed.
So far the American aeroplanes have
done practically nothing in the devel-
opment Of communication between the
aeroplanes and their base. The signal
service here has built a very good
lightweight wireless set, but there has
been no chance to use it satisfactorily.
There also has been developed a visual
signal called the Means signal. With
this the aeroplane observer can tele-
graph in Morse with dots and dashes
of smoke. This and the card dropping
system have not yet been tried.
1t has been definitely decided to To-
cate one hydroaeroplane station at the
Washington barracks. There will be
two hydroaeroplanes located at the
new school. Two more hydros will be
l.