The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1912-06-17
AERIAL SCOUT IS
NEWEST IN SOLDIERS

! LONDON, June 1.-THE following
article concerning aerial scouts ant
Edreadnoughts for use in warfare was
written by Horace Short, designer ant
builder of H. M. S. Amphibian, which
has flown successfully before the king
at Weymouth. 1t is printed in the
London Mail:
1t is only three or four years age
that aviation, even as we know 1t to-
day, was regarded by the majority as
a science which probably the worl6
| fifty years hence might still be dream
ing Of Yet the last few months have
| shown to the world that aviation is nc
longer a dream, no longer a mere
risky sport, but stern and powerful
reality, a science full Of enormous re-
sponsibilities, the scope and conse-
quence of which no man today can
predict for twenty years hence.
| Apart from it's own sphere, aviation
brings with it new procession of man
ufacture, new materials, and methods
which will have powerful bearing on
other industries, quite apart from it's
own
Can we predict even for the next
| two or three years what will come
forward in this new science? Already
man can fly by mechanical means at
attitudes measured in thousands oil
feet and at velocities bordering on
100 miles an hour, and capable Of ma
| ing journeys of hundreds of miles
with comparative certainty and safety
The continental armies already have
their scouts in actual warfare
British fleet has seen it's sons 30O0
feet above the decks, borne through
the air at sixty miles an hour on duty,
following a predetermined course,
carrying out a specified object regard
less of wind, fog, and rain squalls
through which they flew, being only
visible to those below when crossing
chance rift in the midst and
cleud-laden atmosphere. Their speed
is double that of the fastest destroyer,
their range almost that of the torpedo
boat of few years ago. They have
detected the might naval fighting
arm, the submarine, when it thought
itself secure from view, submerged,
with only it's tiny periscope above the
surface. They have carried and drop
ped with close precision ponderous
masses of metal which might have
been bomb sufficient to sink or
wreck a good sized warship. They have
risen from and alighted on the water,
flown from the deck of a battleship,
carried dispatches to shore and yes
sell They have carried out maneuvers
to a time table without a hitch.
Scout Has Wide Vision.
The lookout has caught a fieeting
glimpse of a distant, rapidly moving
speck through a chance rift in the
clouds. The air scout has seen the
feet. The admiral must realize that
all his wellplanned scheme has been
discovered What should he do?
Change all his well-though-out plans
or boldly continue, with the haunting
suspicion, which probably in his mind
amounts to a certainty, that his care
fully thcught-out strategical move
ment has been fully divulged TO his
opponent long before he can reach the
critical position?
That tiny speck in the cloud rift has
vanished long before the guns are load
ed and trained upon it, and the admiral
well knows that in few more min
utes the full details of his formation,
together with true photographs in
plan of his mighty fleet, will be dis
cussed by his opponent.
The human occupants in that tiny
speck have fully ascertained:
/. The composition of the fleet.
z. Its formation.
8. And it's course.
And in 80 minutes this information
is 40 miles away, irrecoverable.
Wit an aerial screen of efficient
aeroplanes the problem for the en-
emies' scout would be more interesting
and difficult. Before he could see the
fleet he must get within the screen, and
if he gets in, will he get out?
The screen provides for the water
fleet what the mounted scout provides
for the land army on strategical move
ments Without this screen the air
scout has little to fear except the re-
mote CHANGE of destruction from be-