The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1912-01-11
MAKES PLANS FOR
ARMY AEROPLANE
Requirements Are Based on
Record Breaking Flights
MORE MACHINES NEEDED.
Brigadier General Allen Wants Another
Appropriation of $125,ooo to Continue
tho Work-War Department Now Has
Six Aeroplanes.

Brigadier General James Allen. chief
signal officer, has prepared new speci-
fications for military aeroplanes to be
hereafter purchased by the war de-
partment. They are the result of i'm
provements demonstrated by the aero
plane work of last summer and as yet
are tentative in character.
Each aeroplane." ii is required
must carry two persons, with the
seats SO arranged as to permit of the
largest possible field of operation for
both. The control must be capable of
use by either operator from either seat
The value of dual control, it will be
recalled, was established in the flights
of Lieutenant Il. G. Ellyson and John
III. Towers in the navy hydroaeroplane
Triad
''The machine is further required to
be able to ascend at q minimum rate
of 1000 feet in ten minutes while car
rying weight of 450 pounds and fuel
supply sufficient for at least four hours
of continuous flight. This requirement
recalls that the American weight car
rying record established by p. o. Par
melee at Chicago last August is 45S
pounds. Claude Grahame- White, car
rying q passenger on Sept. 80 at Mas.
sau boulevard, rose $3.50 feet In nine
minutes.
1.-The engine" it is provided, will
be subject to an endurance test In the
oiF nf hnt1rcB Ainht
The aeroplane must develop a speed
in the air of at least forty-fve miles
an hour"
American duration record for a ma
chine with two persons Is hours and
AZ minutes, made by G. W. Beatty at
the Chicago meet. The worlds record,
however, Is hours % minutes, estab-
hshed recently by Herr Suvelack near
Berlin.
"In case the weight carrying capaci-
ty is increased to 600 pounds" the
specifications state, 'the minimum
speed may be reduced to thirty-eight
miles per hour and the climbing pow
er diminished to 1,GO0 feet in ten min
utes."
Another requirement Is reminiscent
of the recent French military compe-
tition, In which several machines fail
ed on the same condition as follows:
"The machine must be capable of
landing or arising from plowed fields"
Other requirements are as follows:
"The aeroplane must be easily trans
portable by road, rail. etc, and easily
and rapidly assembled and adjusted.
"The starting and landing devices
must be part of the machine itself.
and 1t must be able to start without
outside assistance.
'The engine must be capable of
throttling to run at reduced speed"
The war department now has six
aeroplanes, four at Augusta, one at
San Antonio and one on its way to
the Philippines. These include three
Wright, one Burgess Wright and two
Curtiss machines. Another Curtiss ma.
chine has not yet been delivered
Brigadier General Allen has $4,000
left of the $125,000 appropriated by
the last congress. He will not pur-
chase any more machines for month
or two, as he wishes now to train the
officers with the machines on hand.
BY July / the balance of the appro-
priation will have been spent, and II
is expected that there will be availa-
BILE another S125,OOO appropriated by
congress at this session.
More aeroplanes are needed by the
army IL the experiments now being
made are to be carried out properly,
General Allen said when he appeared
before the, house committee on mill
tary affairs.