Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-04-17
WAR FLIGHT MAPS
+ SHOW AERO UTILITY
Department Officials. EIated at
Feat of Lieuts. Milling
and Sherman.
WEATHER CONDITIONS BAD;
DISTANCE RECORD BROKEN
Army Aviators Praised for Trip Of
448 Miles From Texas City
to San Antonio, Tex.

All of the records and the sketch map
obtained by Lieuts. Thomas Milling and
/ w. {. Sherman on their recent flight be-
| tween Texas City and San Antonio, Tex,
and return We're yesterday forwarded to
Secretary of War Garrison by Gen.
George P. Scriven, chief signal officer of
the army, together with comments on the
| flight by Gen. William II. Carter COM
| handing the Texas division. Gen. Car
ter's comment was that the flight had
not only fully demonstrated the military
| utility of the aeroplane, but that it had
shown Lieut.. Milling to be lone of the
most skilfui avfators in the world Gen.
Garter said further that the weather
conditions at the time of the flight were
| so bad that he would not have taken the
responsibility Of ordering it made.
Lieut. Milling drove the machine, a
| tractor biplane, the whole distance on
the round trip. The flight started from
| Texas City the afternoon of March Is and
the return flight was made March 81 The
| distance between the two points was 224
miles. but on the first trip the aviator re-
manned up an hour after they arrived at
San Antonio, unqueStiOnably breaking the
worlds record for distance with pilot and
passenger. There was no way of measur-
! ing the exact distance, but in point of
time they broke the American record and
game W1lulH Twelve minutes Oh the
worlds record for pilot and passenger
Time Scale Is Used.
Lieut.. Sherman in making the map of
che flight used an ordinary cavalry
sketching case. The drawing board was
placed parallel with the body of the
aeroplane, and the map direction taken
! from the compass. There was smaller
| scale map of the geological survey used
/ for a general guide and check map. In
making the sketch map the fiiers used a
| time scale, showing that this method
would be practical over an unknown
| country where there was no check map
! available.
| Capt. Cowan of the Signal Corps, re-
| porting on the flight, writes:
This would have been considered a re-
| markable performance under the most
| favorable conditions. but when the baro-
| graph record is examined and the fact
| that the trip was made over unknown
country is taken into consideration, the
| performance must be acknowledged as a
most remarkable demonstration of cour:
age and skill in handling aeroplanes.
THE map made by Lieut.. Sherman,
| while crude. really contains much infor-
| AS a first effort. it shows that this
| method of securing information has many
| possibilities
Much Rough Air Encountered.
Lieut.. Mllings report on the trip is
brief, and relates largely to the topog-
raphy of the country. such would be
of military interest. Regarding the
weather, he says that much rough ali
was encountered. The outside report is
that the wind during the flight ranged
from thirteen to twenty miles per hour.
Some of the gusts evidently We're much
higher than this because one gust tore
away part of one of the vertical planes
between the main planes. but regarding
this occurrence. Lieut.. Milling merely
saws: "As the function of these small
planes is merely to prevent the machine
from skdding. it interfcred in no way
with the control of the machine.
The rough wind prevented climbing to
amy height and Lieut.. Milling says that
in some of the gusts it was necessary to
dive from 30 to 100 feet to recover equi-
librium. He says, therefore. that while
the requirements of the a; my as to ex-
cess motive power seem already severe,
he would recomemnd increasing them. as
the weather they encountered was about
the average of what might be expect
ed in military flying. Many OF the gusts
encountered were greatly in excess of
the strains the machine was designed to
meet and he SAYS that anything less
stanchily built probably would not have
held together for the trip.
Considerable Flying Done.
Special reports received by the War
Department from Texas City and San
Diego Cal, show that there has been
considerable flying al both places in spite
of the bad weather Experiments have
been made with gyroscopic staoilizing
device and Lieut.. Geiger reports that
while they have not been entirely sat
isfactory. they show move in the right
direction for securing the automatic sta
bility of aeroplanes.
The United States stands fourteenth
among the aeronautical powers OF the
world. both in number of government
owned aeroplanes and in government ex-
penditures for aerial navigation during
the past five years. Figures compiled
p. Scriven, chief signal officer OF the
army, shows that Germany leads the
world. with a., aeroplanes and total
expenditure of $4,000 600 during the past
five years. The United States at present
owns twenty-eight aeroplanes and its to-
tai expenditure on that branch of
science in the last five years was $fo,C0o.
The five aeronautical powers of the
world. with Germany first are, in order,
France. Russia. italy and Austria. Next
in order, ahead of the United States. are
England. Belgium. Japan. Chile, Bulgaria,
Greece, Spain and Brazil.
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