The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-09-04
FIGHTING AIRSHIPS
Big Dirigibles Can Ascend to Height Where Planes
 Dare Not.

Afrcrafk in war possess possibilities which. a< the present stage of the conflict in Europe. have only begun to unfoId-yet aircraft have heels of can be daseeKnSd in the horizon. the drone of their motor can be heard, the troops armed with special guns to combat them. are on the qui vive. soldiers and citizens. generally. are alertiy V watching for the dropping of bombs from above and their mission is betrayed
 The 1se sof fiyfng machines at present seerhs to fall naturally into two broad classes. one of observation attack The Hague convention which hes been signed by all of the nations sWhfCh st present are engaged in war; prohibits the dropping of explo- sive bombs from air craft for a cer- tain period of years. but this seems to dropped in sundry places ground Flanders and yet the reports Of their action. so far, do not seem to dnd1- cate any great casualties It is the clay heels Of the airship that give The r7arra rfzs6
 air niers heem to have been most used. WezhaYe word that the Ger man aviators before L4ege made d nethodicaI trip of reconnoi ssance zA-n morning over O. and troops. and also, that the wings of the planes are painted in broad bands to e5able men on the ground to distinguish their identity Cases have been reported in the French Ar- my, where French aviators have been German system would do away with this. although or course there would be no opportunity to deceive the en- enny into thinking the airship .fra end-
 Air craft on reconnoissance are use fn1 pr1ncipal1y for drawing sn aps of the territory and indicating SO far as poesibIe, the general outlines of bodies Of troops It Is rarely that they can distinguish organfzationss and when Sheltered py treea' as in q wood, or shaded road. troops escape their no tfce entirely. Any large movement or 1nassing oS troops.sH would of course. be detected. if performed in the day. time. and hence the value Of night movements seems to be even more en-
 In the United States army. great study has been devoted to directing the Aree of field artillery from bt- planes and some success has been made at the work Heavy artillery can go into action when they cannot is necessary for the battery to know is the range and the location of a visible objective. which ls in the line of fire. A battery of artillery might De engaged in shelling a position oe- ctlpied by the enemy two miles dis- tant. and hidden by forest or great h1Tl- If their aim is correct, they sight their piece on a house, or tree or 5utting rock and fire The shell drops Into the enemy.s position. From an aeropiane, this artillery fire can be-theoretical1y- 1y-directed with precision In addition to the av1a- torE there is an experienced observer on the plane, who Is equipped with a wireless sending apparatus-he. could not hope to receive a message be- cause of the noise of the motor. A shell drops short and to the left, by wireless he remedies both the defect in range and in deflection, the enemy leaves one position he directs the fire of the battery to another ob5ec- tive.
 On the c1enstre. the heavisr-than- air machine seems to yield place to the difig1ble-of which the German Zeppelin is the ideal Although arr nnored planes. equipped with machine guns, have been tried and are at pres ent being used in action, reports do not credit them with having done any extraordinary damage
 The Zeppelin on the other hand has created panic whenever it has appear ed although not so much damage to life seems to have been done by bombs from it This Is probably due to the fact that, operating from a great height people can see the path