Evening star., 1914-04-26
WILL ARM AER0PLANES
WITH RAP|D-F|RE GUNS
Arm Invented by Col. Lewis, Re
tired Army Officer, Tried Out
at College Park.
About Seventy Per Cent of Hits
Made on the Target-Ejected
Shells Strike Propellers.

AS perhaps most important of offensive
uses to which the aeroplane may be put,
aviation experts of the government have
always ranked arming them with machine
guns. This development has been looked
forward to as the destiny of aircraft.
In fact, Germany has already installed
tolerably powerful rapid-fire guns on her
big dirigibles. In spite of the danger that
accompanies the use of firearms any
where around the immense hydrogen
envelope of a Zeppelin balloon the new
er dirigibles carry rapid fire guns mount
ed on a special platform built on top Of
the gas bag
German periodicals are now interdicted
from printing any reports of the military
aeronautics. An account was recently re-
ceived in this country. however, Of target
practice carried on by a German Yep
pelin, near Lake Constance.
Balloon Guns Destroy Target.
The balloon was at a height Of 5000
feet and was three miles distance from
the lake. where a silhouette of a military
encampment was anchored on floats for
a target. The balloon got the range of
the target at the third shot and destroyed
without accident to the balloon ITSELF
1t was not stated how many rounds of
ammunition were used or carried. As
the Zeppelins of this type have a lifting
margin Of several tons, there evidently
was abundant room for ammunition
foe.
The American development of machine
guns has SO far applied entirely to aero
planes. because America has no dirigible
balloons that could be so armed. Nat
urally. also on an aeroplane there Is less
danger from the flames of machine guns,
as the aeroplanes, unlike the balloon, has
no explosive gas bag.
There Is this difference, however. The
aeroplane has small lifting margin. A
machine gun If carried at all would have
to be light
Up to date. no nation that has made a
speciality of aeronautics in military di-
rection has attempted to install machine
weight involved. In this connection. how
ever, America has come to the front with
another device that promises to be of
wide use and with which our aeroplanes
will be equipped in case any are sent
for active service in Mexico.
Design Of Former Soldier.
This new gun is the design of an ex-
army officer, Col. Lewis. former recorder
of the board Of ordnance and fortifica-
ton in Washington. The arm was tried
from some of the government aeroplanes
at College Park last summer, and did
very we'll. There was no immediate pros
pect of its use. however, and no active
interest was taken in 1t by the War De-
partment. The gun afterward was taken
were sold both in Germany and in
Russia.
The gun weighs only twenty-five
pounds and is automatic, shooting ordi-
nary service cartridges at the rate of
800 a minute. 1t can be speeded up to
TO minute. but Col Lewis says he
does not consider 1t best to work the
gun at this speed.
A feature Of the gun is that the barrel
Is surrounded by a shell Of thin alumni
mum about two and a half inches In
diameter. When the gun is fired the
from the rear of this aluminium, keep.
ing both this shell and the gun barrel
cool enough to handle
Seventy Per Cent Hits.
When the tests Of the gun were made
on one Of the College Park aeroplanes.
Capt. Charles De Forest Chandler. who
had never seen the gun before, carried
1t up for use. At height Of $50 feet.
with the aeroplane going little over
fifty miles an hour. he tried several hop
pers full Of cartridges on a target six by
eight feet in size stretched on the
ground. Each hopper contained only
fifty cartridges. so there were not a
large number used. About 20 per cent
of hits were made on the target. indi-
eating that against infantry on the
ground the machine gun would De
tolerably uncomfortable weapon.
A peculiar feature OF the trial was that
no account had been taken of the fact
that the empty cartridge shells are auto
matically elected from the gun. Some
dozens of these drifted back and got into
the path of the rapidly revolving pro-
| pellers, scoring them like chisels, but
doing no more serious damage.
Efforts have been made recently to in
terest the War Department both in ma
chine guns for aeroplane use and in ad-
ditional bomb dropping devices. Besides
the Scott bomb dropping device. previ-
ously described in The Star. the War
| Department has recently been approach
ed by the designers of another device
| working on a little different principle
| In this case the bomb to be dropped is
| mounted in sliding ring attached to a
| horizontal rod. The speed of the aero
plane is ascertained and the bomb is
moved backward at the same speed as
the aeroplane is moving forward so that
in relation to the ground the bomb is