Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-09-05
Can't Shoot Fliers From Earth.

thouscEj, might find the elusive mark.
Can't Shoot Fliers From Earth.
IT never knew an enemy to be shot
out of the air from the ground" said
an English flight lieutenant to me.
II know what you're going to say. I've
read the pretty stories. too. But the
only way that an enemy plane was
ever got down was by one of us going
up and knocking it down."
His statement seems borne out by
the fact that the English air service
is the safest service in the English
army 1t isn't that the men are not
being shot at. The English fiiers are
over the German lines all the time. and
the Germans never rest in banging
away at them. Now and then plane
is hit, of course. But they always get
home. Most of the few deaths in the
English service have been caused by
accident. and those accidents in a sur
prising proportion of cases by sky
larking. Few were caused by wounds.
1t didn't take the French long to seize
the meaning of that Neuve Chapelle
lesson, either. 1t hasn't taken them
long to get at the meaning of any
lesson in this war. for that matter.
They began the war with fleet of
but f1imsy. They could not stand the
wear and tear of field service. The
French cast their monoplanes about
the time the Germans began to re-
place the Taube by the Aviatik, and
lately have been buying and building
biplanes almost exclusively. 1t is true
that they have also bought mono
planes, but that was because the
makers of bipianes could not supply all
their needs. The new French biplane
is equipped with a gun on the upper
deck, as is the second edition of the
German Aviatik. But the day the guns
began to crack at Neuve Chapelle the
French and the Germans began to race
for the possession of a new airship.
Battle in Air Now Possible.
The next year, said one man, may
see the armored aeroplane as common
place a member of an army's forces as
the submarine is of the navy. 1t may
seem ridiculous, but I would not be
surprised to see air raids carried out
by fleets of thousands of armored
planes. The only reason such raids are
not made is that no nation has enough
planes. A score of raids by both sides
have shown the offensive possibilities
of the new arm. If one nation leads
the way by the creation of a great
air navy the others must follow suit.
battle in the air between these aerial
fleets Is no longer an absurdity. 1t
might come on any day"
1t was an American, by the way
Cody, the airman, not the Snowman
who showed the world the way along
this line. He built the first aerobus In
England, after the United States had
declined to listen. 1t broke him. and
the English army officers thought his
big plane only huge joke. But some
one-I have heard it was King George
himself-forced the war Office back
numbers to give Cody enough Of an ap-
preparation to enable him to so work
ing on. He was Inundated and scoffed
at at every turn, but his aerobus finally
developed Cody Is dead now, but so
eminent an authority as Frederick Tall
bot has recently stated that IL England
had 500 of these heavy. slow. depend
able old wagons of Cody's the German
lines would not be tenable.
The Sikorsky bus of Russia Is not
approved by the airmen of either Ger
many or the allies. The plan Of dupli-
eating the motors is held to add weight
that might better be put in single
motor and the surplus used for armor
and guns Germany's chief advantage
today seems to be that her motors and
planes are all standardized. SO that any
army hangar can repair any plane, no
matter what may have happened to it.
No one knows which nation is really In
the lead in possessing the new war
airship, in spite of the stories that Ger
MANY has a fleet of them in being.
France certainly has some, and Eng
land is probably building as rapidly as
possible.