Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-08-08

N ONE day soon the big armored
~ cruiser North Carolina of the
nj United States Navy is going to
~ steam out from Pensacola, Fla,
and get away over the rim of the
horizon. far. far from land.
And when she gets there some navy
niers will be taken out of their cages
If they keep navy fliers in cages
and put into aeroplanes.
And presently these aeropIanes will
swoop away from the North Cardinals
decks and rise in sweeping circles,
Just as they do in modern novels, high
! into the air.
Outside of modern novels this sort
Hereafter. it is to be customary aboard
the North Carolina. For the North
Carolina is the navy's aeroplane mother
ship, attached to the aeronautical train
ing station the navy maintains at
Pensacola.
The navy has been handicapped in
regard to the development of aero
planes by the fact that neither for
commercial purposes nor for sporting
purposes is there a great deal of water
flying said Capt. Mark L. Bristol,
director of naval aeronautics, to the
House committee on naval affairs last
winter. The great idea is to get across
the water without coming down. The
water flying abroad and in this coun-
try is made on rivers. lakes and in
land waters or on the Pacific coast
where heavy swelIs are met, but very
little rough water"
But this is to be changed The North
Carolina has been fitted as an aero
1I,s f~V1
recent return from Europe. and will be
ready for work about the first Of Sep
TENDER. She is designed to aid in giving
practical instruction to the officers and
men undergoing instruction for flying
work in the navy.
Aboard her are appliances for hoist
ing and storing aeroplanes and also
for launching them from her decks
by means of a special device which
the service has developed.
So she is to take the aeroplanes and
their fliers far out to sea and turn them
loose in the atmosphere to see II they
can do the things that they will have
to do in time of war. To fly over land
is one thing. to fly over water is quite
something else.
The aeroplane. in its principal aspect
as an adjunct of the sea-fighting force
is scout. 1t is to proceed far ahead
far on the flank of the feet, spy
out approaching dangers. and then con-
vey the information speedily to the
feet. In the best regulated novels of
modern naval warfare all this is made
quite clear. But the navies of the
world never yet have caught up with
the novelist in this respect.
Sending out air scouts from a fight
ing ship at sea heretofore has not been
the first to undertake it as part Of
regular instruction.
To recur to what Capt. Bristol told
the navy committee last winter-he
does not now. for obvious reasons, talk
quite SO freely as he did then:
Suppose you have fleet of sixteen
battleships," he told the committee. in
explaining the use of the aeroplane at
sea. That represents about three
miles in length. With radius of 300
miles around that battleship fleet you
have circle of 1900 miles: and there
should be one aeroplane to every forty
miles of the circumference. of that
circle for scouting work. That would
require fifty aeroplanes for one fleet.
with fifty in reserve. which is the least
allowance that could he considered.
"Aeroplanes would go out on the
radii of this circle, SO that at the end
of 800 miles there would be one scout
arriving at the circumference at night
fall every forty miles apart to come
back and report the position of an
enemy. That is. SO that at nightfall
You would know that there were no
submarines nor torpedo craft within
the distance they could cover during
darkness to make an attack on the
fleet"
Here, then, is the vision. of the naval
authorities of the part the aeroplane
is to play in naval warfare. 1t goes
out 800 miles in advance of the fleet
or on the flank, and returns after dark
with it's message of good or evil. Trav-
cling at the> rate of eighty miles an