The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-08-01
WAR BIRD" PROVES
MARTIAL PROWESS
Aeroplane First Used on Large
Scale in Military
Operations.
DIRIGIBLE DISAPPOINTS

rade ground at Hunaudiers. France.
a lever that set an engine going
and went sailing uncertainty into the
air. To the amazement Of the specta-
he kept on going and stayed aloft
for the then incredible length OF time
of one minute and forty-nve seconds.
Word Of his achievement went around
the world like wildhre. The air had
been conquered.
Then there is another picture. On
June s, 1915. seven years less two
after wrighte epoch making
feat. before daylight. an alert looking
young man, Warneford by name.
stepped j~auntily INTO a businesslike
monoplane behind the British lines In
northern France. nodded to his ON
panion and shot into the air faster than
a bird. Up and up he went until he was
lost to sight. Half an hour later. GER
tainly and surely he was lowering above
n giant ~dirigible. a dreaded German
Zeppelin. He manGuvrtd carefully
while the machine guns on the bigger
craft spat at him ~viciously. Until he a
attained his position. Then. n after
another. six bombs were dropped. Each
hit the airship below and exploded.
and in a trice the German machine. a
wreck. was dropping like a plummet
toward the roofs Of a little Belgian vii
lage 5000 feet below.
Aeroplane Proves superiority.
These two pictures illustrate as we'll
as anything can the progress that has
been wrought in aviation. Marvellous
feats had been done between Wright's
first success and tine beginning Of the
war. but II remained for the great o
fiict itself to demonstrate beyond a
doubt that the ~aeroplane as a weapon
of destruction had distinctly arrived.
The Canadian sub-lieutenant, killed
latter In a practice flight. was the hrst
%aeroplane aviator to destroy the Yep
pelin. the d~readnought OF the air.
II the war has proved anything In the
science of a~eronautics IL Is that the
~aeroplare is superior to the lighter
han air" machine for military pur-
poses. Indeed. the aeroplane has vir-
tually displaced man and horse as the
eyes OF the army" and has been util-
lied as the pathfinder of attack. the de-
tector of counter attack. the range
finder for big guns, the swift mes
senger with orders, the handy
man Of battle. II the dir!gible is the
dreadnouRht OF the air. then the aero
plane IL certainly the swift destroyer II
not the submarine" IL the misuse OF
the word Is pardonable.
II must not be understood that the
dirigible has been proved a total failure
but simply that II is too much depend
ent on exterior conditions to make Il
dependable as a weapon. whereas the
aeroplane a ny In any kind OF weather.
any distance. In any way. The Zeppelins
have been used to some extent as scouts
In the North Sea and the Baltic. but for
hostile purposes they have been en-
ployed in only three instances. against
II andnn pa-A nt,1ktrL As,. Ag..
ilians were killed at Dunkirk and In
England. but the military advantage
thereof was virtually NIL.
Many Attacks BY Air.
OF %aeroplane attacks there have been
scores by both sides. The most preten-
tious have been the Taube attacks on
Paris which are now few and far be-
tween because of the increasing as
tendency OF the Allies in aerial work.
and the similar attacks on the east coast
Of England. The greatest efforts by the
Allies have been the joint French Brit
ish attack by thirty-one ~aeroplanes
against BruRes and other Belgian towns
held by the Germans, in which the
British machines started from Dover
and were Joined by the French across
the Channel a repetition Of this attack
the very next day in which forty-one
machines operated the British attack
on Cuxhaven with seaplanes n aero
planes the British attack on Friedrichs-
haven. on Lake Geneva. where the Zen.
pelins are manufactured and the rrea,
French attacks against Ludwi1shsf fen
on the Rhine. in bavaria. where imnor.
tant chemical war works are located,
n against Karlsruhe, in Baden. where
great damage was done and many per.
sons killed.
II was in the attacks on L.udwips.
hafen n Karlsruhe that he aeroplane
ATTAINED nearest TO perfection as a hos
.Ie Weapon Inc former attack on May
- was 10 destroy the chemical works and
the French reported hat II was entirely
successful Eighteen machines took
part, nylng 200 miles. mostly over Ger
man territory They were In the air
SIX hours and were subjected to an al
most incessant gunfire. yet all returned
safely, having dropped $50 projectiles of
80 ana loo calibre' on the designated
ooJects. the Karlsruhe raid on n
10 was somewhat similar twenty-three
machines loon part and IT was an
nounced by the French as a raid OF re-
taNatlon Tor Herman attacks on undo
Iended towns IN France and England
The story Is about the same as that OF
Ludwisshafen' with the exception tha'
two OF the av'ators were shot down.
me superiority or the Allies IN the
AR II becoming more marked every day
Raids have been made repeatedly and ir
ADDITION 70 the use OF the aeropiane az
a scout II has become invaluable In at
tack infantry advances are often pre-,
ceded ny an aviator opp'n bombs and
uae skill win ~hich me machines are
years ago