The Washington herald., 1916-06-25
AERIAL SUPREMACY RECLAIMED
BY ALLIES, SAYS BALDERSTON


August. 1914. bears the same relation
to that existing today as the naval
| status in B. c. 500 to this era of sea
warfare. For countless centuries,
there was one sort of warship. the war
| galley; now naval warfare has become
specialized. and there is the heavily ar
mored but slow battleship. the swift
cruiser. the destroyer invented to smash
the obsolete torpedo-boat and now used
| against capital ships, and finally the
submarine, whose hand is against every
thing afoat.
The airmen have reached in two years
the same stage of development. 1t is
now possible to mobilize air squadrons
containing units whose duties bear no
more relation to each other than do
| those of the existing types OF warships;
and on the flying ground were examples
of all kinds of aeroplanes. including the
latest French models shipped here for
| comparison with the British, that the
best points of the allied designers may
be studied and If approved, copied in
future British machines.
The little reconnaissance plane now in
use is built for speed and speed alone,
and can make 80 miles an hour with
her single pilot. She looks like a dragon
fly when buzzlng about, twisting and
turning almost in her own length.
Standing on the ground she seems a bee
tie. and her safety lies in her speed.
which makes it hard to hit her from
the ground.
Bomb-Droppers Are slow.
The machine used for bomb-dropping
is much slower than any of the others.
The best she can make is A paltry Eev
enty miles an hour. An ingenious de-
vice makes it possible for the pilot to
drop bombs. The pilot pays no atten-
ton to the bombs and is able to give
all his attention to the instruments
which enable him to aim with some
degree of accuracy.
When the bomb-throwers, the freight
sion of destruction, they must be ac-
companied by swift armed scouts or
battleplanes. I saw several new scout
ing planes which attain a speed of 10
miles an hour. Some carry two men.
but the latest tendency is TO econo-
mize weight by asking the pilot to run
his machine and fire his gun simulta-
neously.
Many and ingenious are the devices,
which must not be described even were
lay observer able to describe them
accurately. that make this possible. Both
hands and feet are often called into
play The principle of aiming the aero
plane instead of aiming the gun, first
adopted in the French Morane plane
German Fokker. is the root of mod
ern" constructiOn-construc that is.
since March of this year. The gun is
firmly fixed projecting from the hood
of the plane like the single horn of
a unicorn. and it cannot be aimed. The
aviator sends mis- machine at the en-
emy, striving either to come up under
him or down upon him, and when he
gets within range steers with one hand
and with the other fires the gun. If.
while firing, he is able to guide his
plane in a spiral, his maChine-gun COM
pIetely encircles his enemy with flying
bullets some of which are certain to
find their mark when the doomed avia
tor tries to pass through the ring of
lead.
Fired Through Propeller.
In the Fokker and the earlier French
and British models, the fixed gum fired
through the propeller. A certain pro-
portion Of bullets struck the blades, but
were harmlessIy DETECTED by a special
device. The disadvantages OF this ar
rangement are now obviated, the great
propeller being placed lower down and
the gun a little higher up so that the
field OF fire is clear.
Most wonderful of al is the new battle
plane. All the features of the scout are
there-great speed and a fixed machine
gun, air cooled and fastened above tho
pilots head, which can let loose a stream
OF bullets straight ahead. But behind
the pilots seat of the aluminium body
stretches back some five feet, and con-
tains a full-hedged cannon, with its own
timber, containing shrapnel and inflam-
matory shells. In the new Morane model,
this gun is an exact copy of the famous
rs" the three-inch field gun, but it is
lust half its size The "demi-Soixante-
Quinze," as the French call it, may be-
come as famous in the air as its big
brother is upon the land The gun can
fire in any direction; its operator is
furnished with a revolving seat There
Is also an arrangement by which the fixed
gun forward can be fired by the man
his energies to steering.
Put Machine Through PAGES.
My guide, a young officer who would
! still be at his university II the war had
not come along, proudly put this machine
particular pet, but he knew everything
about every aeroplane in his stable, and
answered strings of questions about them
all, without batting an eye. Later. while
he was showing us workmen unloading
parts Of planes from freight cars stand
ing on a spur which runs up to an i'm
provised air factory, and putting them to-
gether inside, 1 said to him:
You have explained how much better
all these new models are than the cor
responding German machines. How do
you explain the successes of the Ger
mans in the air and the exploits of men
like Immelmann and Boelke, who have
each brought down fifteen or so allied
planes?"
such success as the Germans nave won
has been due to tactics and engines" he
replied. principally engines. The handi-
cap in engines we had to face when this
war began was terrific, and only the su-
periority OF French and British mechanics
and inventors and the better human ma
terial available for plotting. enabled us
to keep our end up at all at first For
fourteen years the Germans have been
experimenting with engines for aircraft,
owing to their craze for Zeppelins, and
II the Zeppelins have proved a failure
they nevertheless are responsible for the
German areoplane.
German Engines Superior
AT the very beginning of the war Ger
man aerOplanes appeared fitted with 16O
horsepower engines, evolved during ex-
periments with heavier-than-air dirigi-
D