The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1917-05-24
TO CRUSH. FOES IN AIR
United States Will Join in Great
Drive to Completely Blind"
German Army.

~ 0SII40u EAIuiy.
- Washington, May 2o.-Betweer
five thousand and six thousane
= trained filters and $500 airplanes!
II That is the huge program the
s United States has set out to accom-.
Il plish in the first year of the war, as
n Tour bit" toward cinching command
n of the air on the Western front. II
, lit succeeds--and Howard Coffin
chairman OF the newly created air
, craft production board, as we'll as
, member of the Council of National
Defense, says it is the very minimum
that the United States will accom-
plisI-.it will mean that i'll less than
a years time the Allies will be in po-
sition to force the Germans to con-
duct their war operations on the
West front blinded
The air plans worked out by the
Allies. officially announced tonight by
Mr.. Coffin, provide such scale of
production of machines and filters
that the German air battlers will be
smothered by numbers. Only small
part of the trained force will be in
position to go to the battle front
within few months time. but as fast
as the big flying schools get in full
operation they will turn out I25
trained cadets week. 1t will be
problem then for the factories of
England and France--for to them
largely will be left the manufacture
at first OF the battle planes-to turn
out sufficient numbers to supply their
own fliers and the large force of fly
ing cadets from America who will be
sent over to finish their battle edit
cation" behind and over the trenches
in France.
The men that are directing this
gigantic program and assure the
United States it will be carried to a
successful completion have been on
the job for several weeks, although
they were not officially named to the
aircraft committee until today. They
are:
Chairman, Howard Coffin; Gen.
Geo. O. Squire, chief of the signal
corps, which includes the aviation
section; Rear Admiral Taylor; S. D.
Watson. formerly vice-president of
the Packard Motor Car Company; Z.
A. Deeds, formerly general manager
of the National Cash Register Com
pany, and r. L. Montgomery, senior
member of the firm of Montgomery
Clothier & Taylor, one of the largest
financial houses in the United States.
There are two outstanding factors
in modern warfare which the strug-
gle in Europe has brought out,
Chairman Coffin said tonight Zone
is the submarine, the other the air
plane. We believe America now has
started on the right road toward
working out her destiny in the air
and taking the place to which her ca
,acity entities her and the world ex-
'ects of her"
In order that the public might have
N authoritative statement of what
he air plans are Mr.. Coffin outlined
,,st what had been done and was be-
ne done. They are:
I. Immediate speeding up of pro-
uction. which will result. it is stat
d, in an output of $500 machines the
irst year. Most of these machines
lill be training airplanes and not bat
lie planes.
?. Eqtipping of the army of mil
on men with the proper number of
ir squadrons and planes. and the
tarting in few months time of
teady stream of trained fighters and l
lechanics, in addition, to France.
3. The training airplanes of all the
lilies are to be standardized. The /
United States will be in position at
rst to ship large numbers of motors
nd engines to France for use in their |
aiming machines. Later complete
rplanes will follow i'll addition to
lose needed in this country.
4. Army filters already have visited
lie school of the Royal Flying Corps
!. Borden, Ontario, and are prepared
, give the cadets the latest training
this country.
S. The Universities of California,
exas, Illinois, Ohio and the Massa-
,usetts Institute of Technology and
ornell already have technical
purses under way giving the future
iers instruction in the theory of
wing, map making, photography, gun
Citing. etc. At the end of two :
onths the cadet is given an exam
alton to determine whether he is
! to go to a flying school. The ST
hoois are taking twenty-five cadets m
week and will have six. hundred un- v
r instruction by July I. They will b
I'm out $50 cadets . week to the fly
& schools BY the time the first two 4;
onths' course is completed. =.
6. Nine big aviation schools, in ad- =,
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