Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-06-15
II. S. MUST RULE
AIR IN WAR
Coffin Tells Senators Gigan-
tic Flying Navy Plans
Under Way

Washington, D. c., June 15.-The
United States should concentrate on
a great air navy to dominate the air
TO the same extent that Germany has
developed and perfected powerful
underwater navy, declared Howard
l.. Coffin, chairman of the aircraft
production board, before the Senate
subcommittee considering the Shep-
pard-Hulbert bill to create a sepa-
rate department of aeronautics. He
said $50, 100000 which Congress has
intended to appropriate for aero
nautics will not be nearly enough
In the eight yers previous to 1916
the government placed orders for
aircraft in this country for something
like fifty-nine machines" said Mr..
Coffin. When appropriations were
made under last years bill twenty
nine orders had been placed by the
military services for about 800 or 400
machines. ] think we got out of
that order about 100 or 175 ma
ernmental orders or of dollars and
cents; it is a question of material,
time and organization.
1t is not easy to produce ma
chimes in this country in the guam
titles demanded and of the quality
and types necessary under modern
conditions of fighting. 1t is becom-
ing evident that whatever factor air.
craft may play in the ultimate de-
cision, it is a certainty that neither
side can possibly win without the
supremacy of the air for strip of
territory from fifty to sixty miles
behind the fighting front. AS mat
ters stand now, the productive ca
pacity is virtually balanced in Europe.
SC ., IT,, 4,
the German machines are not SUI
perior machines, but it is a certainty
that the personnel of the Allies
service is superior, man for man.
How Craft Work
THE German man is more
methodical type. who acts under or
ders, whereas the man in the air
must necessarily act largely upon his
CWn initiative, and, as q matter of
historical fact, the fighting now is
Virtually all behind the German lines.
The last defense of the allied forces,
about which we have been reading
for the last few days, was largely
dependent upon aircraft at every
stage of its move. There were three
distinct strata of aircraft in the air,
the light one-seater, the fastest fight
ing machines, 5000 to 1000 feet in
the air. These machines were pro-
tecting the wireless. The communi-
cation machines were flying at an
intermediate altitude and controlling
every move of the troops, directing
the advance and where to halt, until
machine guns had been cleaned out
by artillery. Beneath these two were
bombing machines. flying low enough
to use machine guns with deadly
effect. l believe the result of this
battle has clinChed the statements
which he have heard in many direc-
tions for many months that aircraft
must ultimately be a deciding factor
in the war.
This country is a great reservoir
for men of the type VINO make flyers
and is tremendous storehouse for
manufacturing resources. | do not
believe that there is any more def
mite services that we can render than
TO turn over resources toward the
insurance to the allied governments
supremacy of the air. 1t will take
time to do that. 1t can be done
and the plans we are mapping out
anticipate that we will do this.
Training fields are already under
construction and several more au-
thorized. The program of conStruc-
tlon of machines is we'll under way.
1t would seem to us that if America
can make her great contribution to
this war through the accomplishment
of the supremacy in the other arm
of the service. of which she is also
the inventor Submarine being the
other arm), that she will have done
the thing which must necessarily ap-
peal to the American imagination
and to the American manufacturers
ability and industrial organization
generally. We have producing ia
cilities here to make unlimited num-
bers of machines, when once started
on definite program. We cannot
jump into this thing and produce
unlimited quantities within a few
months