The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-11-10


observer OF corp d'arme plane is 112
an hour. Doubtless from all sides the
spring will see speed increased-and
the factor of safety and design and
construction of the planes lessened.
The necessary weakness of the big
Caproni machine is it's snail-like pace
OF 80 miles an hour.
Efficacy of Bombing.
Which opens up the whole question
! of the efficacy of bombing. There is
no agreement on the subject. Drop
Eing bombs on London has had no
military meaning. LONDON is "a
thickly settled city; yet more than
half of its inclusive area is composed
of streets, parks, gardens and open
spaces. Bombs frequently are timed
to explode twenty feet below the point
of first contact and thereafter do lit
tie damage to life in a house below
the third story from the top. If the
people hunt cover during a raid and
keep out of the upper stories of these
houses the casualty list is small.
Aim in bomb dropping is VIGOROUSLY
poor. And probably the bombing ma
chine, unless it shall be operated in
large numbers. and by the thousands
in a single raid, will hardly be an i'm
portant weapon of war. But the ma
chine gun car for air fighting-a car
designed to chase off enemy observers
or enemy bombers-is of known eff
ficiency. No one questions its value.
But the whole question of Smelling and
bombing, whether from gun in the
air or a gun on the ground, is an in
teresting question.
Two guns on the French front this
summer in two and half months
belched out 1000 tons of shells and
did not move forward an inch. Doubt
less hundreds of other guns made a
similar record.
1t costs tremendously to kill a man
in war The job may be done easier
by speeding up the motor traffic or
downtown section OF any city two
miles an hour for a week.
Now the European air game has
moved for three years with great
rapility. 1t is becoming fairly exact
science. Certain things are known
rather definitely about it, as, for in
stance, that the struggle for increased
speed and ceiling, which is largely de-
pendent upon lowering the total
weight, have forced engine designers
to use higher and higher compression
in order to produce and maintain
greater mean-effective pressure and
the resulting head troubles have CEN
tered quite largely around the spark
plug. Or. put otherwise. the mini
mum weight of an engine today IS
greatly dependent upon an accessory
the shark plug. With the develop
ment of a plug that can stand more
heat and still function properly II -
POSSIBLE that total engine weights
might again be reduced. 1t is not
unusual to see fifty plugs used IN
fiftv hour official trial of an engine or
the latest design.
Now all this doubt would seem to
be discouraging; yet it is more or less
academic. Surprising that America
does develop and does turn out an
airplane of a fair average standard
saw a machine that will rise to 25,OoO
feet elevation, while the new German
and French and English planes rise
higher; suppose that the American
machine can limp along at l25 miles
an hour while other machines are go
ing at $50 or oven 200 miles an hour,
which is not a future imposslblllty-
Suppose we draw on our great man
power and put competent young men
in the seats and in pilot cages; sup
pose that we can give them oil and gas
and power, and by building many ships
can deliver these machines and men
and accessories in vast numbers, may
there not be in the vast numbers
themselves an imponderable strength
which shall turn the battle tide IN
the air?
If we do these things, the Euro
pean eyebrow may come down. We
NAV silence the litter. 1t is entirely
possible. It is the American genius
to express itself in the large, to do
things greatly. we VIII junction true
if we function by the ten thousands
in the air game.
But to do this we must sacrifice
what the leviathan always sacrifices
to the weasel-agility to mass. In
great numbers, unable because they
are created in great numbers to keep
up with the progressive improvements
of the hour. our machines very likely
will be neither capable of SURPRISING
or equaling the contemporary machine
in speed or climbing power. But If
we can buy or make or borrow. and
of course we can, small per cent of
machines of contemporary efficiency
to act as fighting conveys for our
battles planes we may do great and
possible decisive service with them
in the war. But there is a big if to
that For we can win greatly by
sheer force of numbers only if we are
prepared braHely and unf1inchingly
to lose greatly. Sending slow and
clumsy battles planes into a raid by
the thousands will mean losses by the
hundreds even with the best of con-
voys.
The planes we are now buying in
Europe will of course be of the most
advanced pattern. These will help.
But as we seem to be planning the
American air game following our ma
tional instinct for bulk and mass we
must school ourselves to a courage
here at home commensurate with our
plans. If this war to end war really
does end war, the end must come be-
cause civilization can build ma
chimes of destruction so awful that
mere destruction piled on destruction
will prove nothing but horror; and
that some other means than mere de-
struction must be found to settle the
disputes arising from the economic
differences in men and races that pro-
duce war.
Air Forces Fairly Well Balanced.
This summer along the western bat