The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1917-07-14
A NAVY FOR The AIR
THE TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
IMPORTATION BUREAU
BY Frederic J. Haskin. Director
Washington. ID. G.
ia Tested Weapon.


appropriate the neat sum of $6S9,0O0-
900 for the building of fighting force
of aeroplanes. Upon what evidence
do the supporters of this program
base their request for this huge sum
Here is some of the more striking evil
dence of the efficiency of the aero
plane-and let it be stated at once
that every dollar invested in an air
fleet will be money well spent, even
if the projected sum is doubled.
We want aeroplanes because they
are the most promising means in sight
to win this war quickly, cleanly, with
economy of American lives. Aero
planes have proved this in the last
two years. A great deal has been writ
ten of what aeroplanes may do. En-
thusiastic writers and artists have
written and sketched descriptions OF
hundred thousand American air
ships scattering death and terror over
Germany, destroying munition plants,
blowing up submarine bases, attack
| ing and scattering troops in reserve
miles behind the fighting line, and
generally leaving the Prussian no
/ haven on earth or in the waters under
the earth. The aeroplane may yet do
all these things, But it is unneces-
sary to dip into the possibilities of the
future to find ample justification Tor
| the most ambitious and expensive
aeroplane program. Let us stick 10
| the things aeroplanes have actually
proved they can do-the things they
| have actually done.
Without aeroplanes an army cannot
see Air domination means artillery
domination, and artillery domination
means land victory. This is proven
principle of modern war, and 1t is be-
| ing proven over again every day on
the western front. Without a certain
amount of supremacy in the air, the
allies could not push the German line
back. Given complete supremacy in
the air, they can break that line, We
can give them complete supremacy If
we strain our industrial resources to
the utmost.
The aeroplane in it's seagoing form,
the flying boat or hydroplane, is the
best of all methods to fight the sub
marine. The aviator can see the sub
marine from 80 to 100 feet under
water. He can see the wake of
periscope with ease, where ship can
| only see it with difficulty. He can
swoop on the submarine in few sec
onds. He can sink it with bombs, or
! If he has one of the big new aero
i planes, he can sink it with one single
| shot from his 3-inch nOn-recoil gun.
All these things have been done.
From the very beginning of the war
submarines have been sunk from aero
! planes and dirigibles. There are a
score of recorded instances, and how
| many SUBS the BRUSH nave destroyed
this way, only the admiralty knows.
| Only few days ago a submarine rose
and cleared her deck guns to sink an
Italian freighter in the Mediterranean.
A conveying hydroplane dropped 1900
feet and began to drop bombs. The
| U-boat submerged without ceremony,
/ and may have been sunk. The freight
err was unframed. This sort of thing
| is of frequent occurrence.
Within the flying radius of the sea-
.~l..
| conveys. We can extend that radius
across the ocean by building bigger
and better seaplanes and by esta blish-
| ing ocean bases or mother ships. The
biggest and best flying boats in use
| today, the one that England is using
in this work, are built in America.
Aeroplanes can sink battleships
| single-handed by the use of torpedoes.
The form of aeroplane used for this
purpose, the torpedo-plane with its
accompanying device for launching a
torpedo, is the invention of an Ameri-
! can, Admiral Fiske. No battleship
has yet been sunk by an aeroplane,
| but a German plane, using the Fiske
torpedo-launching device, has torpe-
doed and sunk a 3,5O0-ton British
ship, the Gena.
Aeroplanes can inflict, and have in
flicted, severe military damage on for
titled towns, munition bases, and SUBJ
marine bases. Air raids by the Eng
| llSl On the NTeTI11dn bases OF oSIenQe
and Zeebrugge, have inflicted such
damage, as was admitted by the Ger
| mans.
Aeroplanes have repeatedly attack
! sd and routed strong bodies of infan-
| try. In the recent British advance in
| France, aeroplanes flew low over the
| German lines and raked them with
machine gun fire. Aviators attacked
| troop trains and fired thru the win
|
| CURED one of the most striking in
stances of this Four allied machines
| discovered a Turkish force of 5000 in
fantry and 1900 cavalry executing
! flank movement on the British forces.
| The four aeroplanesAeight men-at-
tackled the 1890. They dropped forty
eight bombs. OF these bombs. forty
seven exploded in the thick of the
Turks. The thanking force was COM
pletely demoralized and routed. That
was on the 26th day of March, 1917.
With the big machines which are
now being built. weights of bombs
and weights of armament hitherto
| deemed impossible are easily carried.
An American machine with an Ameri-
can pilot has risen to 1000 feet with
squadron early in May dropped 1850
pounds of bombs in a single night
The same squadron dropped 1880
pounds of explosives in four days.
! Aeroplanes can now mount three
| inch guns, which is quite a respecta-
BILE calibre of artillery for a seagoing
ship, and one well directed shot from
which can sink a submarine Our
own experts say that one man in a
modern aeroplane is equal to from 100
to 500 infantrymen.
These are few of the things that
| aeroplanes have done. 1t may be we'll
to stress this point, because there is
so much being said of what aero.
planes can do and what they may do.
To such predictions the skeptic may
shake his head, but what has actually
been accomplished is earnest of what
the future will bring, IL the problem
of aeroplane construction is attacke ed
with American vigor and an Ameri-