New Britain herald., 1918-08-29

M31 'fthe British Army GS foreign off icers have designed machines which are being tested. One was designed tby Captain Lepere, @ French officer, land has been flying, experimentally, for thirty days.
 MT Ryan said that during the past week the Pomillo Brothers had come to this cuntry to design planes to fit our engine and have established them selves at Indianapolis. At least two other types were being flown experi- mentally, MT. Ryan said, but he did not consider it wise to go into details regarding them at this time. MT. Ryan refrained from discussing the Senate report on it's aircraft investi- gation He preferred to deal with the present and future instead of with past mistakes.
 Will Not Discuss Senate Reports.
 "I am not going to discuss reports of investigations" said MT. Ryan. '"We think that satisfactory progress has beerl made in many respects. We were unfortunate in having to aban- don the production of one of the smaller types of airplanes, the so- called Bristol fighter, which was proven after thorough tests that it a not a useful machine for military purposes, and we are not going to make it or any but safe machines and machines of military value. We may repeat that kind of a mistake; we may find that we are even ready to go into production with a machine and we may have spent a lot of time and lot of effort in developing it, but when we get to the point, whenever and wherever it is, where we find machine is not of military value, we ure not going to produce it"
 While the Bristol fighter has been abandoned those responsible for the aircraft production program are con- tinuing the manufacture of De Havi- 1and-4s but trying to improve them and meet the criticisms that were made by General Pershing in his cablegram of June 24 last.
 We are making a good many De Haviland-4's" said MT. Ryan. There has been a good deal of criticism of them and there have been good many changes made on them recently. These changes have not been dis covered in the way that is generally supposed. I mean the so-called de fleets that result in changes are not in many cases what you can really call defects at all, but improvements in workmanship, and they are going all the time Men are learning to do these things better all the time. I'm movements may be developed in one country or another on different kinds of planes but as they are developed they are incorporated in every ma- chine that can carry them.
 ''When the first De Havilands $ were built, and 1t was before my time, a capable officer was sent from this bureau to see these machines put to- erether on the other side to see them flown, to get the information that came from the tests, and to repOrS any change that would better them. This officer returned, and some days later a cable from General pershing was received embodYing the same things, covering the same points, found through the same channels, and as soon as it did come the orders for changes were made and issued. That is all there is to that story.
 Tells of Experiments.
 The De Havilands are being built now in about the same quantity as be- fore the change was made. It is not a totally different machine it is just an improved machine and we think in few months it will be improved turther.
 "On account of the cancellation of tho Bristol because it was an unsafe machine, 1t left us for the time being a limited program as far as nanu- Recurring was concerned, because we were developing other types that had