The sun., 1918-12-22

| the propeller. That is exactly wiiAe
happened at first; so guns were
mounted above the wings. in the rear
on the side, above the nose, ana they
are yet on four gun airplanes. But
on second thought the synchroniztnR
of rapid gun fire and revolutions al
propellerB was very simple.
Wen suppose propeller has 1fOe
revolutions a minute. which It WIN
have in rapid firing flight. Some have
1000 revolutions. but that is close
to bursting speed. Fourteen hundred
revolutions a minute gives $500 fiy-
| ing vacant spaces oil each side OF the
propeller a minute; and the most
rapid fire gun In the world needs only
500 spaces. The ordinary gun needs
only AZ. If a shower of IL bullets
didn't kill your opponent you werel
wasting lead: SO the gun was SYM
chronized to shoot between the blades,
Another little trick the war laughs
us was to build wings Of multitudes o.
| tiny parts. 80 II a bullet hit It would
do only small local damage. Tho
next step was TO devise shrapnel Shoot
ing that would do wider damage than
bullet hole. You recall how aces
came homlng with as many as eighty
bullet holes In the wings and flying
power unimpaired. How shrapnei
/ shooting had been adapted to the afr
/ fighters has not yet been given to the
public, but you recall Guynemer1s
jubilation when such device was first
added 10 his machine. Yet II did not
save Guynemer.
Another of the puzzles was in de-
stroylng the big sausage balloons Of
the Germans. Some OF these had IN
many as twenty gas compartments.
You could put bullet in one COM
partment and she still fioatod. 90
bombs and high explosives and whiri-
ing shells came to be used that would
set fire To the gas, and in this connec-
ton came an interesting experiment.
II was found that a whiriing dart,
! like II maple seed, with q float to its
tail. n dart only the size OF a lead
/ pencil, pointed and dropped sharp end
down 500 feet. would get momentum
enough 10 pierce thick spruce plank
! ] won't say how thick that plank was
Some scientist would drop a dart on
me.
Another point-this worked out by
the same British strategist who pre-
dicted the evolution of the airplane
! four years before the rest OF the world
had Weakened up--if airplanes equalled
only ] per cent. of the bayonets in the
field they could wipe out every living
fighter beneath. In that case, before
mobilization France would have needed
only 5000 planes To replace her en-
tire army. We to-day, with 100000
troops in France, would need only
10000 planes, and we could be up to a
peak production of $4,000 fighters in
six months.
Guynemer said Keep close to your
enemy" Another raging almost ah-
omatic among airmen is that he who
gets altitude and the offensive first
always wins and he wins in twenty
seconds. Altitude and the offensive
first mean quick climbers. Climbers
to-day can go up / 200 feet In from
one minute TO three, according 10 the
machine
But while single combat can be car
ried on at a great height all artillery
work in the air cannot. so about the
end of the second year in the war IL
was recognized air warfare required
about five types of formation fighters,
usually single seaters. light OF body,
not very wide as TO wing, OF terrific
speed and suitable for single combat:
reconnaissance machines, slower. heav-
Ter, with more guns, wider wings. two
or three seats; Photographic machines,
much in the same class. bombers, tho
giants Of all. capable OF carrying forty
or fifty passengers. ten or eleven tons,
good for high flight. low flight or night
illUll hIII All stlhln and lONyar-
full. tho iUrerunners of future passen-
ger ana traffic airplanes; and lastly.
patrol machines for contact work be-
tween the lines, the most dangerous
work Of MI, flying low if need be-, be-
tween lire. or high il driven high. or
behind the enemy TO drop spy. cap
able Of getaway unaided while tho
getting was good.
And now when you recall that sixty
American bombing planes went out
with an escort OF eighty pursuit
planes" IN formation you know what
iiT warfare meant. and ,et it be added
that In three months such American
formation aerial warfare brought
down almost co enemy planes and %
enemy balloons. not TO mention the to-
tai destruction o. enemy airdyomes,
enemy mumuon dumps, enemy divi-
siuuS Of infantry ana biz guns.
VIII thu winged warriors of the air
abolish war? Who IAN prophecy? BUy.
without uny prophecy II looks as II
they hau abolished the war lord right
now. big airplane Inventors like Cur
tiss say airplanes could abolish the en-
tire war beast