Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1918-05-19
ENTENTE AVATORS
SURPASS GERMANS
Claude Grahame-White Declares
Aerial War Has Entered
Crucial Phase.
WHAT WE HAVE TO DO
Should Outnumber Enemy in
Machines by Three or
Four to One.
WHAT WE HAVE TO DO
BY CLAUDE GEAHAME-wu1rE.

by CLAUDE GEAHAME-W WHITE.
The final struggle for aerial SUI
premacy has begun. and with it's prog
ress we il reason TO feel satisfied
The fierce fighting which s taking
place. between aircraft more heavily
armed than was the case a little time
ago entails, OF ursc. extremely seri-
Gus losses; b2t we know now-so far,
at any rate. as this present phase OF
the struggle is concerned-that the
best British machines exceed in speed
and in the height they attain anything
the Germans send against them: while
our best lighting airmen and those
CT our gallant ally. France. continue TO
prove that, man for man. they are the
superiors OF the enemy.
From what may be called the first
round of this final struggle. one may
indeed say truthfully that we have
emerged quite we'll, and that the pun
shment we have already inflicted on
the enemy will be all to our advan-
tage when we reach those periods OF
even more intense lighting which
should come with the summer months.
1t must not be forgotten. however.
that the Germans realize now very
clearly the grave peril in which they
viii find themselves If they are beaten
granted. therefore. that they are re-
doubling their efforts: and that they
are on the lookout specially for any
new and better type OF fighting craft.
1t is here. indeed. that we must eNer-
else constant vigilance. Surprises in
design are much more likely to be en-
countered with aircraft than with other
weapons of war. seeing that the air
craft Is SO new, and this means that
we must never, at any one moment.
rest content with the machines we
have. but must strive always for some
thing that is faster and better armed
Granted that the enemy does not
spring any surprises US in design
and he should find 1t difficult to do
this il we are sufficiently on the alert
then II is by sheer weight OF num-
bers and by fierce and bitter lighting
that the allies will strive for full
command Of the air. There will be no
hope OF gaining this, or OF holding it
when gained, until we have an over
whelming superiority of pilots and
machines.
CHIEF FACTORS IN CONTEST
ARE PILOTS AND ENGINES
What we have to do. If we can. is
TO deal the Germans real knockout
blow. and this means that we must
not only drive them out OF the air.
but keep them on the ground once we
have forced them there--a task i'm
possible OF achievement unless we can
outnumber them. say, BY something
like three or four to one. And in this
matter Of production, OF outbuilding
the enemy till we overwhelm him, the
chief factors are now pilots and en-
gines.
With America coming to our aid. and
sending us streams OF young men who
make admirable flyers. a great in
crease in the number OF our pilots
should not present no insuperable diff
ficulties. What is a far more trouble
some matter is to increase with suf-
ficient rapidity the output OF high
powered aero motors. The engine is
the heart OF the airplane. and it is
vital for us, again with the help OF
America, to produce these high
powered motors in greater quantities
than is the case to-day.
No artillery and. indeed. no other
wea pon OF war, can WELD anything
like the power that bomb-dropping
aircraft have now begun to WELD
the power, that is to say. OF cutting
off at their very source the munitions
on which the armies OF the enemy de-
pend. Not only do aircraft attack
supply trains while these are on their
way to the front, but they now fly on
till they reach the cities where these
supplies are being made. dropping
bombs through factory roofs and de-
stroying the machinery and stores
which they contain. besides spreading
CONSERVATION among the workers.
l. Il. le
could end the war in week II raids
could he made ceaselessly. and by
sufficiently large number Of machines.
II, for example. the communications
OF an enemy could be broken, and
their restoration prevented. and his
munition areas bombed so violently
that they ceased to be productive. then
his armies would soon be without food
or ammunition.
That this stage has not yet been
reached is due to the fact that none
OF the great countries which are at
war were sufficiently confident in air
craft as a weapon for attacking land
positions to begin early enough in
the war anything like an adequate
program Of construction. Instead OF
these powers of the airplane being an
ticipated. as they might have been. 1t
was left for the machine itself. by
repeated raids. to prove what 1t could
do. and literally to force action to be
taken: and even then such action was.
until recently, far from being adequate.
1t Is certainly remarkable that, whereas
the mountaineering powers OF the air.
plane were demonstrated as far back
as 1911, three years before the war,
we should only now begin to find our
selves. after nearly four years OF ac-
tual warfare. in anything like posi-
tion to deliver effective raids.
PRODUCING AIRCRAFT
IN SUFFICIENT NUMBER
So far as this country is concerned.
tho position is that we are producing