The Washington times., 1918-05-21

ures today, I do know that we had
! received by April 1, last, more thar
500 battlepianes from the French FOL
our own flyers. When Il Is consid
cred that for many months the Brit
ish maintained an air supremacy or
their long front with a total of about
500 planes, and when 1t is considered
that the American part Of the line Il
only a fraction OF what the British
held, there Is not the slightes
foundation for the statement that
America has comparatively no hght
ing planes on the lighting line.
Quite as Arranged.
True enough. there were no Ameri
can-built planes, but 1t was never in
tended that there should be until this
spring. because the United States was
to concentrate on building & motor
and plane that could be standardized
and turned out In large Quantities
Obviously, the time that America
could afford TO experiment and i'm
prove and fuss with the standard
motor and plane was limited by the
capacity OF the French to meet our
demands and the ability Of other
foreign countries to supply US with
the engines we ordered.
Unfortunately, in no country did
production come up to expectation,
and the huiabaloo raised in the
American Congress has had the ef-
feet Of making America decide to 60
ahead on what she has developed
and improve afterward. Thus. in the
Dayton-Wright air plane here, they
got the "go ahead" on April s last
which meant to stop improving and
turn out planes. = Since then, as
pointed out yesterday, 1O7 DeHavi-
land fighting planes, with Liberty
motors in them, have actually been
shipped abroad, which Is a rate Of
quantity production that augurs very
wen indeed for the capacity. OF Amer
ican manufacturers TO build planes
II they are let alone by the hordes
Of inspection agents and tinkerers
who. IL left to themselves. would
probably get the airplanes ready for
the next war.
Liberty Meter IL Fit.
But while restive over delays, the
engineers here say the Liberty mo-
tors is a fine engine, and will out
perform anything the allies have
ever developed And the entente
must think so, too, for the foreign
orders have been large and OF the
frst 1000 Liberty motors completed
a large number have gone to the al
lies as well as to the American navy
for use in hydroplanes.
It is well TO understand why so
much time was spent perfecting the
Liberty motor. though a statement
by the British aircraft board gives
twelve months as the time required
to build an engine from a new de-
sign. It was hoped to get a motor
that would be suitable in all the fol
lowing types OF plane scouts: Two
seated battle planes, observation ma
chimes. artillery directors. day and
night bOmbers. and training planes.
Now, the Liberty motor can Mt al!
those types except possibly the
scout, and last fall General Pershi1E
cabled that America should abandon
the production Of scouts and concen-
trate on the others, the French prom
isinE to supply the scout planes. The
latter. some engineers believe, is rap
idly going out Of use. and its func-
tions. may be performed by the two
seaters. Whether this is an eX post
facto reason for the decision or
whether our own aircraft people
were reluctant TO admit that the
Liberty motor wouldn't 1T the scout
plane is something have not been
able to deterI6fne. But the fact is
that the Liberty motor fits six OF the
seven known types OF plane, and we
can get scout machines from the
French, or. II they remain in vogue,
we can get some made in this cOun-
try with other motors
Feat Considered Remarkable.
Certainly as one considers the aim
OF our aircraft officials in developing
an aIl-sround motor that would do
for all types Of planes. the achieve
ment OF the Liberty motor in fitting
six out OF seven types does stand out
as remarkable, and the British and
French Ere loud in their praises.
Wheth, the Liberty motor is bet
ter than = ything the Germans have
remains 70 be seen. Our engineers
are confident that It is- One must
keep in mind incidentally. however,
that there are two distinct schools
Of flying on the western front The
allies rely on their quick climbing
powers, with low weight per horse
power. The Germans resort to high
diving and low hsad-on resistance.
Weight is not 20 much OF a factor
and most of the climbing is done be-
hind the German lines The allies,
on the other hand, fight for the most
part over the German lines and con-
duet an offensive warfare. To cut
down weight Il was necessary for
- e. -