Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1918-08-28
Editorial Comment
keniy Contradicts Ca'sc-
(Boston TRANSCRIPT


The testimony of Major General VIII
liam L. kenly, chief of military aero
nautics. before the Senate committee on
Military Affairs, corroborates all that
Major General Leonard Wood told the
same committee about our falling
down in the air when he got back
from France last July. Shortly there
after General kenly was ordered back
from France by the Secretary of War
and placed in charge of the Division of
Aeronautics, and has been in charge OF
it ever since. In his testimony, which
Senator Chamberlain's committee,
has wisely refused to keep from the
public. he says that our aircraft pro
gramme has been messed up" and
bungled" and that lit is entirely a
jumble"; that our war deppa rtment did
not live up TO its contract with the
French to supply material to build
French machines for the American Ar
my. and that therefore the French cam
celled the contract that our progra NINE
called for 5000 fighting machines to be
built by last July, and that of this num-
Der only a small squadron of imperfect
De Havilands has been delivered; that
the Bristol, ordered in huge quantities
has been discredited and other types
abandoned; that we have 300 pilots in
France today, but that only 273 of them
are at work in American machines and
that these machines are the De Havi-
lands. whose imperfections have been
pointed out and protested against in
cablegrams by General Pershing. Gen
eral kenly declares that he himself con-
siders the De Haviland and unsafe
machine for fighting" When he toll
the committee that he considered the
Curtiss plane Dangerous and unde-
sirabe' he was asked by Senator Reed
to state his reasons. Here is his re-
ply;
! considered it dangerous. because we
had not only quite a number of acct
dents. actual crashes and deaths, but
it developed imperfections
Senator Reed-Were the accidents and
deaths due to the imperfections of the
macnine or the imperfections of the
motor?
Genera, kenly-Due to the unrelia bill
~ OF the motor. I should say Their
, Tr was found to be most uncertain.
were always breaking down.
lheV We considered by every flyer
with whom l discussed this matter to
be so uncertain that in their training
and in their so-called cross-country
fights they usually flew round and
round the field. expecting the motor to
go bad and desiring to be in a position
where they could make safe landing.
The thing that particularly forced the
issue was that the day before re
reached a decision, as l remember *,
there were two deaths from burning in
the air. Altogether, as I remember it,
there were seven casualties by burning
in the air from this type OF plane.
There is much more testimony by
General kenly to the same effect, which
completely corroborates the testimony
given by General Wood last March. and
lays bare the deception the people have
suffered as a result of the assurances
of the secretary of war and his press
agents regarding "the progress Of our
aircraft production. We now have the
word Of General Kenly that some of the
deaths in training at our avia ton fields
have been due to rotten aircraft AMI
not to the recklessness OF daring per
sonnet eager to learn to hy. AS a pun
ishment for his testimony General Wood
was ordered back to Kansas by Score
tary Baker and has been kept there
ever since. We wonder whether Il SINH
lar fate will soon befall General Kenly.