The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-15
Topeka STATE JOURNAL
INFORMATION BUREAU
FREDERIC J. HASKIN, Director.
Washington, d. C
THE AMERICAN AIR FLEET.


gram, Howard E. Coffin, chairman of
the aircraft production board, and
other government officials are firmly
of the opinion that there is no cause
for pessimism as to the future of the
prog am
They point out that airplane con-
struction. more than any other form
OF war. manufacturing, must be sub
ject to the almost daily improve
ments in the science of aeronautics,
winch the war is bringing about; and
that reports from General PerShing
ard the recommendations of British,
French and Italian aviation experts
in this country nave been the cause
of frequent alterations in the design
OF the Liberty motor and of airplane
bodies, which have delayed the air.
plane program These same experts
have emphasized most strongly that
to send American flyers into battle
in machines months behind the de-
veiopmentG of German aeronautic skill
would be a criminal act.
! Criticism of the aviation program
has been a dominant note in Wash
inSton for the past month. 1t is criti-
cism which at the first glance seems
amply justified and had its origin
when Maj. Gen. George o. Squier.
chief of the construction department
of the signal crops admitted before
! y
affairs committee that up to the mid
die of March but one complete aero
plane and ten aeroplane engines have
been shipped abroad from this coun-
try
BIT criticism based on these facts
alone is as unfair would be state
mer t that Americas part in the war
! is negligible because our soldiers have
as vet done little actual fighting.
Altho but one complete airplane
, I~aes III
/ France, hundreds of tons of parts have
/ been sent o|er, have been assembled
! in American hangers at the front by
American mechanics, and are now fly
! ing as complete aeroplanes over the
/ German lines, guided by American
| The airplare and motor factories at
home, in spite of heartbreaking de-
: lays and cancellation of plans for the
reasons pointed out above. have now
reached the stage of quantity produc-
ton This L. no small achievement in
| view of the fact that one short wear
ago the science CT aeronautics in this
| country was in the experimental stage
| the number of fully equipped factories
less than dozen. and the very sight
/ or an a1rplane aloft above the Ameri-
can soil the cause of public wonder
and comment
The real causes of the present air
craft are Delng aScertaineCi
by special beard of aviation ex-
perts. appointed by the senate mill
tary affairs committee, with the an
| proVal of The war department The
committee s composed of H Snow
den Marshal, Edward Wells and Gayen
McNab.
These men will lay before President
| Wilson recomme ndations of changes
in organization designed to speed uu
production.
They will report that the many
changes in specified tions necessita t ed
by the rapid -development of aerona ut
ical science are primarily responsible
for the afrplane program falling sc
badly behind schedule
| Because Of this difficulty in keep
my up with European Developments
the United States will henceforth con.
centrate on training and bombino
planes, the heavy warships of the air
The construction of the fast scout
planes. the destroyers of the air. will
be left largely to French and English
factories, which are prepared to make
more quickly the necessary changes ir
specifications.
This does not mean that American
aviators will be kept out of the
spectacular scouting which is the
work of those planes It simply
means coordination of aircraft con.
struction among the allies to enable
each nation to produce the types fol
which lne circumstances of war have
rendered it most fit. America fittec
by her great industrial development
to achieve quantity production more
readily than any other nation viii
turn out bombing planes for all the
allies. Hundreds of them, now build
) ing at Detroit and Buffalo. will thi:
. summer be flying over the interior OF
Germany guided by French and Brit
lsh aviators, giving the German peo
pie taste of the warfare they have
) brought so ruthlessly to the world
Similarly, hundreds of scout machine.
turned out in France and England
will be flying over German trenche!
{ in the hands of American FLYER.
now training in this country.
In other words instead of trying t.
| keep each allied nation an independ
ent unit against Germany, the re
sources of all will be pooled in tn
way best calculated for the success o
the common cause. 1t is a plan identi
cal with the present plan of militia r,
operations, whereby an allied higl
command directs the movements OIL
, the entire western front under the su
preme orders of the Frehch general
Foch.
: The Snowden Marshall board will
also set at rest disturbing rumors con
corning the Liberty motor by acclaim
1 ing it a complete success. 1t has beef
D so adjudged by the French and Brit
I ish experts in this country and the
have recommended it as a good engin
for the bombing plane. The Libert
e motor is now being turned out from
a dozen different factories and it i
permissible to say that large number
are in readiness to be shipped abroad
n Another phase of the airp1are stu
. alton to be investigated it is under
! stood, by the committee. is the diff
| Guilty which certain inventors have en-
i countered in submitting designs 70
j., | improvements.
That the war department is handi
r capped by the amount of red tape in
a volved in all of its procedures is
= statement which has been made S
often lately that it has become a com
o complace of wartime criticism. 1t
d said that this involved bureaucratic
cinlI IL 70