Perth Amboy evening news., 1918-08-29
Planes
BY HUNDRED NOW
Concentration on Liberty 12'
Motor BattlepIanes Are
PRINCIPAL Problem Now.

DAYTON, o.. Aug 2g-The .,cnce1-
tration on the Liberty II" motor lin
tied and determined the types OF
planes that might be built here. The
! principal problem was how TO get an
appreciate number of battleplanes
to the front for this year, white am
ing for a tremendous number for next
year.
1t had been proposed to build the
/ Spad fast pursuit plane over here;
but The Spad could not stand the
Liberty IL. So 1t was decided To leave
the production Of small. last seout
planes to the British and French and
.lconcentrate on the two-place battle
plane, the second most valuable to an
army.
The aircraft board selected The Dc
tHavfland 4. a British model. designed
for the 360-hoPsepower Rolls-Royce
and fitted the Liberty IL to it. This
type was given to the Dayton-Wrfght
| Aircraft Co. to build. Although the
first machine was completed in Octo-
Der, 1917, IT was not until April, 1918,
after the Liberty had been put
through it's final tests, hat the go
ahead" order on the ID. H. 4 could be
| given.
The Dayton Wright had in the
meantime equipped its factory. built
400 training planes and assembled an
organization to take care of the D. H.
4. To date, fo31 have been built and
more than 900 consigned to France.
The Daxton-Wright plants output of
ID. n. As is larger o than the
combined output of any of two air
lcFaft factories in ENGLAND or France.
The d. H. 4. as a British plane. had
one gun forward and one In the rear
cockpit. The American d. II. 4 was
equipped with two guns onward n
two aft. In addition. II was fitted to
| carry ten 25-pound bombs; then 1t
was given radio and Photographic
apparatus. 1t thus combines the
fun functions of the two-place fighter,
| the day bomber, and the army obser-
walton machine 1t is three machines
in one.
The Curtiss Company at Buffalo.
which had built q tremendous new
! plant. was given the Bristol two
scatter battlepIane to build, fitted with
and was frankly abandoned. Now the
| Curtfss Company Is going ahead on an
order to copy n s. e. 3, a SINGLE
: scatter fast fighting plane.
| The Fisher Body Company at De-
troit was given a supplemental order
for the De Havfland Is. They too,
have built a big new factory and will
on go ahead with quantity PRODUCTION.
In addition, the Standard Aircraft
Corporation at Elizabeth. N. J., has
been ordered to proceed with the
Handley-Page heavy bombing ma
chine. after completing N expert
mental machine equipped with two
Liberty motors.
The aircraft production program
may be said to ave entered its second
stage: that of producing actual fight
ing and bombing planes. Certain
other things are still In the expert
mental stage. The Glenn Martin
Company at Cleveland will produce q
giant plane to be known as the Mar
tin Gun Machine" and 1t viii mount
a small cannon. Nothing can be said
about this work as yet, however.
The plans for 1919 call for the pro-
duction Of fou types Of plane. There
will be an American hig~h-speed. sin
g~le-seater, pursuit plane, the two
place De Haviland fighter, a day
bombing and an army observation
machine, which will be OF similar type
Ito the De Haviland machines-an
equipped with Liberty motors.
This program IL independent OF the
production Of the 8. p. 8, the Handley
Page and the CapFoni.
We have experienced more trouble
with u air program than with N
other part Of the var work: but that
should hav been expected when we,
undertook to do something about
which we kuew almost nothing In
the main. tho performance has been
an admirable one; the lessons learned
are valuable: the experiences of this
first year OF production IN going to
mean much next year.