The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1918-12-18
PERFECT WIRELESS TELEPHONE IS
AMERICAS GREATEST WAR SECRET
For Months American Airpanes Here and in Europe Have Been
Equipped With Apparatus by Which Their Movements We're
Directed by Voice Comma nd-Hardest Tests Fail to
impair Its Complete Efficiency.
WILLIAM A. WILLIS
In the New York Herald.


Eight years of work by wizards of sci
by civilian workers in radio problems,
came to successful consummatlOn last
February. Since that time American
airplanes here and In Europe have
been equipped with apparatus which
has made vocal communication be-
tween them while flying, as well as
communication with the earth, a sim
pie matter.
The secret has been well kept for
many months. Outside of members of
the air service few have known 1t.
Those few Have maintained absolute
silence. The war department has re-
garded the solution of the problem Of
what now is called "voice command
flying ms one of the greatest and most
important achievements of the age.
Its value in war was so tremendous
that extraordinary precautions were
taken to prevent the slightest inkling
of the development reached from leak
Ing out.
Germans Had Only a Hint.
German aviators knew that the
American flying men had some adj
vanced method of communication but
did o know exactly what it
The French and British flying forces
have dabbled with the wireless tele-
phone In connection with airplanes for
some time, the British meeting with
some success. II remained, however,
for men of the American air service
to perfect the radiophone. This they
have done.
The writer is the first civilian out
side of Newton ID. Baker, secretary of
war; Mr.. John ID. Ryan, director of
aircraft production, and one or two
+. other highly placed government Off
ciais to observe this latest of great
American inventions tried out 1t was
on receipt of word from Mineola that
the hardest tests the new wireless
telephone had ever been put to had
failed to impair its complete efficiency
that Mr.. Ryan in Washington made
public the first news ever given out
of the new discovery.
These tests were made Mt Hazel
hurst and Roosevelt fields, near Min
cola, under the personal direction of
Maj. Gen. William l.. Kenly, chief of
the division of military a~eronautics,
who came over from Washington for
the specific purpose of finding out IL
there was any feat In aviation that
could break down the voice con,
mand' system of communication.
When he quit after an afternoon Of
hair-raising stunts with every kind of
aircraft from the slow training planes
to those swift eagles of the air the
De Havilands, he expressed himself
as completely satisfied that the wire
less telephone as part of airplane
equipment has come TO stay and is in
shape to meet almost any situation
short of an actual smashup.
No Need for Further Secrecy.
The ending of the war has made
amazing invention unnecessary, Int
the opinion of Mr.. Ryan and General
Kenly. There are certain secrets in
connection with the apparatus used
that naturally win not be revealed.
But the principles involved were made
clear without reserve by Col. Clarence
G. Culver of the aviation corps, the
man who has led the work of perfect
ing the wireless telephone and who is
credited by scientists with the major
part of the credit for Its success.
Those who have seen airplanes in
battle formation many thousands Of
feet in the air have perhaps wondered
how at a given moment they have all
turned or looped or dived as one ma
chine, maintaining the precision al
most Of West Point cadets ON dress
parade. The answer is that each man
has q telephone receiver fastened In
his helmet through which he has re.
ceived the order of the squadron com.
mander as clearly and audibly as If
he was an infantrynsan on the ground
being addressed by his company cap
tain. The roar of the motor and the
whir of the propellers have no effect
whatever on his power of clear trans
mission or on the ability of his men
to receive his words.
The tremendous value of the inven-
ton which Colonel Culver and those
associated with him nave brought to
perfection, is not easily understand
able by civilians. But through its OPP
erations 1t Is now possible to send
students into the air alone and di-
rect their daily drill from the ground,
thus eliminating the necessity of en-
dangering experienced pilots, who, as
instructors, have hitherto been obliged
to 60 up In the air with their pupils.
1t also is now possible to train avia'
tors in advanced flying. the instructor
OH the ground being able to see the
work Of his student and instantly cor
rect his faults. In training and di
recting pilot gunners and bombing
pilots the wireless telephone also ii
Of inestimable value.
The tests of the new invention were
conducted in the presence Of Genera
Kenly, Colonel Culver. Col. Willard #
Harmon, Jr., commander Of the frs
provisional wing; Maj. Ralph Cousins
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