Daily Kennebec journal., 1918-08-24
Saturday, August "a, 1918.
The American Aircraft Shame.

possession Of few and in the sus-
picion OF all. concerning the pitiful
failure Of the American aircraft boast
Of year and a half ago, has, here
to,ore, constituted crime, disloyalty
70 the government, pro-Germanism.
end a few other gentle charges from
the administration. At last Senate
committee has reported, after ex-
haustive investigation, and shows up
,neficiency. delay, waste-everything
a2crifced TO that uch-advertised
Liberty motor; successful, tried
ind approved. foreign aircraft com
Iletely ignored. millions of dollars
actually thrown away; the first ap
preparation by Congress Of se4o,000.-
900 practically wasted. in expert
rnents and unsympathetic organiza-
ton; production dominated by auto
n-obile manufacturers; excessive
profits poured into hands of incom-
petent, unskiled and graspng max
ers, and. worst of all. favoritsn.
The report shows that no all
American planes are at the front;
that not a single chasse, attack plane
or heavy bomber is yet in active
operation.
The committee praised much that
has been accomplished and predicted
we are approaching a period when
quantity production of planes soon
may be hoped for" All questions of
dishonesty or official corruption are
left to the Department of Justices
inquiry. conducted by Charles E.
Hughes. While condemning chiefly
iailures under the former Aircraft
Production Board which laid them
to the Signal Corps and noting great
Improvements since John d. Ryan
end Major General kenly were
placed in charge Of the production
trd Military branches, the commit
te. strongly urged one man con-
tcl.' in the future. Part of the
Flame for poor organization at the
etart is assigned to Congress. The
committees long report also details
telays and failures, including trans
portation to General Pershing of de-
fective machines during more than a
years efforts TO secure domination Of
the air on the fighting front.
A Washington writer says:
The American aircraft program
20 date has been sacrificed to the
Liberty Motor experiment. OF the
se4o, 100000 appropriated for aircraft
IN 1917 a substantial part has been
wasted. We have not single
American made chasse or plane of
attack or a single heavy bombing
plane upon the battlefront. The
liberty 12-cylinder engine, although
not yet perfected" is an excellent
one for the heavier planes and for
certain other purposes, but it is too
heavy and too powerful for the
lighter type. We have hundreds of
trained pilots waiting for planes
whose services must be postponed
rrtil their production. Much of the
responsibility for the grave delay in
the airplane program-which still
continues-must be charged against
the policy OF attempting to confine
oirplane design and construction to
automobile manufacturers and re-
jecting the counsel of experienced
aircraft builders. Nevertheless, when
they saw the crash coming" the air
craft production board attempted to
shoulder the responsibility for it's
failure upon the Signal Corps of the
United States Army.
Tt is difficult to describe in terms
Of restraint the report upon the air
craft situation submitted today by a
bipartisan subcommittee Of the SEN
ate Committee on Military Affairs
and approved by that able and dis
tinguished body. Every page, al
most paragraph is strong indict-
ment of incapacity and greedy am
b.tion, Of failure to profit by the ex-
scrience Of others. of refusal to ad-
nit mistakes Of policy and admin
istration and to retrace the we'll nigh
fatal steps already taken. The re-
pert brushes aside as inconsequen-
ral camounagc the contention that it
vas tmpracticabie to reproduce eff
fcient foreign types Of machine In
the United States in time to provide
our lighting forces with useful sup
ply in the summer Of 1917. 1t de-
clares that twelve months have been
consumed since the Caproni came
Under consideration. Notwithstanding
that as early as January. 1918. verbal
orders for 1000 Capronis were given,
end Captain D'Annunzio and his
workmen came to this country "ex-
pecting that everything would be
ready" No oficial orders were Civ
en-. however. and other orders for
Capronis were cancelled until now.
with one thousand machines ordered,
nothing will be done to carry out
this order until the experimental ma
chino finished and flown July has
been tested out" This incident is
illustrative Of the indecisive methods
OF the aircraft production board"
Critcising officials for causing
over optimism regarding the aircraft
program. the committee says:
while much good has been ac-
complished. for which due credit
should be given, it must nevertheless
- admitted that our aeroplane pro-