The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1919-06-16

instead of flying boats will be the
logical evolution of navy seaplanes,
navy experts believe, as result of
the first air trip across the Atlantic.
First impressions Of the lessons
taught by that trip had already taken
definite shape in the minds Of the
men who conceived and created the
NC machines before Lieutenant Com
mander A. C. Read had manoeuvered
the NC-4 to safe mooring at Ply
mouth, England.
Strangely enough, it was to the ex-
porience of the NC-1, lost off the
Azores, and the NC-3, battered out of
usefulness by heavy seas before she
made port at Ponta Delgada, that the
inventive genius of the department
turned for inspiration; not to the
NC-4 that battled her way trium-
phantly through the historic Journey
AS far as uney nave yet gone and
lacking detailed reports and COM
ments from the seventeen men who
set out from Rockaway on the great
adventure, the experts apparently
have reached certain definite prelim-
mary conclusions to guide them in
future seaplane designing. They are
convinced that to play its full part in
naval strategy, the seaplane must be-
come as independent a unit as mod
ern submarine or destroyer. 1t must
be able to keep the seas in heavy
weather, riding it out on the surface.
it must be able to lift itself into air
or to plane down to safe landing
even when tall seas are running and
it must provide for its crew safety
shelter and reasonable comfort under
very adverse circumstances for the
efficiency of the plane depends upon
the efficiency OF its men,
Also, to fulfill its function as scout;
this plane of the future must be able
to communicate at all times by radio.
When the NC-9 was forced down west
of the Azores with Commander John
Fl. Towers, fight commander aboard
she became dumb As a scouting
unit her value to fleet was lost that
moment. Whatever her commander
might have learned of vital import
ance to the fleet commander could
not have been transmitted.
The answer to all of these require
ments in the minds of the experts
spells larger craft; veritable flying
ships. The vision toward which the
designers are looking is that OF no.
tillas of seaplanes, relying wholly up
on their own power for transportation
on the surface or in the air and oper-
ating from swift mother ships as
submarines and destroyers now oper'
ate.
These conclusions will be written
into new designs gradually AS bat
tleships have developed from 1lOOO
ton predreadnaughts to the 43,ooo-ton
monsters for which the Navy is now
contracting, so naval officers say, sea
plane evolution will come type by
type and year by year, each advance
being based on results obtained witt
preceding types. This is the program
laid out by the Navy Department al
the basis for the request recentl!
made to Congress by Secretary Dan
iels for $45,OOO,O 900 for aviation devel
opment in the next fiscal year.
Part of this appropriation, II grant
ed. will go into lighter-than-air deveI
opment. The General Board is eA
pected to recommend immediate pun
chase of a British rigid dirigible 10
nersonnel training and the construt
ton of a similar vessel on America
designs as pilot ship of fleet Oh al
cruisers. The purchase of the BTU
ish Zeppelin" would permit the tran
ing of a crew to handle the first An
erican craft when completed.
The Navy Department is said TO
ready to proceed with Zeppelin col
struction on its own plans WneneVe
Congress grants authority and appr'
priations. The ship, it is understood
would not be patterned exactly on u
British notifications of German re
pelin construction. The discovery
non-combustible helium gas to lima
the bags is said to have pointed u
way to some radical changes in q
sign. Details of what is contempla
ed, however, have not been disclose
Naval experts point out that IN DO
seaplanes and dirigible developme
one of the most important elemen
to be considered is that of getting e.
cient power The Liberty motO
have proved highly satisfactory so
as endurance goes on the trans-Atia
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