The Cordova daily times., 1919-06-19
FLYING SHIPS REPLACE
 SEAPLANES


 ciated Press) Flying ships instead of flying boats will be the logical evolu- tion 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 Lieu tenant Commander A. c. Read had manoeuvered the NC-4 to a safe moor ing at Plymouth, England.
 Strangely enough, it was to the ex- perience 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 triumphantly through the historic journey.
 As far as they have yet gone and lacking detailed reports and comments from the seventeen men who set out from Rockaway on the great adven- ture, the experts apparently have reached definite preliminary conclus- ions to guide them in future seaplane designing. They are convinced that to play it's full part in naval strategy, the seaplane must become as independent a unit as a modern submarine or de- stroyer It 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 it's crew safety, shelter and reasonable comfort under adverse circumstances for the efficinecy of the plane depends upon the efficiency of it's men.
 Also, to fulfill it's function as scout, this plane of the future must be able to communicate at all times by radio. When the NC-3 was formed down west of the Azores with Commander John H. Towers, flight commander aboard, she became dumb. As scouting unit her value to fleet was lost from that moment. Whatever her com niander might have learned of vital importance 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 fotil- las of seaplanes, relying wholly upon their own power for transportation on the surface or in the air and operat- ing from swift mother ships" as sub marines and destroyers now operate.
 These conclusions will be written into new designs gradually. As battle ships have developed from 11,000-ton predreadnaughts to the 43,000-ton mon- sters for which the navy is now con- tracting, as naval officers say, sea- plane evolution will come type by type and year by year, each advance being based on results obtained with preceding types. This is the program laid out by the navy department as the basis for the request recently made to congress by Secretary Daniels for $45,O0O,OOO for aviation development in the next fiscal year.
 Part of this appropriation, If grant ed, will go into lighter-than-air devel- opment. The general board is expected to recommend immediate purchase of a British rigid dirigible for personnel training and the construction of sim liar vessel on American designs as pilot ship of fleet of air cruisers. The purchase of the British "Zeppe- lin' would permit the training of a crew to handle the first American s craft when completed
 The navy department is said to be ready to proceed with Zeppelin con- struction on it's own plans whenever congress grants authority and appro- priations. The ship, it is understood, would not be patterned exactly on the British notifications of German Zep- pelin construction. The discovery of non-combustible helium gas to inaate the bags Is said to have pointed the way to some radical changes in de- sign. Details of what Is contemplated, however, have not been disclosed.
 Naval experts point out that in both seaple and dirigible development one of the most important clements to be considered Is that of getting efficient power. The Liberty motors have prov ed highly satisfactory so far as en- durance goes on the transatlantic flight but no means have yet been evolved to get full benefits of their