The Alaska daily empire., 1919-06-19
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Naval Experts Have Been Learning a Great Deal About the Best Type
 of Air Machine

WASHINGTON, June 19.-Flying
 ships instead of flying boats will be
 the logical evolution of navy sea
 planes, navy experts believe, as re-
 suit of the first air trip across the
 Atlantic. First impressions of the
 lessons taught by that trip had al
 ready taken definite shape in the
 minds of the men who conceived and Lieutenant Commander A. c. Read had manouvered the INCA to a safe mooring at Plymouth, England.
 Strangely enough. it was to the experience of the N.C.-1, lost off the Azores. and the N.C.-3, battered out of usefulness by heavy seas before she made port at Ponto de Gada, that the inventing genius of the depart. ment turned for inspiration; not to the N GA that battled her way tri- umphantly through the historic jour ney.
 AS far as they have 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 preli- minary conclusions 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 destroyer. 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 a safe landing even when tall seas are run hing and it must provide for its crew safely, shelter and reasonable comfort under very adverse circum | stances for the efficiency of the plane | depends up the efficiency of its men | Also, to fulfill it's function as scout 1 this plane of the future must be able | 70 communicate at all times by radio | When the NC.3 was forced dowi west of the Azores with Commander Tohn H. Towers, flight commander oboard, she became lumb As 8 scouting unit her value to a fleet was lost from that moment. What 9ver her commander might have | learned of vital importance to the | feet commander could not have beer transmitted
 The answer to all of these re s,, nf tho
 perts spells larger craft; yeritable flying ships. The vision toward
 which the designers are looking is that of fiotillas of seaplanes, rely ing wholly upon their own power for transportation on the surface or in the air and operating from swift
 mother ships as submarines and destroyers now operate
 These conclusions will be written
 into new designs gradually. As bat
 tleships have developed from 11.OoO l ton predreadnoughts to the 43,0O0-tor monsters for which the navy is now contracting, so naval officers say 1 seaplane evolution will come type by type and year by year, each advance being based on results obtaining with breeding types. This is the program aitf out by the Navy Department as l the basis for the request recently
 made to Congress by Secretary Dan els for $45 .000,00 for aviation devel opment in the next fiscal year. Part of this appropriation, if grant d. will go into lighter-than-air de yelopment The General Board is expected to recommend immediate purchase of a British rigid dirigible 'or personal training and the con 3truction of similar vessel on Am erican designs as pilot ship of fleet If air cruisers. The purchase of the
 British Zeppelin" would permit the raining of crew to handle the first American craft when completed. The Navy Department is said to be
 -eady 10 proceed with Zeppelin con struction on it's own plans whenever Congress grants the authority and appropriations. The ship, it is under stood. would not be patterned exact ly on the British qualifications of
 German Zeppelin construction. The discovery of non-combustible heiium
 gas to inflate the bags is said to have
 pointed the way to some radical changes in design. Details of what is contemplated, however, have not been disclosed.