The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-05-25

would probably have caused revolution in flying. for they are constructed from nose to tail and wing tip to wing tip, almost entirely of aluminium and there fore are immune to that greatest of aerial dangers, burning.
 They are two-seated planes of the ob servation rather than the chasing type. The only part of their construction not aluminium is a small bit of the wing. the part that tilts and tips to give the ma chine upward or downward direction. And the armistice came just in time to halt experiments that should have eliminated even this bit of inflammable material, and made the machine every bit alumi- nun. Its speed is 125 miles an hour.
 The aluminium airplanes, however. are but a fraction of the aerial forces which Germany was carefully perfecting and storing up for the time when she should have to try to remain mastery of the air. An exhaustive trip through the former Zeppelin works, such as the Associated Press correspondent has just had an op- portunity to make, illustrates what enor- nous advances Germany had made in av- iation.
 The most notable airplanes which Ger many was accumulating-she had used them a little and even had lost one through defective orientation-is the five motor, 1250 horse power machine, capable of carrying score of passengers or a ton and half of bombs and a crew of eight and which, German experts elaim far surpassos in size, strength, flying ability and general effectiveness the larg- est and best of the new British or Italian airplanes. They are imposing aerial mon- sters.
 Some idea of their size may be gained from the fact that they measure some 14Q feet in width from wing tip to wing tip Each has five huge motors of 2S0 horse power capacity, two on the left between the wings, two on the right in the same position, and one in the rear betweeen the body and the tail
 Though now they are all being rebuilt 50 as to be available for peace-time trans portation purposes, they have, when in shape for their wariike work, cabin for ward and just behind the cooling fan where a mechanician sits, cabin for the commanding officer equipped with an amazingly complicated, yet for him sim pie, signal system by which he can con trol the actions of his entire crew and they can communicate with him at any moment, and an open floor through which he can sight at intended marks before releasing the bombs.
 Before the commanders seat are regis ters and gauges showing the altitude and speed and an ingenious contrivance for night flying indicating exactly at what angle, to one side of the other. or up or down, the airplane is flying. A register with rows of little plugs enables him to talk with any of his crew. If, for ex- ample, the man in charge of the after machine. gun signals that the enemy is directly behind so that the tail prevents hitting him, the commander can by press ing a switch give the order to veer the airplane to right or left, up or down. \ A deIicately constructed compass is one of the complements of the tiny cabin, not only showing direction and other de- tails, but also the tip or slant of the airplane. There are signals to the man who feeds and tends the gasoline, and behind the commander special safety de- vices for emptying immediately all of the gas tanks to avoid fire or explosion in the case of an emergency.
 Behind the commander on either lower wing are two machine guns, facing fore and aft, and manned by four men. Far ther to the rear is still another machine gun in the hollow of the body of the huge air bird, which can shoot through hole in the floor at objects under the plane.
 The machine travels at a speed of about 30 miles an hour and can stay in the air 10 full hours The speed and horse power were being increased to an eventual limit of 125 miles when the war ended.
 To ceunteract the reduced atmospheric pressure at great heights, which slows the speed, the German engineers devised another airplane with four 250 horse power motors, alike in size and nearly in speed to the five-motor ship, but equipped with condensed or compressed air prod ducer which automatically supplies air to the motors to enable the airplane to keep up its high speed in rarified atmosphere and outstrip all other machines not so equipped.
 Each of the airplane which the core spondent saw cost, according to the ex- perts, about 50O,o0O marks, a great share of which goes to the account of the in fnitely complicated mechanism that is so striking feature of each machine.
 The Gotha type of airplane which some times was used in bombarding Paris, though a big, powerful machine, is in significant in size when seen alongside