The Nenana daily news. (Nenana, Alaska) 1918-1921, 1919-05-20
HUNS PLANNED
GREAT PLANES
AS LAST HOPE

about ready, at the time the arms
tice was declared, to lanuch a ire
mendous aerial offensive by means
of a fleet Of new airplanes which
had been perfected after months
of experiments and tests.
These machines-which today
stand, nearly ready for service. in
the former Zeppelin works at Stalk
en-, near Berlin-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
therefore are immune to the great
est of aerial dangers. burning.
They are two-seated planes of the
observation rather than the ''chas-
ing" type. The only part Of their
construction not aluminium is
small bit of the wing, the part that
tits and tips to give the machine
upward or downward direction. And
the armistice came just in time to
halt experiments that should have
eliminated even this bit of inflam-
rable material. and made the ma
chine every bit aluminium. It's
speed is 125 miles an hour.
The aluminium airplanes, however.
are but fraction Of the aerial
forces which Germany was care
fully perfecting and storing up for
the time when she should have to
try to regain mastery of the air.
An exhaustive trip through the for
mer Zeppelin works. such as the
Associated Press correspondent has
just had an opportunity to make,
illustrates what enormous advances
Germany had made in aviation.
The most notable airplanes which
Germany was accumulating-she
had used them a little and even
had lost one through defective
the five-motor, 1859
horsepower machine, capable of
carrying q score of passengers. or
q ton and a half of bombs and
a crew of eight, and which, Ger
man experts claim, far surpasses
in size, strength, flying ability and
general effectiveness the largest
and best of the new British or
Italian airplanes. They are impos-
ing aerial monsters.
Though now they are all being
rebuilt so as to be available for
peace-time transportation purposes,
they have, when in shape for their
warlke work. a cabin forward ami
just behind the cooling fan where
mechanician sits, a cabin for the
commanding officer equipped with
an amazingly complicated yet for
him simple, signal system by which
he can control the actions Of his
entire crew and they can commun;-
cate with him at any moment, and
an open floor through which he
can sight at intended marks before
releasing his bombs.
Before the commanders seat are
registers and gauges showing the
altitude and speed and an ingenious
contrivance for night flying in
dicating exactly at what angle, TO
one side or 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 example the ann
in charge of the after machine gun
signals that the enemy is directly
behind so that the tail prevents hit
ting him, the commander can By
pressing switch give the order to
veer the airplane to right or left,
up or down.
A delicately constructed compass
IS one of the compliments of the
tiny cabin, not only showing direc-
ton and other details, 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 emer-
gency-
Behind the commander on either
lower wing are two machine guns,
facing fore and aft, and manned
by four men. Farther TO the rear
is still another machine gun in the
hollow Of the body of the huge air
Il