Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-01-19

cessity must belong. In the other
into the future. sometimes accurately,
sometimes fnaccurately. Often they
have been ten years In advance OF
the practical men. and. to be perfectly
frank I have little doubt that they
VIII be the ones who will win in the
great achievement Of q transatlantic
dight.
They can try 1t. The government
cannot. If they fail it is their own at
fair. IL the government fails 1t would
be legitimate reason for drastic pub
lie criticism.
"All land flights have proved the
wisdom of reserve fields, with average
nights for single motored machines
of. say. 220 miles. and for double
motored machines of. say. 400 miles.
in the transoceanic flight with ships
at sea and with the Azores as first
stopping place, the journey thence
continuing to Portugal.
But 1T must not be forgotten that
an eighty or hundred mile ship
over the sea in reasonably strong
contrary gale would be practically
standing still though it's motors
worked perfectly. l do not believe
that the offer of n large reward made
by Lord Northcliffe In England or the
similar offer of a New York newspa-
per for the achievement will bling it
to quick realization. except possibly
as chance performance,
* *
Personally, I think 1t a safe bet
that the first transoceanic flight Will
be made in a Zeppelin. not in plane.
! believe the aircraft making 1t must
have multiple engines. There are
planes with triple and quadruple mo-
tors, the Handley-Page, for example;
but none. in my opinion. is ready yet
for nonstop fight across the ocean.
"Of the possible success Of the re-
lay effort there can be no question.
Start in a big seaplane, with a life
boat fusilage, ard put a torpedo boat
destroyer at every 4o0-mile interval
along the route, the plane and all
boats being fully equipped with wire
less, and the trick seems possible:
but little OF practical value would
be gained by carrying 1t out"
asked the assistant postmaster
general to say something of The rea-
sons for Americas war aircraft fall
ure.
"There has been much talk Of our
failures" he countered, "but we made,
some successes. The liberty motor Is
an unqualified success. For simplicity
and reliability 1t rs unequalled. 1t
was not devised for use in battle
planes and was not fast enough for
them. but 1t was singularly efficient
in machines designed for bombing
expeditions.
1--WE had quantity production in
mind when we devised the liberty
motor and we reached 1t at about
the time the war came to an end.
Probably there. are 10000 of these
admirable motors now in existence, to
be absorbed commercially. They are
good motors and they Will be thus
absorbed,
1--WE also are prepared for quantity
production of De Haviland planes.
Several Thousand have been sent
across and we have 1000 in this coun-
try. We produced $50 Handley-
Pages. of which 1876 are in Europe.
and we were just going into quantity
production of them when the peace
was declared.
"We also accomplished a. fine twin
motor Job In the Martin bomber.
which Is q smaller machine. very fast
and a good climber. 1t will do ev-
erythlng except rise-it even has
looped--with one engine. 1t Is about
half the size of the 1915 Handley-
Page. with a wing spread just under
eighty feet"
OF the success of the air mail.
which is, OF course. Mr.. Praeger's spe-