The sun., 1919-10-19


strategy ahoat. All Of our first and
second class battle craft are to be
equipped with facilities for launching
seaplanes into the air. This Is heart
enint ncws for those Of the American
people who LAYS watched with dismay
the faster strides being made abroad
In this field of preparedness.
II one will take the trouble to 60
back a brief span over the annual re-
ports Of Josephus Daniels and the
presentation of the fighting fleets
needs made by him before the Com
mittee on Naval Affairs Of the United
States House Of Representatives from
time to time it will be self-evident
who 1t is that hitherto has stood
squarely against generous and really
commensurate appropriations in be-
half Of what might properly be termed
naval aeronautics. II took a period of
actual strike and a wealth Of unes-
capable facts TO arouse Mr.. Daniels
had lost during the years we were
supposed TO have been fitting ourselves
10 meet the circumstances Of war.
The Secretary of the Navy asked
Congress in June for an appropriation
of s36,Ooo,0oo, which was $4,000, 900
less than the officers in charge of
aviation stated to be essential TO our
military needs. In pleading for ample
funds Mr.. Daniels evidenced the extent
Of his awakening when he said:
The Eyes of the Fleet.
ut would seem to me to be a calam-
ity, and would certainly be a great
mistake. II. having been the forward
nation in first flying in our own coun-
try and next in flying across the ocean,
this Congress should say to TIE
Navy Department.: You must marx
time for the next year while the other
great nations are spending more
money than ever and giving every
kind of encouragement to men In the
matter of aviation who believe, and
have reason to believe, that we can
conquer the air as we have conquered
every other element
Continuing Mr.. Daniels explained:
MY feeling is that aviation will, in
the not distant future, take the place
OF what we had looked to fast water
craft TO do, to become the eyes of the
feet Aviation in the navy is
as much a part Of the fleet as destroy
ers, submarines and cruisers and we
will confine our work to developing the
best types for giving eyes to the fleet"
And then. by way OF peroration, Mr.
Daniels exclaimed for the edification
Of his hearers why. gentlemen. with
proper aviation squadron it would
be utterly impossible for any fleet to
come anywhere near America without
our knowing 1t long time before"
It was this point exactly that the
progressive men OF our sea service
had emphasized years before the re-
cent titanic struggle in their profess
sional zeal TO make our navy pre-
eminent by the fullest adaptations of
the flying machine. But neither Mr.
Daniels nor his chief of operations
could or would visualize the advan-
tase which those advocates of naval
aeronautics were certain would be ours
II We took and held the lead In this
direction. Seven years ago Capt
Washington /. Chambers blazed the
way for our possible supremacy when
he demonstrated that II was entirely
practicable TO catpult flying machine
aloft from a floating base-thus prov
ing that long and hampering run
way was not essential. His apparatus
was crude In getup but sound in prin-
cple Time and again some of our
niOnpar 4h,,e
started upon experimental flights and
enthusiasm ran high among this small
and courageous nucleus of the fleets
nying service.
Successful Catapult Built.
Further development dragged be-
cause of lack OF funds Even so. the
bureau of construction and repair
brought out in 1918 a mechanically
finished airplane catapult which was
installed and tested aboard the L. s. S
North Carolina. The trials showed
Just where improvements could be
made, and when we entered the war
IN 1917 our naval constructors hao
evolved a thoroughly satisfactory cat
apult for our armored cruisers.
\ number Of these ships so equipped
we're sent abroad and rendered spien.
Old accounts of themselves. They es-
tablished the fact that the Chambers
hventio2 had. in a technical sense
placed US far in the lead, but the
limited extent TO which we had made
use of the device left us nearer the
end OF the procession in actual pre-
paredness in aeronautics.
In the beginning our seaplanes were
comparatively small and relatively
night craft, but as our designers
srasped the fact that robustness o.
construction was essential they in
creased both the size and the weigh
OF the flying machines In order to OBJ
tain ruggedness and the desired range
and carrying capacity. This entaileC
other problems in devising a catapul
OF ample power to deal with the added
burden while limiting the length o
the runway tracks so as to hamper
as little as possible the working o.
important guns. Finally, after muct
experimenting, 1t was found prac
ocable TO keep the runway inside o
nttv feet long and, upon that shor
rpan, thanks 20 the accelerating move
ment OF the catapult car, TO obtain 1
launching speed OF fifty miles an hou
quite enough to sustain the seaplan,
N the air until her own motive power
Was driving full tilt.
But IL was not enough to achieve