The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1919-07-11
VOICE ORDERS
RULE AIR WAR
development of Radio Telephone
Permits Personal Direction
of Fleets.
PREVENTS MANY ACCIDENTS
At Signing of Armistice Training in
Voice-Commanded Flying Wa
Well Under Way-PiIots Di-
rected From Ground.


NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. to the entry
OF the United States into the war, the
problem of airplane radio development
had received attention from the army
In August, 1910, the first wireless
transmission from airplanes was made
In the years following the development
Of he airplane radio was carried on
through a series of accomplishments
These may be summed as follows:
1912-Message transmitted from air.
plane to ground by wireless telegraph
over a distance of 80 miles.
1915-Fan type of driving the wire
less power plant on the airplane de-
veloped and adopted.
1916-Radio telegraph transmission
from airplane successful over 14O
miles of distance; radio messages
transmitted between airplanes in
fight; airplane radio telephone con-
structed.
1917-The human voice transmitted
by radio telephone from airplane to
ground.
Talk Thousands of Miles.
Contemporaneous with this was the
commercial development of the radio
telephone for ground and ship use by
engineers of the American Telephone
and Telegraph company. This culmi-
mated in a successful transmission
from the naval radio station at Airing
ton to stations thousands of miles
away.
In May, 1917, steps. were taken to
combine the experience of the engi-
neers and of the army in developing
the airplane wireless.
Six weeks later the airplane tele-
phone was a fact, and in October, 1917,
a long-range test was made. Tele-
phonic communication was carried on
between airplanes in flight up to %
miles 8 apart and from airplane to
ground up to. a distance of 10 miles.
The development of voice command
ed flying was definitely begun at Gerst-
ner field, La, in May, 1918. On June 1
an aerial review was given by an air
fleet of two squadrons of Is planes
each, followed by a fclose order drill
by a section of six airplanes.
Throughout the review and the drill
command was exercised by the voice
of the commander flying with the fleet.
In September following, voice COM
manded flying wass Instituted at sew
eral other fields.
Avoids Many Accidents.
BY using the airplane radio tele-
phone in %instructing aviators in aerial
gunnery it vas found possible to reach
the same efficiency with a saving of
of the time. BY exercising
control over pilots in the air, accidents
we're practically eliminated.
AT the signing of the armistice, de-
and training in voice COM
manded flying wass well under way.
demonstrations were held
November and December and. a
fleet of 204 airplanes was Unanswered
in the air at San Diego by voice com
nand.
In the practical application OF the
radio telephone to. airplanes,
yer 5000 flights have been made with
his apparatus in this country. In the
1000 flights there have been only
4 cases of airplane trouble and only
8 cases of radio trouble.
Shipments of the apparatus to
rance iii quantities began August and
september, 1918, and of trained air
radio personnel in October.
the war continued the voice-com-
military air unit would I'M
oubtedly have made itself felt.