New-York tribune., 1920-10-18

entered the war. On June s, 1917, pub
great fleet Of $4,000 aeroplanes was
about to be created and would be de-
cisive of the war months before an
effective army could be put in Europe.
July "a, 1917, Congress appropriated
$640,000,000 to carry out the aircraft
program. The fund has been either by
actual expenditure or by commitments
exhausted. A further appropriation Of
$884,304,758 has been found necessary.
"In the opinion of the committee, a
substantial part of the first appropria-
ton was practically wasted, while an
army of 100000 men has been raised"
Colonel Patrick, chief of the Air
Service in France, in August, 1918, a
witness before the Congressional COM
.nittee after the armistice, testified
that the needs of an army Of 1000, 900
Americans in the field were approx
mately 3,400 machines, but SO far as
American production Of pursuit or
bombing planes was concerned we
were in about the same position after
the war as when we entered the war.
The Congress ssional committee elected
from testimony that Pershings entire
army in France at the time of the
armistice was equipped with but TAO
from the Allies and 213 were the
American made De Haviland type.
The efficiency Of the American made
De Haviland-4 plane--the only Ameri-
can made machine at the front-put
there as the only product for active
war by $1,000,OO0,OOO aircraft pro-
gram, was described by many expert
enced flyers who appeared as witnesses
before the Congressional committee
The burden of the testimony was that
they were clumsy, badly constructed
and highly dangerous.
Rickenbacker's Testimony
Among the witnesses was Eddie"
Rickenb backer, Americas supreme ace.
The committee incorporated in it's rec
ords excerpts from Rlckenbacker's
book, which he swore were accurate.
Rickenbacker wrote:
From every side -okkers German
combat planesl were piquing upon the
clumsy Liberty machines (DL Havi-
land-4's), which, with their criminally
constructed fuel tanks, offered so easy
a target to the incendiary bullets Of
the enemy that their unfortunate pilots
called this boastful achievement of our
aviation department their flaming
collins During one brief fight over
Grand Pre- l saw three of these crude
machines go down in flames, an Ameri-
can pilot and an American gunner in
each flaming coffin dying this fright
full and needless death"
Speaking of the American failure to
produce generally, Rickenbacker testi-
fed through his book:
THE Germans had seen the spring
months pass and, instead of viewing
with alarm the huge fleet of 10000
aeroplanes sweeping the skies clear of
German Fokkers, they complacently
witnessed the Fokkers occupying the
air back of our lines whenever they
can plane to oppose them"
The American Ace wrote that Amer
lean aviators were forced to use dis
carded French Nieuport machines in
which ito venture out against more
experienced pilots in more modern ma
chimes or go without" and he added:
Many a gallant life was lost to
erican aviation during those early
months If 1918, the responsibility for
which must lie upon some guilty con-
science"
The Liberty Motor
The evidence in the various hearings
showed that those in charge of aircraft
manufacture the highest types of for
eign planes, the plans for which were
freely offered by the Allies, but set
about to manufacture something dis
tinctly Amercan-the Liberty motor
at time when experimentation and
research were costly The cost proved
to be reproduction generally, and in
the one type of plane actually produced
and sent to France the cost was human