The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-02-07
BOMB DROPPERS
MAY TRY SKILL
Naval Officials Ask Congress for APP
preparation to Fit Targets.
fRx Associated Press)


WASHINGTON, Feb. 6.-The con-
troversy as to the relative superiority
OF battleships and aircraft, which re-
Gently has stirred the navy and war
departments and has bobbed up IN
congress, may be settled through &C
tual tests, high naval officials said
tonight
Brig. Gen. William Mitchell, assist
ant chief of the air service, who re-
comfy told a congressional committee
that developments in aircraft mao
spelled the doom of the present DAY
dreadnaughts, and other air service
officers are understood to have issued
a virtual challenge TO the navy de-
partment to permit them to prove
their contentious. The navy depart
ment is a firm believer in the super
ioritv OF the capital ship and, naval
officers believe. will accept the chal-
lenge in the hope of settling the con-
troversy, at least for the time being
General Mitchell has asked his SUI
periors in the war department to SEND
a formal request TO Secretary Daniels
that two torpedo boats, two supply
vessels and one battleship be desiS-
mated for the tests. Naval officers ex-
pressed the belief that such re-
quest, even If made would be refused
because Of the large amount OF ma
terial involved and the cost of fitting
the five vessels with distant radio
control apparatus.
There Is a strong likelihood. how
ever, naval officers said today, that
the old battleship Iowa, already fitted
with radio control gear and capable OF
a speed of more than 10 knots and or
being unanswered with no ono on
board, will be used as a target for
aerial bombs after. experiments now
being conducted on the control device
are completed.
Another suggestion going the rounds
of the navy department now is that
large lighters be towed at high speed
behind destroyers or cruisers and
used as targets. Many officers be-
lieve that no test of the ability of
the aviators to hit naval vessels would
be conclusive unless the target were
moving at least 20 knots an hour,
pointing out that all modern cruisers,
battle cruisers, battleships and de-
stroyers and the proposed airplane
carriers, have more speed than this.
If lighters were used, II was said,
constructive area equal TO that of
capital surface ship would be allowed
the aviators around the lighter in
which all hits would be counted.
No test ever made under these con-
ditions would be entirely conclusive,
many navy officers maintain. be-
all - al -
would be lacking including the anti
aircraft guns and protective aircraft.
It was generally conceded, however.
that such experiments as General
Mitchell has proposed would give a
good idea of the ability Of the avia-
tors TO actually hit a vessel moving
on the water.
II am so confident" said one high
naval officer today, that neither
army nor navy aviators can hit the
Iowa when she is under way that I
would be perfectly willing to be on
board her when they bomb her, pro-
viding that they were kept at the al
titude they would be compelled to
maintain in battle"
Army aviators maintain that any
surface vessel in existence today can
be destroyed by airplane attack citing
the tests on the old battleship Indiana
with dummy bombs as proof of their
ability to hit the target. Navy Off
GERS assert that II is one thing to hit
a battfeship anchored in a bay and
another to hit the same ship moving
at 16 10 20 knots an hour far out at
sea- Officers of both services are
eager for n test.