The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-06-27
RADIO OPERATED
 | SHIP ID TRY ID
 ELUDE ATTACKERS
Effort to Be Made to Show Coast Defense May Not Yet Be Left Entirely In
 Hands of Air Service
Rx Associatsd Prsss


 N Washington, June 26.-The old bat-
 tleship Iowa, operated and maneuv- Tered by radio impulses, will attempt to slude the navy and army sirmen f off the Atlantic coast Tuesday in an ' effort to demonstrate that aviation
 has not yet reached the point where < the defense of the coast may be left < entirely in the hands of the new ' branch of the national defense sys- | tenn. The fliers, for their part, will |a bend every effort to locate the Iowa while the vessel is still well off the coast. and having found her to rain . shower of dummy bombs on her
 cecks.
 The Iowa experiment will be sec < and of . series of tests conducted jointly by the navy and war depart ment to test the usefulness of avia- ton against naval vessels under va rious conditions and to provide both
 airmen and naval constructors with
 data otherwise unobtainab1e on which i to base innovations in the design of
 aircraft and surface vessels. In the i first of these tests, conducted last
 week, one former German submarine was sent to the bottom by aerial bombs in 1e minutes and two others were sunk by destroyer gunfire. To Represent Enemy Fleet The Iowa and the battleship Ohio,
 control ship, will station more than 100 miles off the coast between Hat teras and Delaware cape tomorrow. At dawn Tuesday, Capt. F.. L. Chad {gvick of the Ohio will break the seal a of an envelope containing secret in- [, structfons from the navy department t and at zero hour the Iowa will be ' headed in the general direction of 4 the mainland. For the purpose of q the experiment, the Iowa will repre- < sent an enemy fleet. The Ohio, ex- ! ercising complete control over tre k Iowa by radio, will be about five miles away.
 At the instant the Iowa heads for the beach. sauadrons of fast scouting E seaplanes. manned by naval and army personnel will take off from the waters of Hampton Roads and P' form long scouting lines parellel to tue coast. sweeping for miles out to sea In search of the "enemy fleet" Back at Hampton Roads and at the naval air base at Yorktown, Va, l squadrons of light and heavy bonn bardment planes. including num- Der of huge marine corps Martin f bombers, will be tuned up ready to hop off the instant contact with the enemy is reported by the aerial ksssouting forces.
 ,ss No Restrictions
 No restrictions will be placed on Captain Chadwick as to the manner in which he may maneuver the Iowa
 during tho test except that he must
 keep tho ship within 100 miles of
 shore between Hatteras and Cape ! Hsnicpen, and headed in the direction | of the main land. He will be allowed
 to stop. back and zigzag the vessel
 as hs pleases with the idea of stlm-
 ulating as far as possible the prob
 able moves of an enemy fleet ap- ! proaching the coast in time of war in | the face of an aerial defense. :
 As soon as tho air forces have | sighted the Iowa, radio signals will be sent to the bombardm ont plan es
 back at tho base giving the location . of the ~enemy" and simultaneously
 the scouting forces will dash to att
 tack tho Iowa and drop small bombs
 on her with the object of clearing
 away all personnel above tho pro-
 tscted deck.
 Whom the bombing squadrons ar . rive they will hurl dummy bombs, : filled with concrete instead of pow der, weighing up to half a ton, at the vsspel. As each division of planes | >xhAusu It's bombs it will return to tho base. More than 50 aircraft of l various types will be used in the | prswrarnms. Only restrictions placed | eu airmen arc that they must at all | times maintain maximum speed and | remain at an altitude of at least 1000 | feet. This altitude was decided on as the safety limit for planes operat- Il ing against . battleship capable of II sstt1ng up an anti-air craft barrage. Two Big Problems
 Tuesdays experiment Is of partic- | u1a.r interest to army and navy off | esrs because 1t embodies two distinct | and important problems. The first is l the ability of the airmen to find an enemy approaching the coast know | ing only his approximate location. The S\cthsr is tho test of the ability of the l f1iers to hit a moving battleship from | safe altitude with bombs of suf- I ficient size to seriously damage a modern major vessel Dummy bombs are being used in the test because the navy department wishes to preserve the Iowa, the only radio controlled Aattleship in the world, for Atlantic (Centinued on Page Two) A z