Chicago eagle. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1889-19??, 1922-11-18
COAST PROTECTION
AIM Of MANEUvERs
ARMY AIR SERVICE AND COAST
ARTILLERY CORPS GETTING
VALUABLE PRACTICE.
TAKING NO CHANCE ON WAR
Flyers and Gunners Are Receiving
Training on Locating Attacking For
eign Fleet and on Instantly Getting
the Exact Range.
BY EDWARD g. CLARK

Washington.-JOint maneuverS of
the army air service and the coast ar
tillery corps have been in progress for
some time. The reason for the maneu-
vers is TO give to these two arms of the
service training in what may one day
be their joint work of preventing the
landing of an enemy on the coast of the
United States.
A big war having virtually just
closed and with the whole world talk
ing of means for lasting peace, it may
seem strange to some persons that
such maneuvers as these are in prog
ress, but since the days that the Is
raelites fought the Philistines, and
even before that, wars have come even
when peace was believed to be certain
to rule in the future. Therefore the
United States today is taking no
chance
Neither the army or the navy has
much money to spend for drilling pur-
poses of any kind, but such money as
there is, is being used to what the
service men believe to be the best pur-
pose. Quoting from an explanation of
the maneuyers. the following is what
they are intended to do:
These experiments are expected to
determine the suitability of airships,
captive balloons and airplanes in OBJ
servation OF Are; ranges and condi-
tions which make air observation pre-
ferable to ground observations the
number of airplaneS which can be used
simultaneously to observe and report
deviations in the field of fire and eX-
tent of interference to radio telephone
and Geographic messages caused by
neighboring radio communications in
operation the best method of observ-
ing and reporting deviationS from air.
ship and airplanes the best method
of observing and reporting deviations
as observed from ground stations and
ranges and conditions at which verti-
cal spotting from captive balloons near
the battery firing is more satisfactory
than spotting from ground stations"
All to Protect Our Coast
Now all this seems to be rather Sc
verely technical, but what is to be done
largely concerns itself with making it
as near certain as possible that in case
the coast of this country ever shall be
attacked by foreign fleet. our air
! planes may be able quickly not only TO
locate approaching warships, but in
stantly to notify the land batteries of
| the exact range.
All over the world the science of avi-
alton today is advancing rapidly. In
England they have just been holding
what was called gliding tests. Air
| planes without any engines take to the
| air, and by clever manipulation some
| of the operators have managed to stay
| in the air after the manner of a bird
| for so long time as two hours. 1t
| is, therefore, within the range of pos
! sibilities that one day men will be able
| to do that which he started out to do
| years ago-f1y like a bird.
1t is not believed in Washin gton that
| even with the perfection of gliding ma
chimes the motor-operated airplane
! ever will be superseded, because the
/ machine with a motor in it can make
three times an express train speed but
it is believed that flying, real flying
/
| flying suggests Mapping of wings
| What man really is accomplishing to-
day to a minor degree is soaring
The present day glider stays up in the
air somewhat after the manner of q
| buZZard or a hawk. 1t is true that
hawks and buzzards flap their wings
but they make considerable distances
| with inhI L. =
| movement.
Flying by No Means Safe Yet
Army aviators say that it is some
| thing of q relief to be able to go ur
into the air without the virtual Ger
tainty that somebody is. going to take
pot shots at them from anti-air guns
and without also the almost certain
knowledge than an enemy aviator is Il
come at them with his Fokker and hi.
machine gun. There are danger.
enough. however, today, as the serv
ices know, in air navigation. TIL,
death lists of the services still are
heavy, and yet neither the army no
the navy is having the slightest diff
Guilty in getting men willing to tax,
the air training with the knowledg,
that when they START at real work the,
are running more risks of injury ant
death than those encountered by meI
in any other profession of life.
Workmanship from the air has i'm
proved since the early war days. TIL
craftsmanship referred to here is tina
for which objects on the ground fur
nish a target When the war began
in 1914 aviators were unable to hit an,
ground mark that they aimed at witt
their explosive shells. The speed Will
which they flew and some other con
ditions made accuracy almost impos
sible. As the war progressed marks
manship from the air improved, but i
Is a long way today from being any
where near accurate.
/ Manganosite, the rare green oxid,
of manganese, is said to make a YER