Evening star., 1925-09-08

Navy is in need Of this type Of plnre
nobody in aviation can he held re
spons sibIe One 6yere word is good
Al the others when II come 10 flying
the ship.
The only outSta ndinG mistake. aC-
cording to what many pilots believe.
was made in the selection OF the
Boeing training plane. A new type
was wa anted to replace the old war
time N.9S md the anufaCturers sent
their samples 10 Pensacola. where
test board was appointed. 1t is said
the chairman OF the board was 4 non
hNer. The Roeing was reported to
have won easily in the tests. II was
designed by the man who designed
the Boeing pursuit. reputed 10 he the
best fighting craft in the world. II
WAS spun here and developed defect
known as auto rotation" or a 1at
spin from which il could not recover
and crashed on Boiling Field. with
slight injury 10 pilot and passenger.
A few weeks later IL era shed in
fat spin on the Pacific coast. Modif-
cations We're made and il was tested
here again. II crashed on Hains
Point with two officers who had
worked on the changes and were
confident Of correction. More
notifications are being made and it
ready for fight II will not be hle 10
serve the purpose originally intended
for it.
One million dollars have been spent
on this III. and il was unfortunate
that the defect was not caught in the
tests. Admiral Moffett. however. is
determined to heat" that peculiarly
and make it spin normally. dAclsrins
that he cannot dodge the Issue in the
iv,fA 1f o,-fo fnn
the time the ship era ashed on Hams
Point a report from the deps rtment
was hroa dcast that the shin was de-
signed rot TO crash. hut if il did get
into a spin 1t would slowly settle down
earth. which seems TO have been de-
liberate misrepresentation The plane
was built to spin normally and no
flights will be made in the type until
it can.
Feared Motor Tronhle.
The PN-e Hawaiian flight Was or
ga nized on the Pacific coast by naval
aviation there and the departmen Mt
here had little or nothing To do with
II. Before the fight the only fear in
the minds Of pilots here was that the
new motors. just developed and not
rid of all the bugs or defects. would
not he able to Withstand the sruelinc
test. despite the fact that one Of the
two craft made a 2Sla hour endura nee
run over Philadelphia.
One of the motors was brought here
in an amphibian of the Arctic type
several months ago and has not been
BILE to get into the air vet. That is
due, however. to the fact that it Is
inverted in the airplane and ia not
right-side up. Aside from the pos
sible failure of an auxiliary. such as
happened to Lieut.. Allan +. Snodys
plane. there was no fear that the
planes would not aet through 1t was
estimated here that the fight would
take % hours and 1t was known the
planes could carry at least 2a hours >
fuel supply
Whether there was undue haste i'm
the plans for preparation in ordar to
keep the Army from attempting the
fight cannot he esta blished although
the Navy did know that at NeCook
Field. Dayton. Ohio. talk had been
given TO attempting the trip with
the new amphibians.
The guard ships at intervals of
every 200 miles, In the opinion of Off
GERS here. were sufficient. for even at
that short distance, they claimed the
flight would be nothing but an "en-
gineering problem" They believed
this because the pilots would only
have 10 navigate from one ship to an
other and would not strike out bIindlN
over 2.1oO miles of ocean and depend
entirely on Instruments for guide
The Army Air Service. in this CON
neetion. was criticized for Aving from
Iceland to Greenland with the aid Of
Navy ships. This was supposed 10
take all the glory away from air navi
CATION and make 1t merely bridge OF
surface era II to fy over.
Deny Mitchell Charge.
The Arctic expedition flyers here
believe, failed only because OF
weather conditions. The planes
despite Col. MstcheIls reference to
them as ''jitneys," are suitable for
the purpose. They could hy in bad
wea ther. as they fly down here under
all sorts OF conditions. but when the
purpose is exploration. and the Oh
servers and pilots cannot see. there
Is no need OF expending the effort
A dIrigible, or anything else. could
not make any more headway than
the amphibians, no matter who was
a the controls.
The Army is much better off than
the Navy in point OF flying expert
ence and number of aviators. 1t Ia
felt here that IL the majority OF the
$50 naval pilots had seven or eight
years experience there would not I,e
mistakes due to lack of thorough
knowledge on the subject: rhe naval
aviators of today win he The execu
tives Of tomorrow. and with their
flying ability and experience. il ia
felt there will not he recl,rl enca
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