Evening star., 1925-02-13
MITCHELL REMOVAL
WOULD Be DEADLY
GREATEST ACE SAYS
Rlckenbacker Tells Aircraft
ProberS That Service Needs
Generals Type.
DECLARES AERIAL MAIL
HOPE OF DEVELOPMENT
Outlines Plan to Build Up Reserve
of Planes Through Postal
Department.

The removal of Brig. Gen. William
Mitchell from Office as assistant chief
OF the Army Air Service would be
the most deadly thing ever con-,
templated,' Capt Edward V. Rick
enbacker, premier American ace, told
the House aircraft investigating COM
mittee today al the conclusion of his
testimony. Capt. Rickenbacker VOL
unteered the statement for the record
declaring that he had just completed
tour of the country, where he had
seen press reports and heard conver-
satfons over the possibility of Cen
Mitchen's influence in Army aero
nautics being curtaiIed
Gen. Mitchell" said the witness,
acquired his present position through
service TO the public, and l as tax
payer demand that he be retained"
The witness was asked by the COM
mittee if he had the closest asso-
citation TO Gen. Mitchell in the late
war, and Capt. Riekenbacker replied
that his organization was relied upon
to serve valuable inform ation and
keep up the morale.
Gen. Mitchell is the kind of officer
who will give you hell and make YOU
like it." Capt Rickenbacker. now a re-
serve aviator. based his authority for
answers on questions from the commit
tee on his experiences in 800 aerial COM
bats and 500 hours flying time in enemy
territory. He declared the lack of
knowledge on the part of those in au-
thority had curtailed the development of
air power. and saw only one agency az
present which could increase American
position in the air-the air mail service
Outlines Own PIan.
Capt. Rickenbacker outlined plan
for thriving aircraft industry and
supremacy of the air in peace and
war, which would call for crisscross-
ing the United States with air mail
lines. Permit airplanes to carry
freight, express and mail for one
year successfully, and the public will
demand that it he transported like
wise, he said. To maintain such
network OF air lines, the witness con-
tipued, would build up a force OF
pilots 10000 in number, and 100, 900
groundmen.
In time of war the groundmen
would be 100 per cent useful for
military purposes, and the pilots
would be s. per cent war trained, in
struction in gunnery. photography
and other forms of military aeronau-
tics requiring only Is per cent OF the
complete training. With this net
work of air lines, Capt. Rickenbacker
declared. transportation about the
United States in the matter of hours
would be reduced to the size of Texas
Disaxrees With Drum.
The committee continued the in
quiry into the effectiveness of anti
aircraft guns against airplanes. Rep
resentative Perkins of New Jer-
sey. the committee examiner, read the
statement by Brig. Gen. Drum, assist
ant chief of staff, that if he were
given IL anti-aircraft guns of caliber
he could prevent bombing planes
within the range of the guns from
doing damage. 1T is evident that
he has no actual experience in war
fare" replied the witness, who de-
tailed to the committee how he and
officers of his squadron would for the
want Of something to do fly over the
enemy and see how many "archies
would be wasted on them. Il have
been shot literally millions of times
declared Capt Rickenbacker, and
neither l nor my ship were ever in
jured.''
The bad conditions of the air
craft industry today, continued the
witness, cannot be remedied by COM
mercial aviation without Government
assistance This would require NUM-
cipalities turning over landing fields
maintenance to aerial transportation
companies in which the Government
had interest and to the public would
be paid dividends in better trans
portation The committee reminded
the witness. that II the industry is
in such a deplorable state how can an
accounting be made for the fact that
the United States has held most OF
the aviation records.
Due to individuals.
This is due" replied Capt. Ricken-
Fbacker, ito Gen. Mitchells forcing the
individual effort and genius Of en-
gineers in the industry"
The committee is evfdencing un-
usual interest in the crash three
weeks ago at the Naval Air Station,
Anacostia, of Lieut.. A. ]. Williams,
u. S. N, who failed to bring out OF a
tail spin a new Boeing plane and
nearly lost his life. The Navy had
ordered 72 of this type plane for
l~training and instruction purposes and
the committee is endeavoring to find
out IL the type possesses defects.
Rear Admiral William A. Moffett,
chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics,
today sent to Representative Perkins
a list of every naval aviator on ac-
tive duty in Washington, with the re :
quest that any one be called. To show
no partiality MIR. Perkins announced
the last six on the list were subpoe-
naed. In this number is Lieut.. Will
| liams, and he is scheduled to tell this
| committee the exact details concern
| ing his purpose of spinning the plane
and failure of 1t to come out.
Record Holder Called.
The first of the half dozen officers
was Lieut.. Ralph Ofstie of tho Bu-
reau of Aeronautics and holder of the
| 1,ooo-kilometer speed plane record.
Lieut.. Ofstie told the committee he
thought If a less experienced officer
than Lieut.. williams had been in the
out of control plan, he would
have lost his life. He gave it as his
opinion there was, perhaps, an error
| in the set-up of that particular ma
chine and admitted that there Is
some question now Of the type, al
though one of the Boeings had won
out in competition against fve other
seaplanes in exhaustive tests in
Pensacola, Fla. The test plane, he
said, had been spun many times and
successfully.
While declaring he was not qualified
to discuss the question NJ aeosrat q