Evening star., 1925-12-10

Continued from First Pagel
one of the cardinal principles of Col.
Mitchell.
A technical discussion on the Vari-
! Gus types of airplanes was brought in
| by Mr.. Reid and developed the fact
: that wartime DIS were used be
! cause there was nothing better at the
| time in the way Of observation planes.
! Gen. Patrick declared a short time ago
! he recommended TO hte War Depart
ment that no more DIS be taken out
| of storage for remodeIing because of
their unsafe condition.
Fixes Air Force Size.
/ The air force of the United States
| totals about 80 planes, he said, and
until last October the various units
! that make up this organization never
had been assembled for training and
I operation under his administration.
He distinguished between air force
and Air Service. defining the former
as striking force to act independ-
emily and the latter as service with
ground troops in observing. photo
graphing and regulating artillery fire.
Gen Patrick declared there never
was "a question in his mind that the
Navy had proposed that the annual
airplane races be fixed as Col.
Mitchell charged. Despite the fact the
word races" was used in CORE
spondence from the Navy, Gen. Pat
| rick said he replied with the under
standing that the word should have
| been racers"
He detailed the story of the annual
! airplane competitions, and declared
!, emphatically that it was in the in
! tereSt of economy the Navy had sug-
| gested all racing planes owned by the
two services be divided equally for
| 1924.
In his direct examination yesterday
! Gen. Patrick declared a million miles
| had been flown over the airWays dur
/ ing the last three years almost entire
| ly by DIS without a fatality. Mr..
| Reid sought to clarity this statement,
! and Gen. Patrick himself said today
+. it was misleading if it intended to
| convey the idea that that figure rep
! resented the total service mileage. He
! explained many accidents and fatali-
| ties have occurred in DIS on cross
| country flying, some of which have
| been on the airways, but were not
scheduled flying. This was brought
| out in connection with the statement
! that crosS-country work produces
more fatalities than training. Gen.
! Patrick added the fatalities this year
| were AZ, as against 38 last year.
/ Says Weather News Inadequate.
Another point Gen. Patrick scored
! for the defense was his declaration
that meteorological facilities for fly
| ing were far from satisfactory" and
: he had tried to correct them but had
! not succeeded entirely. He also de-
| clared the radio service between air
! service fields was not satisfactory.
I The witness declared there was "de.
| cidedly a shortage in bombardment
and pursuit plane equipment" which,
| however, he attributed to lack of
/ funds. The bombers are not fully
! equipped for war today, as Col. Mitch
! ell charged, but Gen. Patrick said this
was because it was not customary in
| time of peace to do this. He added he
| alone was responsible for installing
| the necessary equipment in time of
war.
| Gen. Patrick also admitted the state.
| ment by Col. Mitchell that there has
been no heavy bomb practice with
| 100 or 1000 pound bombs during the
past two years. but this was due to
the expense involved and my decision
| that practice in dropping bombs could
| be obtained with bombs of lesser
weight. The equivalent Of 1.1OO or
1000 pound bombs also can be car
ried."
! Asked by Mr.. Reid what plans he
had for production of airplanes in case
of war, Gen. Patrick replied he has
| just completed a survey Of the in
dustry: had ascertained its capacity