San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1926-01-31
TINY RADIO. SET.
GIVES NATION
EYES
Inter-plane Communication
Made Practical by New
American Invention.
BY CHARLES B. FARMER
Universal Service staff correspondent.

Universal Service staff Correspondent.
NEW YORK, Jan. 30.--A small
radio device. weighing less than one
hundred pounds. by which one man
can direct the operations of a thou
sand airplanes in battle. has been
secretly perfected in the United States,
and one hundred Of them ordered for
the immediate use of the American
navy.
This was told today exclusively TO
Universal Service by engineers at
tending the first International con-
vention of the Institute of Radio
Engineers.
As this device is possessed by no
other nation. military leaders say that
its use-other things being equal
will make this country master of the
air. just as England is mistress of the
seas. Its development is expected 10
mark as great an Improvement in
strategy as did the first use of planes
for accommodating purposes in war
fare.
SUIT CASE SIZE
Briefly, it is complete trans
hitting and receiving radio set. no
larger than suitcase. which has been
brought TO such high point of ef-
ficiency that an officer can sit in a
plane with multiple motors roaring,
and carry on conversations with
planes to left and right of him, to
the admiral of the fleet safe in his
armored ship beneath him, or TO
general OF armies 100 miles away.
1t means that when division of
planes take the air it will be as a
cO-ordinated whole. under the direct
command Of one man. who il need be
can fly 1000 feet above his aerial
army and order the various squad
rons Of bomberS. pursuit. attack and
observation planes to maneuver as the
opportunity presents itself. just as the
old wagon armies have been directed
by courier and telegraph on the
ground.
ST. MIHIEL
The perfection of such device has
been the dream Of aerial stratcgists
since that gray dawn in 1918. when
Colonel - then General - William
Mitchell took into the air $50 air
planes at the Battle of st. Mibiel, the
greatest aerial army the world ever
saw.
Things were different then. Once
off the ground, communication from
squadron to squadron was cut off
true. each flyer could communicate
with his ground base by the dot-and-
dash wireless. but he could receive no
\
his objective was reached. Members
of individual squadrons could be di-
rected by q wave Of their commanders
hand, If intervening clouds and mist
did not reduce the visibility.
Despite those handicaps. Mitchelfs
men made everlasting history that day.
Now one of the greatest tactical objec-
tions TO q unified air service-the fact
that a great group of planes could
not be coordinated as whole-has
been overcome.
This new set has been perfected
by the engineers Of the Westinghouse
Electric Manufacturing company.
Last week this corporation informed
the navy that Eve are all ready to
show YOU what can be done" The in
strument was shipped to Anacostia-
the navy's flying field at Washington
placed in a plane, which was dis
patched to Hampton Roads. There the
aviator carried on lengthy conversa-
ton with a battleship thousands of
feet beneath him.
SUCCESSFUL TEST.
So successful was this secret test
~. Il 10 oil
hundred sets from Westinghouse with
which to equip the various airplane
squadrons of the fleet. Attaches of
the army and navy air services report
that no other nation possesses any de-
vice even similar to it in perform
ance, though all are striving to attain
it.
in other words, other nations air
forces are "blind,' while Americas
can see.