Evening star., 1927-07-27
BIG PLANE SCREEN
SOUGHT BY NAVY
Hundreds of Aircraft 0perat-
ina With Fleet Seen Need
ed in Battle.

| By the Associated Press.
| A vast screen of. airplanes for the
American fleet even when battling far
! from home waters Is the end toward
which naval experts now are working.
Every fighting ship will carry its
quota of planes to supplement those
basinG on the fleet of aircraft carriers
which will he formed with the coming
into commission of the Lexington and
Saratoga.
With even the most conservative Of
old Navy men realizing that the first
task in the sea battle of the future
will be that of clearing the air Of
enemy planes, experts picture such
clashing of major surface fleets
something like this:
With contact established with the
enemy there would arise from each
American battleship, cruiser, destroy.
er and submarine plane after plane,
until several hundred were soaring
away on their mission.
Battle i'm Clearing.
Augmenting these would come the
combat planes and bombers from the
aircraft-carrying fleet. numbering
hundreds more. Battle between the
opposing air forces would be staged
over the tract of sea separating the
surface fleets.
The air force winning victory, naval
experts say, would insure victory for
its surface fleet, unless there was an
overwhelming preponderance of num-
bers against it. These experts declare
that without aircraft to spot its shots
and correct the fire to bear directly on
the enemy ships. fleet would have
little chance against another of any
thing like equal strength, having an
air force in action for that purpose.
Then, too, the bombing planes would
be free to carry out their operations
against the enemy, which would be
obliged to divide it's attention against
air as well as shell fire and torpedo
attacks.
Five Years Ahead.
Some American naval experts con-
tend that the American Navy is at
least five years ahead of any other in
the matter of equipping it's fighting
craft with planes. They say this Is
the result of II years of experiments,
beginning with a fo'castle deck run
way on the old cruiser Pennsylvania,
now the Pittsburgh. and leading to
the revolving catapult now in use, the
secret of which is carefully guarded
Foreign nations regard this develop
ment of American naval aviation as
SO important, it has been revealed,
that four of them have formally Of
fered to exchange some of their own
secrets of warship design for full in
formation about the catapult. Their
offers were declined.
The IS American battleships now
permitted under the naval limitation
treaty carry four planes each, while
a similar number are carried by the 10
light cuisers of the Memphis class.
Each battleship and each cruiser is
equipped with one or two revolving
the advantage of which is
that less maneuvering of the ship is
necessary to get the plane pointed
into the wind for it's take.off
Planes From Submarines.
Two catapults are to be placed on
each of the authorized eight new
1O,000-ton scout cruisers, five of which
are under construction. They will
carry the largest number of planes of
any fighting craft atloat. but the exact
number has not been disclosed
Experiments also are being con.
Quoted in launching aircraft from the
swift-moving destroyers and the fleet
submarines, with such initial success
as to indicate that this plan will be
entirely feasible
One advantage of having aircraft
on the fighting ships is that the flying
officers and observers can be trained
with the fire-control forces on the
ships, resulting in perfect co.ordina-
tion between the two groups when the
ship is in action. The airmen in spot
ting shots and sending their radio
messages for correction know exact
ly the problems in the fire-control
room, which observers and spoilers