Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-01-31
USE OF NAVAL
PLANES SAID
BIG PROBLEM
Expert Ayers Getting
Ships Into Location
To Do Bombing Is
Obstacle
BY REAR ADM. W. A. MOFFETT,
n y ~

- - ~
WASHINGTON, Jan. 31.-lPEIt
Is all TOO easy to point to the won
derful possibilities in aircraft as a
weapon Of war and to the fearful
damage il can do to objects beneath
Il, once it gets into the air; but
TO get the airplanc into the air and
over the particular object you want
TO destroy is an entirely different
matter.
You can sink enemy ships with
bombing airplanes. il the ships are
obliging enough or utterly foolish
enough TO poke their noses into the
front yard Of a fixed air station
on shore.
However the fact that our shore
based boH.hers can sink an enemy
hattleship which comes into our
front yard is small comfort to our
lar flung shipping which may be
attacked by enemy war vessels
thousands Of miles from our coasts.
A few airplanes have flown across
the Atlantic, but that dcen't sig.
Nifty that we can protect our ship
ping on the other side Of the At
lantic by airplanes flying from our
own shores. If we planned to pro-
tect New York harbor by airplane,
we wouldn't be very likely to try
to do it with aigplanes starting out
from San Francisco.
The navy's job is not to sit on
our front doorstep and wait for
some enemy in its own good time 90
come over and lombard New York
City. The national defense Of our
country II not BY any means re-
stricted to coastal defense.
We are now e%quipping the fleet
nc sea with aircraft as weapons Of
war. We have two aircraft carriers.
The Lexington and Saratoga, in OPP
Grafton, and the secretary Of the
navy has recommended the imme-
date construction Of five new air
craft carriers.
We must depend upon the car
riers TO take the airplanes our
fleet needs to sea, il they are TO
get into the air ver a particular
target in effective numbers.
The problems of developing facili-
ties 10 care for the taking-off and
landing Of airplanes from battle
ships and cruisers il as great as the
problem of developing efficient air
planes themselves.
II you can visualize the problems
involved in putting an airplane into
flight from the restricted space on
deck Of a modern battleship, when
you have seen planes weighing sew
erai tons run hundreds OF yards on
a landing field, you can visualize
the magnitude OF our problem.
The guns on the battleships and
cruisers are the most important fea-
lures or these ships and nothing
must be permitted to interfere with
their operation, hence the necessity
OF some comparatively small mech
anism which can quickly launch the
ships sDotting planes.
Starting from rest, the plane must
be accelerated to a speed Of so
miles an hour in the short space of
80 feet, 80 that it may be hurled
into space at full flying speed. The
development OF the cstapult was a
no less difficult problem than the
design and construction Of an air
plane.
You have seen airplanes landing
on a field. coming in and striking
the ground, requiring a run of 800
or 400 yards before coming to rest.
Yet the navy's planes have e land
on the cleared part Of a field that
is less than 100 yards long and not
more than 100 feet wide.
Consider also that as the pilot
approaches the floating field. it may
rise or fall a vertical distance of 10
or Is feet more. and at the same
time roll sideways. These are but
a few Of the problems peculiar to
developing an "air fleet at sea-