The Wilmington morning star., 1940-12-22
Bruce Cations
In. Washington
star-News Washington Correspondent

Observation-Disclosures in authority will
say one word for publication, but the real
truth is that the fighting planes the United
States is sending to England are not fit for
modern aerial warfare.
This isn't true of the bombers. The heavy
duty planes ranging from the giant flying
fortresses on down are good enough to fight
in anybody's war. But the fighters-the planes
whose job it is to down enemy planes by
gunfire-are sadly outclassed by the f~irst-line
planes of Britain and Germany.
Apparently this is largely because the u. S.
Army has failed to coordinate the complicated
job of plane design.
As experts explain it, the airplanes them
selves-as airplanes-are 100 per cent all right.
The trouble is that the business of designing
flying machines, testing metals and improving
engines has gone ahead faster than the bust
ness of fitting the planes with the right sort
of ornaments.
The result is that the American fighting
plane is uniformly outgunned.
u. S. WINGS
TOO WEAK
The whole trend in aviation ordnance today
is toward greater hitting power-either heavi-
err guns or more of them. The British got
onto this about five years ago, when they
began equipping their Spitfire and Hurricane
fighters with eight machine guns apiece, four
in each wing.
IN trldl, ullS worked very well. but lHe
British Immediately began looking toward the
use of heavier guns. The Germans went to
work along the same line, and presently were
sending up planes which mounted small can
non. The French-who had done some ex-
perimenting along that line as far back as
the first world war-followed suit.
In with this increased offensive armament
came armor. The self-sealing gas tank-Agan
an item which the French had tried out in
1917. perfected Co Were variouS typeS
of cockpit arnor.
All of which, the experts remark, called
for sturdier, heavier planes. If you're going
to mount two, or four, or six heavy machine
guns or small cannon on each wing of a
plane, you've got to make that wing stronger.
And that is where the American fighters are
falling short.
MARKET o
GOOD GUNSIGHT
For the most part, U. S. fighting planes
carry much less armament than do the British
or German fighters. Hence they are of lighter
construction.
Consequently, the British are having a good
deal of trouble adapting the fighters they're
getting from the United States to the needs
of modern aerial warfare. These planes are
under-gunned and under-armored. And it is
extremely hard to re-arm and re-gun them,
because in most cases they simply aren't stur-
dy enough to stand up under the heavier loads.
No nation has fully solved the problem of
aiming a cannon mounted in a fighting plant,
although the British are believed to have
made the most Roadway. The man who turns
up with a gunsight as good in its field as the
American Norden bombsight is in the bombing
field will give his country a military secret of
real value.
Fighter pilots usually fly solo, SO the handy
revolving turret used in bombers is out. To
aim his gun the fighter has to aim his plane.
No sights now known are wholly satisfactory.
A pilot in a d~og-fight hasn't much time to
spend training a single-shot weapon on a fast
moving target. 5