Evening star., 1943-09-26
A. P. Photos from Many.

Midway. For a standard dive-bomber,
the fleet has retained the Douglas
Dauntless.
BY the end of this year the Navy will
have in service IL aircraft carriers of the
largest type, provided for defense with a
veritable thicket of antiaircraft guns;
considerable fleet of medium carriers.
mostly converted cruisers, and a throng
OF light baby f1at-tops." All are equipped
with Wildcat Hellcat or Corsair fighters
and Avenger torpedo planes Most of the
four-engine Consolidated Coronado fly
ing boats have been relegated to trans
port service, and replaced, for long
distance work, with naval version of
the Army's B24 Liberator. For antisub-
marine operations, general use is made of
the two-engine Martin Mariner and a
naval edition of the Army's twin-motored
B-34 Ventura Vega.
Plane Strnegth Tremendous.
The famous two-engine Consolidated
Catalina patrol plane, though relatively
slow and clumsy, has been kept because
OF its versatility as general-purpose
craft 1t was ship of this type which
secuted the German dreadnaught Bis
marck. It has been employed in recon-
nalssance, rescue and antisubmarine
work, and In the Aleutians was made to
function as a dive bomber. Two types
are in service-a flying boat and shore
based anphibian
A report issued by the Navy Depart
ment on September 10 stated that its air
strength had multiplied more than ten
fold, from LIZA to 1929, planes, since
July /, 1910. That American production
of aircraft has totaled 125000 since May,
1910, was revealed by President Roose-
velt in his September II message to Con-
gress. A subtraction of the naval allot-
ment leaves 106,73l planes, large pro-
portion of which are presumably in vari-
GUS services of the Army.
But it is in the field of strategic"
aviation, the particular bailiwick of
American air power, that the most spec
tacular achievements and promises are
to be encountered. In the Lockheed
Lightning and Republic Thunderbolt the
Army Air Forces possess two long
distance fighters which, with improve
ments now in hand, will be able to escort
Liberators and Fortresses all the way on
their longest missions.
Demolitions like that of Hamburg will
be looked upon as childs play, it is pre-
dicted, in comparison with the havoc to
be wrought by new Boeing superbombers,
expected at no remote date to come into
general service. Unofficial claims en-
brace ceiling beyond the reach of any
known antiaircraft cannon, and at a.
height in the substratosphere where no
present single-seat pursuit can carry
enough oxygen to survive; a range max
ing possible nonstop flights over the
North Pole from the United States to
Germany and return, and bomb-load
capacity excelling that of the British
Lancasters.
Giant Planes Underway.
Even these giants are dwarfed by mod
els already in experimental construction
The next three or four years, it is
prophesied, will witness bombers of an
entirely novel design, commanding alti-
tudes above $4,000 feet, nonstop range
equaling the globes circumference and
carrying capacity reckoned in terms of
carloads.
On the other hand, air power, in its
present stage, reveals limitations OF
serious character 1t cannot take the
place of land power in defeating major
armies. 1t cannot occupy enemy coun-
tries. Pantelleria was reduced to i'm
potence by bombers, but the actual seiz-
ure had to be accomplished by ground
detachments. The conquest of Crete,
heralded as triumph of air power, was
actually achieved by infantry-that is,