Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 55, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 March 1914 — AERO IS BETTER THAN SUBMARINE [ARTICLE]

AERO IS BETTER THAN SUBMARINE

Less Risk to Life of Operate] o and More Likely to Destroy Battleships * COST LESS THAN BIG GUNS Bombs Dropped from Flyers, Officers are Sure, Can Destroy Ships of Latest Type—Operators Can See and Hear. Washington.—Experiments to prove the value of the aeroplane for war purposes, carried on by the U. S. Government under the auspices of the War and Navy Departments, were hurried through in time to enable Secretaries Dickinson and Meyer to make formal reports to (Jongress and request an appropriation of $75,000 for the purchase of six aeroplanes to be assigned to military and naval use. Tabulated data the Navy Department shows that’the aeroplane is better than the submarine and that it Is seven-tenths less dangerous to the crew, while its cost is about onefifteenth that of the submarine.. It was learn both Cabinet officers had obtained verbal assurances from Senator George C. Perkins of California, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, and Representative George Edmund Foss of Illinois, Chairman of the House Committee on Naval Affairs, that such an appropriation would be favorably considered and approved by them if its request should be accompanied by an official report showing the possible advantages to be derived by the addition of aeroplanes to the army and navy. Naval and military authorities have concluded that the action of the Government in offering a prize to the Wright brothers and purchasing one .of their machines is not practical enough to keep pace with the activities of aeroplane building by foreign nations. The pulling clause in the message requesting the appropriations will be substantially as follows: “That the amount asked, namely, $75,000, will purchase six aeroplanes of the latest Improved type, and will leave a balance for an additional subsidiary equipment; that $75,000 is, approximately, three-fourths of the cost of one 12-inch cannon; that the large calibre guns mounted at the various forts in the United States, being stationary, can be badly damaged by a small torpedo dropped from a height of five hundred feet; that even at this day, although the aeroplane is yet at its experimental stage, it has already developed such serious possibilities in its offensive tactics as to make imperative that the United States take advantage of this economical and promising carrier; that It Is estimated that the most improved aeroplane, fully equipped to carry a necessary amount of ammunition and a crew of three to -five men. will root cost to exceed fifteen thousand dollars; that it can become obsolete only in parts as fast as these are imiproved; that the depreciation is between six to fourteen percentum a year, that an aeroplane that is comparatively as potential and safe overhead as the submarine is to-day under water is already here, and finally, that the submarine can never compete with the aeroplane.” It -is- reckoned that there have been twenty calamities In which the submarines, have lost the lives of all those on board, and 1 ' other accidents which caused the death of one or 1 more of the crew from asphyxiation or other causes. In favor of the aeroplane the following facts are set forth: 1. That ordinarily not more than two deaths can occur at the time an aeroplane Is disabled and crashes down. 2. That this number cannot exceed five; that it is recommended that military or naval aeroplanes for purposes of offense be limited to a crew of three men, including the driver. S. That a parachute, as a complex ment of safety, offers no little advantage to the aeronaut who must resort to it, and that Its use, ever since aerial travel has been attempted, has proved Its value. 4?That the aeroplane offers a slight body for attack; that unless It hangs low, It is unlikely that damage sufficient to drop it can be Inflicted upon it with a projectile. 5. That invulnerability of the driver of crew can be encompassed by means of a protective steel plate beneath the men, and that its weight, based upon Its length and width, need not be great. It is estimated that an oblong steel plate, three-eighths of an inch thick, five by seven feet, will deflect a wen directed shot from guns that can shoot upward with facility. 6. That smaller and lighter plates can be attached to an aeroplane manned by a driver who Is a skilled artilleryman, in case of ra®id and hasty destructive action against the enemy's ship or fort. It developed that Secretary Meyer’s refusal to permit a battleship to be used by (Term H. Curtiss as a target in his "bomb" experiments is attributable to the ffcct that navy officers are going to make them for the navy, and that the figures migffit be too decidedly in tevor of the aeroplane.