Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 233, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 September 1916 — At Least Two Thousand Aeroplanes Are Needed by the American Army and Navy [ARTICLE]

At Least Two Thousand Aeroplanes Are Needed by the American Army and Navy

By CAPT. E. A. KELLY

American Aviator With Royal Flying Corp* of England

Two thousand aeroplanes would scarcely fill the requirements of the American army and navy, in my judgment. It is a sad thing for an American to contemplate that we are the hindmost nation in aviation, when the aeropjane is the invention of an American. But the fact is that American aeroplanes are practically unknown in Europe, and American aviators know little about the art of -.flyinp. The English are far ahead of all nationalities in aviation. Enghas 6,000 machines in service, 2.400 of which are in France. At the outset of the war the Hermans Vere perhaps superior. The Fokker machine had a speed record that exceeded any machine used by the English or French, the Fokker attaining a speed of 112 miles an hour. The new English machine —the Vicker bullet —can fly at the rate of 117 miles an hour. It can be manipulated like a top and can be turned around in the air as if it were on a pivot. It’s no trick at all to send it shooting Straight into the air for a mile or letting it drop on a dead line toward the earth