Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1917 — WAR AIRPLANE NOW FLIES 140 MILES AN HOUR [ARTICLE]

WAR AIRPLANE NOW FLIES 140 MILES AN HOUR

French and German Speeders Go ~ t Much Faster Than American Machines. ? - ...... THEY BATTLE 25,003 FEET UP Flight Lieutenant Faulkner Gives Interesting Account of Fights Between Haatilft Bird Fleets in the War Zone Along West-. ern Front. New York.—The swift German Fokker, less than a year ago king of the air on the western front, is now obsotete. , Thts"was* ttre Tiews hroiigtir'iiare by Flight Lieutenant Lloyd Faulkner, of the British army, recently'injured in an airplane when shot down near Ypres. In the desperate competition to build the most efficient hawk of-the air, the Germans themselves have undoubtedly improved over the Fokker type, but a new allied airplane has Just arrived on the front which exceeds by far anything the world has ever seen, according, to the lleutenant’s story. “The new machine, the name of which may not be mentioned, makes 138 miles an hour,” he said. “It is a great surprise and is only arriving on the front now. “The most wonderful feature is Its ability to climb. It can ascend straight up, without banking, and has reached 15,000 feet in seven and a half minutes. “This makes it the ideal machine for Zeppelin work, it can get height quickly enough to catch the dirigible. "Our new machine is the greatest lighting machine in the world and will guarantee that we maintain the supremacy in the air.” Lieutenant Faulkner received his preliminary training as an aviator in the Wright school at Dayton, Ohio. He said the machines used in the United States were way behind those possessed by the belligerent uations. “Our battleplanes weigh two and a half tons,” he said, “and are driven by two Rolls-Royce motors of 250horse power each. They have twin propellers, and can make more than 100 miles an hour. Other big ’planes have 300-horse power motors driving one 0 propeller.

Smaller Machines Faster. “The smaller machines, which carry only a pilot, are much faster. The Sopwlth ‘pup’ makes 138 miles air hour; the Nieuport ‘bullet’ 135 miles; the Spat 140 miles, but all these are surpassed by the new wonder. “At the front our work is divided Into four classes. The first is the reconnoissance, during which we sometimes fly from 100 to 150 miles back of the German trenches. This work is done by regularly organized squadrons, in which the most important machine is the one carrying the camera. The reconnoissance unit is composed of five battleplanes and ten or twelve Nieuport scouts or Sopwith ‘pups.,’ little fast machines, carrying only one pilot and a machine gun. The little machines are the destroy-" ers or guards, for the big battleplanes. The big machines each carry at least two men and two guns. “When in flying and working formation, the reconnoissance squadron Is arranged in this way: The camera battleplane flies at about 5,500 feet, with a fighting battleplane on either side, flying at about 6,000. To the rear, directly behind each of the fighting - battleplanes, are two more battleplanes, flying at 7,000 feet. These five machines fly 100 to 110 miles an hour The little destroyers with their faster speed fly all about them, always ready to attack an enemy squadron. “If the little fellows happen to be off on a bit of their own and the battleplane squadron sees enemy machines the pilots fire their alarm pistols and call the destroyers, who drive off the enemy, unless he is in much superior force, and then there

Is a fight “Flying at six or seven thousand feet, the observation machines are always being “archied,” which means they are being shot at by every sort of gun, even those firing five-pound siiells. Hits by antiaircraft guns are one of the natural risks and we used to bank back and forth, or zig-zag through the air, so as to throw the gqnners off. That does not always work, as I found out when a shell carried away one of my ailerons and I landed In a smash that sent me to the hospital. ' Fokkers Very Speedy. “While doing this reconnoissance work it is always necessary to look out for Fokkers. You’ll see five or six black spots up twenty to twentyfive thousand feet and when they get over you they'll suddenly nose-dive and drop. These Fokkers drive by at a tremendous speed,’firing as they go, and then they scuttle for safety. “The second Important use for airplanes Is artillery observation work. First Lieutenant Vernon Castle was doing this when I last saw him in the late fall, and had been mentioned •in dik-patChes for his excellent work. Before going, up, the pilot arranges his signals with his battery. He, uses wireless. ',2 • “Observation pilots, also watch every movement behind' the enemy's

lines. It has been arranged that It they-see a large or important movement, such as the march of an army division or a large seption of transport, they can give a certain signal, which will call for help from every gun iu that section. . “A tbird use to which we put our machines is night flying, which is mostly bomb work. The Germans, for some reason or other, do not fly at night Our bombers travel in squadrons of 50 to WO. They start out hr the dead of night and fly very low. not more than 300 feet up. It is practically impossible to hit them and there are few casualties among our men. This night bombing was forced, on us by the fact that the Germans move their troops and stores at nighty “The last Important work done at the front is the patrolling. This is done by two unachines acting together and flying at five or six thousand feet. High above them, soaring and watching, at about 20,000 feet, are some of the little, fast fighting machines. Thesfe we know as ‘strafers,’ and it is their object to drop onto any German machine that tries to cross over our lines. This patrol work, like all the other regular flywithout regard to wegther. Pilots have gone up in a 70-mile wind, in snow, sleet and rain. “Phosphorous bomb raids are very popular methods with us for getting rid of the ‘sausage’ balloons the Germans use for observation. We used to wait for dark days for this work. Then we’d swoop down, on the ‘sausages,’ which were usually tied at between 5,000 and 6,000 feet. As we’d drive over them we’d - pull the lever and let a shotver of bombs drop. If it was hit the ‘sausage’ would burst into flames and then you’d see a lot of Germans drop out of its observation car in their parachutes.”