Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 223, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1917 — NEW WAR PLANES IO CARRY 19 HEN [ARTICLE]

NEW WAR PLANES IO CARRY 19 HEN

| - —A__ * - *-"V Britain Sends Us Plans for Grants of Air to Be Built Here. WILL PARALYZE THE ENEMY Great Number of The«e Craft to Make Impossible Re-enforcement of German Lines—Engines Very —— Powerful. London. —American airplane manufacturers are in possession of working models anfi' blueprints of aero motors leveloped &y and France during years of warfare. The United States airplane factories have received gratis the secrets of new alloys, and improvements in construction which previous tn Am price’s entry into the war could not be bought at any price-secrets that were guarded with men’s lives and were never mentioned beyond the doors of certain offices. Personal messengers have left England by every departing steamship; mail bags have been filled with priceless blueprints and cable dines have been jammed with messages, all bearing on the development of the American itlr squadron. 2 The governments of France and Great Britain know that upon the efforts made on the other side of the Atlantic within the next six months depends the fate of the armies afield. Important above everything else in the struggle for victory Is the airplane, which must be produced in myriads, and the task now falls squarely to Uncle Sam. Doubters Are In Minority. "There are doubting - Thomases on grandiosestatements coming from New York and Washington and who assert that even if the United States organizes for the aerial construction program the product will be so Inferior that it will be useless for actual fighting. Fortunately these doubters are In the minority. Officials and men in a position to know what already has been done are highly optimistic. They believe that American methods applied to the manufacture of air craft will result in just as good a product as is now coming from factories organized here shortly after the war started; Despite all the lurid prophecies regarding the great fleet of airplanes that eventually will lay waste the principal German cities, the experienced airmen on this side only hope for thousands of machines with which to fight the German armies in the field. The success which America’s efforts are to insure will come only wh£n the allied armies in France have sufficient airplanes to retain mastery of the air and to patrol every mile of the territory immediately ’behind the German lines. When the day finally arrives, Germany will not be able to move a train back of the lines and to move reserves will be impossible. She will be unable to feed the men-Avho are in the first lines. Her heavy artillery will be silenced and In the end her entire fighting forces made useless. The way will then become one of movement, with the chances for together on the side of the allies. There are various types of airplanes which will be manufactured in America that are already being used In France. of unbelievable power are being put Into the newest type

of plane. The averh'ge American is more or less familiar with automobile engines add has some idea of what weight of engine will develop 100 horsepower. If this average American were to look at some of the newest air motors he probably would judge them Yo be ten or 15-horsepower. In fact, he could lift some of the engines unaided and would probably be astounded to learn that such a machine was capable of developing not 100, but 150horsepower. Every newspaper reader in the United States has been well informed of the plans for building airplanes, but it Is doubtful if one in a thousand can picture the size of some of the planes that eventually will be loaded on transports at the Atlantic piers. The cor-, respondent has had an opportunity in the last few weeks of inspecting the newest type of aircraft; the type that will be turned out in vast numbers by America, and Itls bigger in every way and more powerful than laymen imagine. To begin with, the body of the new machine resembles in many ways a big motor launch.’ Its under part is rounded and beautifully constructed of finely grained wood. It is so big that to enter it one must clamber up a ladder and go down through a hatchway as big as the cabin door of a motor yacht. It is of the biplane type and from tip to tip of each wing -there is room enough for a dosjen men to He out full length. Its two motors will develop 600 horsepower and their combined weight is so little compared to Jhe power that the actual figures would look untruthful in print. Where the -phi this machine carries tons. Can Carry Nineteen Men. This new plane is manned by a pilot, two or three observers, a forward gunner, a bomb-droppepp® mechanic ahd. If necessary, a dozen passengers. It has an electrical-lighted passageway leading from one compartment to another. The flooring of one compartment is a strongly constructed grating through which the occupants can view the earth below. The sides of two of the compartments are built to open and u£ord a view of the surrounding

clouds, or. In case of combat, of the enemy planes. When' the leviathan motors are started their roar Is aweinspiring, and the wind from the propellerssends backward a blast in front of which a strong man would find difficulty tn remaining erect. Thls’ls a picture which must be impressed upon the public mind if the great mass qf the people is tn realize what the United States Is going to do. The.task set for the American workers is not that of turning out light, hurriedly built scouting machines to the number of tens of thousands, but to construct carefully with the last degree of ingenuity the highly developed war craft needed in modern; battles. That is what England expects of her newest ally and what she has striven valiantly to teach authorities across the Atlantic! The vast technical detail developed by continuous fighting in the air has been turned over entire so that the United States begins the work with the most favorable chances of success. The invention of some new fighting machine after the manner of the tank Is what all Europe expects of America, and they expect to see the new machines, airplanes or walking seaplanes or flying torpedo boats come to France fully manned, nicknamed and prepared to Ahrow new terrors into the heart of an enemy who Invented terrorism. — New York Sun.