Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 January 1918 — NEW AIRPLANES DEVELOPED by WAR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

NEW AIRPLANES DEVELOPED by WAR

/T\ 3EY were Just airplanes two years I I ago, but the demands of war have I I stimulated the evolution of aircraft so intensively that In the last few Qjl months at least three different spe- E/ c(\£ cles a,r P lanes have been developed, and these are as distinct from eath other as condors, r* diw pigeons and swallows. ’CJ'P The monoplane has gone the way & , of the high-wheeled bicycle; it is seen no more in the air. And 4nstead of just airplanes, we have bombing machines, reconnaissance machines and battleplanes, each a specialized type designed for a specific duty. Then, in a class by themselves, there are the hydroplanes, writes Arthur Benington in the New York World. Bombing machines are the heavy artillery, the condors, the Percherons, the bulldogs of the air. Reconnaissance machines are the intelligence service, the carrier pigeons, the hunters, the pointers, of the air. Battleplanes, which combine the duties of light cavalry and machine-gun squads, are the swallows, the thoroughbreds, the terriers, the wasps, of the air. “You might as well ask me what kind of horse I consider the finest,” replied an Italian aviator when asked for his opinion on the finest airplane. -‘lt all depends upon what service you want your plane for. For dropping bombs on cities there is nothing like our own Caproni; the £nest climbers I personally have encountered were German machines; the* swiftest flyer up to date is the Italian S. V. A.; and I think the Austrians have the most reliable hydroplanes.” < Of course this was merely the aviator’s personal opinion, and it is given here not at all because of Its value as a judgment on the several makes of machines, but merely to illustrate the diversity of type and the wisdom of not confusing the different types in one’s mind.

\ For a bombing machine the primary requirement is ability to carry a heavy load. Then, in order of importance, come: Medium speed (80 to 100 miles an hour) ; climbing power (13,000 feet); defensive armament and a radius of action from 60 to 100 miles. Load-carrying power involves strength of construction, great stability, and engines that shall develop tremendous power and yet be as light as possible. Types of the bombing machine are the Italian Caproni, the British Handley-Palmer, and the German Gotha G 111 and Friederichshafen G. H.

The reconnaissance machine must have room for at least two persons—the pilot and the/ observer; installation for wireless apparatus and/ cameras for taking both still and moving pictures; fuel capacity sufficient for three or four hours of flight; fairly high speed—say from 115 to 120 miles an hour—and ability to carry a machine gun with which to defend itself If attacked. “The camera Installation makes great stability necessary. Types of this machine are the Italian I’omllio S. V. A, and Savola-Pomillo; the French Voisin, and the German Brandenburg, Albatross C ILL and Aviatlks C 111. Speed and climbing power are the essentials In a battleplane. The latest types of this sort—the Italian S. V. A. anti a new model of Pomlllo; the French Nleuport and Spad, and the German Albatross D I and Albatross Bue —can carry only one man, who acts as pilot, observer and gunner. Most of them have only one gun, which is not mounted on a swivel, but is an integral part of the engine Itself, for, as it discharges its bullets between the blades of a propeller revolving so. rapidly that It cannot be seen, It must be perfectly synchronized with the motor, otherwise a bullet might strike a blade of the propeller. These machines are nothing but flying canfon. They carry no passenger, no cameras, no bombs, nothing except a single operator and the ammunition for the gun. • The difference between reconnaissance and battleplanes appear slight when set down in figures, but then every fraction of an inch affects the. speed and stability of an airplane. ‘ Some idea of the differences may be obtained from the dimensions, and these can be given only approximately except in one or two' cases. It is, of course, Impossible to describe our own Airieridin- planes, so the comparisons that follow are based on foreign machines. One of the smallest of the battleplanes is a new Pomillo which has not yet been tested in America. American representatives of the Ansaldo company of Genoa, which makes the S. V. A. — another very small one —decline to make its dimensions public at present, but Capt. Alessandro Pomlllo, designer.of the machines that bear his name, has no objection to it being stated that the Pomlllo which flew from Fortress Monroe to Mineola and which soared over New York on Liberty Loan day, has a wing spread of approximately 38 feet This, however, Is a reconnaissance * machine. The one that is coming is a battleplane and its wings have a spread of only a fraction over 30 feet. these Pomlllo machines have exactly the same motor, a 200-horse-power IsettaFraschfnl, but the greater size of the one already here enables It to carry a passenger and cameras, while the smaller one can carry only one man. The reconnaissance Pomlllo makes 120 miles an hour; a scout Is said to have made 5n tests in t ltaly 160 miles an hour. So far as official tests are known, the S. V. A. hblds the record for speed. This is the machine that made the sensational flight from Turin to Rome, *396 miles, in two hours and fifty minutes, averaging 130.8 miles an hour. The French Nieuport machines are unofficially reported to have made as high as 175 miles an hour. The dimensions of the German Albatross D I are known exactly, having been published by the French military authorities after measurement of captured machines. Its wings have a spread of . 29.7 feet; its fuselage Is 23.6 feet long; Its speed is 124 miles an bopr and it can climb to 18,150 feet. It carries two rapid-fire guns, discharging through

the propeller, and 100 cartridges for each gun. Returning now to the bombing machines, the types best known are the German Gotha, which is virtually a copy of the British Handley-Palmer, and the Italian Caproni. The dimensions of the latter cannot be given, for the machines are in several sizes, the smaller being biplanes, the largest being a triplane. Those of the Gotha G 111 are known. It is a biplane with a wing spread of 77.7 feet, and fuselage 40.38 feet long; it can go 96.8 miles an hour, ascend 14,850 feet and carry a load of 1,320 pounds of bombs besides at least two men. It was necessary to put three planes on the larger Caproni, in order to carry the immense weight at high speed. It* has three fuselages, each with its own motor, the one in the middle being much shorter than the others. The right and left fuselages have propellers in front, the middle fuselage has a propeller behind. The motors are The Caproni are slow machines —only about 90 miles an hour—and is capable of fighting single* handed against the little wasps of the air. They are unique in that any one of their motors suffices to propel the machine; therefore, all three must be stopped by bullets before it is disabled. In this last its only rival is—so far as known at present writing—the great German Gotha, which has two, motors, either of which will propel it.

One of the most striking facts about the evolution of air craft since the war began is that the monoplane has virtually'dlsappeared. Quite early in the war the French Nleuport grew an extra pal£ of* wings. The principal reason why two paira are better than one is that lifting power In the air depends upon the area of the wings. Now tfyp Gotha’s two pairs of wings are 77.7 feet long and 7.326 feet wide, which gives an area of 569 square feet for each pair, or 1,138 square feet as the total wing surface. If this were all in a single plane, the wing would have to be about 153 feet long If they had breadth as now; and the leverage of the wind on their ends would be so great that the machine would be absolutely unmanageable. • For this same reason the biggest of the Caproni, which Is by far the largest thing in the air, has three planes instead of two. The Gotha is, however, more than a bombing machine; it Is a veritable aerial battleship. Over its bow on a swivel is, a machine gun that’can shoot forward over a horizontal arc of more than 180 degrees, and over a perpendicular arc of about 240 degrees. On its fuselage, behind its wings and behind the; propellers, is another gun that shoots astern over a horizontal arc of nearly 180 degrees and over a perpendicular arc of about 190. Besides these two guns the Gotha hah a third, mounted on a pivot in the body of the fuselage and pointing downwards, through a port hole

in the bottom of the fuselage. By means of thia last gun it can defend itself from enemy machines attacking it from below and behind, a position in which all other machines but, the Gotha are vulnerable. The Germans have been most ingenious in designing their airplanes for maximum effectiveness of gun fire. Their single-seated Albatross D. I and D HI, Fokker D, Halberstadt Roland D, and Ago D have two fixed guns firing ahead through the revolving propeller, and these machines are able to carry 2,000 cartridges for each gun. Their two-place reconnaissance machines Albatross, Rumpier, Aviatik and L. V. G. have one fixed forward gun firing through the propeller gnd a second lighter gun on a swivel mounted behind the planes and firing te the rear over an angle of 180 degrees. The French have adopted this system for the airplanes of similar type. The most Ingenious armament, however, is that of the new Pomllio scout plane. It is not advisable to betray the secret of this plane at present, but it is permissible to say that the sipgle pilot controls five guns, all shooting ahead simultaneously, and that four of these ate so perfectly concealed that even a photograph does not show where they are situated. It is in reality a fivebarreled Gatling gun on wings. This machine is now on its way to America, if Indeed it has not already arrived. Talking with the Italian aviators now here about motors, I found them, deeply Interested In the new Liberty motor, but none would venture to express an opinion about it. “I could not judge of its value,” said one of them, “until I had taken it up 5,000 or 100,000 fteet in the air and watched how it behaved there. The Fiat company, which has been -making motors ever since these were first invented, needed two whole years of experimentation before it was able to turn out a satisfactory airplane motor. Several times it thought it had it; several times it offered a motor that performed perfectly under the most exacting laboratory tests, but each time it failed when tested in the rarefied air of 10,000 feet above the earth. After two years of trial the Fiat people produced the wonderful motors now so extensively used. The Isotta-Fraschinl company had a similar experience. We all admlfe the perfection of mechanism of the Liberty motor and we all hope that actual flight will prove it to be as perfect as it looks, but no one of us would venture to give a verdict on it until he had flown with it at all possible altitudes.” These men, all of whom are youths who have had thrilling experiences in actual warfare, are fond of discussing the probabilities of a flight across the Atlantic. Any one of them would be willing to attempt it, but they disagree as to the machine most likely to be the first to make it. Some say the giant Caproni, which wduld need at least 24 hours, and probably A to fly from Newfoundland to Ireland (the shortest route), while others say some such machine as the S. V. A., as it could make the flight easily between sunrise and sunset. In the one case it would be like a giant condor relying on the power of its wings to sustain it a day and a night in flight, in the other case it would be a sea gull or a swallow relying on terrific speed to carry It over by daylight.