Jasper County Democrat, Volume 13, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1910 — AEROPLANES IN WAR [ARTICLE]

AEROPLANES IN WAR

Recent developments in aeroplanes have greatly increased their value for war purposes. It appeared at first that none of these heavier than air mac hines '■ could - carry • much more than the aviator himself, winch would of course greatly limit their use,’ as the aviator would have all he could do to attend tp his machine without doing reconnoissance or other work. The recent aviation meet at Lbs Angeles impressed all the army officers who witnessed the flights with the certainty, speed, ease and apparent safety with which such machines could be operated. The trials clearly suggested the possibility of using these machines in time of war, not only for reconnoissance and other work of that kind but also for the purpose of attracking hostile forts (field or permanent, land forts or coast forts) as well as hostile armies in the field, whether marching or entrenched, by dropping on them from a considerable height missiles containing high explosives. The effective use of the aeroplane either for or for. throwing explosives has been made possible by increased carrying capacity. The French machine exhibited at Los Angeles, for example, could easily carry 150 pounds of explosive missiles in addition to two men, one as aviator, the other as observer or to throw the missiles.

The' Chief of Ordnance in his last annual report says that his department is prepared to furnish both hand grenades and rifle-shrapnel grenades, designed by Lieutenant-Colonel E. B. Babbitt, Ordnance Department, in any reasonable quantity, and these would probably be of use in aeroplanes; but in addition a heavier grenade of greater destructive power is needed, especially for action! against forts of all kinds. The great difficulty in the way of using aeroplanes for destruction is to attain any sort of accuracy in placing the missiles when dropped from the machine, inasmuch as it must fly at such a height and with such speed as to reduce to a minimum all danger from an attack made by small arms or batteries on the ground below, and under those circumstances It would be very difficult to hit any particular object aimed at. When large masses of troops are exposed or long entrenchments or large areas inside of forts there would be no difficulty. . To determine the degree of accuracy attainable Lieutenant Paul W. Beck, Signal Corps, made some tests by dropping small bags of sand from a height of 250 feet while moving at a rate of about forty miles an hour on a target indicated on the ground by marking the centre and corners of a square, about twentyfive feet on a side, with squares of white cardboard. The results, although not very satisfactory as to accuracy, showed that practice would no doubt soon enable an operator to drop the explosive missiles with a degree of accuracy sufficient for all practical purposes. Many of the targets exposed to such attacks are of considerable size, especially in coast forts, entrenched camps, etc., and for these no great degree of accuracy would be required. Captain Bottoms, Coast Artillery Corps, who observed the trials at Los Angeles, has suggested a system bymeans of which accuracy may be greatly increased. It is simply a question of dropping the grenade at such a point that, allowing for the speed of the machine, the target will be hit. Tp determine this it is necessary to have a telescope mounted for reading vertical angles, so arranged that the trunnions can be held at all times horizontal.

By selecting any object on the ground below and determining the time in seconds required by the aeroplane to travel from the point at which this object bears 45 degrees downward to the point at which it bears 90 degrees downward and multiplying his time by the speed a second of the aeroplane (obtained by simply reading the aerometer) we obtain the height from the ground. This method is simply another application of the principle of finding the distance from a ship to a point on shore by taking what is called a “four point bearing” on the spot. From simple principles of mechanics a table can be constructed showing for all speeds and heights likely to arise in practice th'e angle of depression at which the grenade should be released in order to hit the target. The retarding effect of the air must of course be determined for various heights and speeds by experiment and the necessary correction applied. Since the aeroplane can generally move in a direction perpendicular to the direction' of the wind, especially just near the target, the effect of the wind can usually be neglected.

As Captain Bottoms suggests, developments must take place along these lines in order to increase the value of the aeroplane for military use. Even if the future may show that it is not advisable to use these heavier than air machines offensively, the same means must be applied defensively to demoralize a hostile force attempting to bring down the machine. The military importance of aero-

planes has thus suddenly assumed new proportions, and they wtll undoubtedly be utilized in f nture wars. That our army appreciates this fact is- shown by the statement in the report of the "Chief of Ordinance to the effect that the attack of dirigible balloons and aeroplanes. 6t which the use in future wars, at least for purposes of observation, is highly probable, is receiving consideration. Experiments for the accumulation ot data are in progress and a gun and carriage are being designed."—New York Sun.' ''-7-