AIR WARFARE.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18898, 13 January 1927, Page 9

AIR WARFARE.

GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE. POSSIBILITIES OF WIRELESS CONTROL. tBT .-ABL?-pjti B .V A^OllAi:.:.:.-r, jrv ,.„-, K] j iSTDKET "St.v" StßtttE ) LONDON. January IL. an age of super things the (rend of aerial research indicates that we ara approaching a new world of most surprising developments, in which hug. ; aeroplanes, aerial posi, offices. g j ;inl . battle 'planes and bombers will crowd the skies, each (lying at its own level to avoid collisions. They will also carry searchlights of 10l.i,0U0,ni.in rmidle-power, sweeping th e (inaameni.'' s;,vs ||, L . "Standard." "The French, realising that the immense height al which aeroplanes may lly in the future, raises the important question ." light, have developed the most powerful searchlight, in the world, and installed it ut Mont Afrique, Dijon at an altitude of 1000 feel. It is 1,000,00u,000 candle-power, ;uid has eight optical lenses and prisms. It projects two rays successively sweeping the horizon every ten seconds, and is visible for -100 miles. Both rays can be merged info one, when thev penetrate 90 miles.

"The searchlight is primarily intended to light aerial routes", but such development is certain to drive hostile aeroplanes to au immense altitude, where for the purpose of resisting the low temperature and the rarefied atmosphere, pilots will wear electrically heated suits. They will also be enclosed "in their machines as completely as the crew in a submarine. Kight bombers will have a speed of 1200 miles an hour, and will be able to swoop on their prey at 300 miles an hour and climb 1000 feet a second. Moreover, there will he ghostlike fleets, owing to almost silent engines and invisible paint. But America is carrying out sound-ranging experiments, and has n:i apparatus so highly tuned as to detect the approach of aircraft flying at a height of over 30,000 feet.

"Great developments are expected in vvirelessly-controlled aeroplanes, in which television will enable the operators to see the machines throughout, even when bombs are dropped 500 miles from the base. Already aerial torpedoes travel three miles for every 3000 feet of altitude, therefore at a height of 20,000 feet they can be launched 2L miles from their target."