TWO WAR SECRETS

Evening Star, Issue 22144, 26 September 1935, Page 5

TWO WAR SECRETS

AH INVENTOR'S CLAIM AERIAL TORPEDO AND GUN. . An aerial torpedo, with a range of 500 miles, and a machine gun capable of firing 5,000 rounds a minute have been invented by a London man, who claims that if adopted Jby the Government they would revolutionise modern warfare. He is Mr R. W. Allen, who during the war served in the Lewis gun section and who has been studying guns and gunnery for the past 10 years. Mr Allen is an engineer and has had a number of his inventions patented. “I am not patenting either the aerial torpedo or the machine gun, however,” he told a representive of a London newspaper at his home at Southfield road, Bedford Park, W., as he showed some of the plans of his aerial torpedo. “ You see, I have had experience of patents, and I know that it is sometimes possible for unscrupulous people to get around a principle without infringing rights. “ I am hoping that the Government will take over my aerial torpedo and machine gun plans and manufacture the weapons for our own use in case of war.” Mr Allen is handicapped at present by two things. They are lack of capital to construct working models of his inventions and fear that someone will get to know tho secrets of his plans. ROBOT MECHANISM. The inventor gave some idea of the principle of his aerial torpedo. It is operated on the basis of a small robot monoplane, complete with engine and wings. “ Tho real difference between my machine and a small plane,” he said, “ lies in tho starting device. It is really a projectile in the early stages of tho flight, but maintains speed and altitude by means of its own power. “ The robot mcchansim is infallible, simple, and accurate. It can be set to drop tho bomb on any particular spot within 500 miles radius. “ The torpedo 1 have designed is intended to lie about 17ft long, and would develop a speed in excess of 300 miles an hour. It would have tremendous destructive power when it landed on its objective.” Mr Allen pointed out that his new machine gun can be operated with a speed 10 times as groat as that of the best guns now in use, “ Their capacity is about 600 rounds a minute,” be declared. “My gun can fire at least 5,000 rounds, and this is capable of being speeded up to far greater limits.”-