FLYING TORPEDOES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9469, 11 June 1909, Page 7

FLYING TORPEDOES.

KRUPP’S SUBVENTION OP A NEW AERIAL MONSTER. Messrs Krnpp, of Essen, have announced that they will contribute £SOO per annum towards the coat of experiments with an aerial torpedo now being carried out by Professor Weiohert, of the Meteorological Institute at Goettingen. Professor Weiohert has constructed a model of the flying torpedo which ia capable of travelling 226 yards per second, or at the rate of over seven and a-half miles a minute. Another model of an aerial torpedo, weighing approximately 80lb, has also been constructed, and has yielded successful results. These torpedoes are driven by small electric motors. Apart from driving them at a high speed through the air, Professor Weiohert is conducting a number of experiments for the purpose of ascertaining hiow they can be steered by electricity. In conducting these experiments he is guided by the system of steering submarine torpedoes by •electric waves. The extreme importance of these experiments from a military point of view is evident, and this aspect of the matter is emphasised “by the subvention which Messrs Krnpp have devoted to this purpose* Judging from the results already achieved, it appears probable that Germany will soon be in' possession of aerial torpedoes which will be under the control of those who discharge them. Professor Weiohert desires not only to apply his invention to the purpose of war, but also to scientific research, for he considers that flying machines of this type can he employed to ascertain the condition of the atmosphere at high altitudes. He ia now experimenting with a flying machine which he can direct to high altitudes by eleotrio current, and then bring it back to the point from which it started.