ARMED SWALLOWS OF THE HUNS.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 8, Issue 93, 18 April 1916, Page 5

ARMED SWALLOWS OF THE HUNS.

Writes C. G. Gray (editor of the Aeroplane, London): No one will deny that the Germans are a thorough people, and they are displaying their thoroughness in aerila \ matters as much as in the organisation of their army and in the feeding of their people. Comparatively early in the war we discovered to our cost that their anti-air craft guns excelled our own in size and number, while the accuracy of their shooting was better.’ Owing to this systematic anti-aircraft gunnery, it became evident that the

Allies’ aircraft would be compelled to fly at an immense height if they were to avoid being brought down. Then the Germans developed at comparatively short notice the much-adver-tised Kokker monoplane, with the intention of bringing down allied aircraft which were out of the effective range of anti-aircraft guns. We have developed anti-aircraft artillery which has been quite as effective as the German guns, and consequently the Germans have found that their air scouts also have to fly at normous heights to escape being brought down whenever they cross our lines.

Both sides find that from a height of 10,000 ft. or more it is exceedingly difficult to identify objects on the ground. Therefore the ingenious Ger man has now produced a new form of aeroplane which is a development of a very ancient idea. This is an exceedingly fast machine, though not perhaps as fast as the Fokker “estroyer,” which is designed for the purpose of flying so low down that it can observe our positions at close range.

order to do this it is obvious that such a machine must fly where it is below the effective range: of our anti-aircraft guns—that is to gay, so low that it : is impossible for the gunners below to manoeuvre the guns with any hope of scoring a direct hit, and also below the height at which shells can be burst with any accuracy. This, of course, means that the machine is well inside the range of rifle and machine-gun fire. This new German machine is accordingly heavily armoured about the body, so that the pilot, passenger, tanks, and engine are thoroughly well protected against small-arm bullets.

It is naturally impossibel to armour the wings, propeller, and tail parts of the machine, but it has been proved bv the aviators on both sides that these component parts of an aero] plane can be perforated with bullets hundreds of times Without any serious effect.

It is possible to produce—as Pro] fessor Lancaster of the Government; Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, said over a year ago—an aeroplane which is impervious to bullets in its vital parts. Apparently the Germans have accomplished this with characteristic thoroughness. I hear that an aeroplane answering exactly to this description has- been seen flying regudarly over that portion of the lines known as th e Ypres salient.

This machine is known to our troops as “Copper B'elly,” owing to the fact that the body is apparently covered with a copper-coloured metal. The colouring may be due either to the gleams of the-sun reflecting on the steel body, or it may be that the Germans hav e .discovered some cop-per-coloured aluminium alloy which is found to be .as bullet-proof as heattreated steel and which Is lighter. The Germans, of course, know the importance of the Ypre ssalient, and have doubtless felt on their own side of the lines the pow'er of the British artillery located in that district. It is obviously of the greatest interest to hem o discover just where our batteries are located, and presumably this low-down type of air scout has been evolved expressly for that purpose. It is certainly another useful lesson for us in German efficiency.