AIR BATTLES OF THE FUTURE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 9 December 1907, Page 4

AIR BATTLES OF THE FUTURE.

TERRIBLE POSSIBILITIES OF AERIAL WARFARE.

(By Dr. Rudolf Martin, a Councillor of the German Government.)

The battle airships possessed by Great Britain, France, and Germany; Great Britain—Nulli Secundum, con-stru-.ted at Atdershot; ttaveiled on Saturday fifty miles, crossed London, was in the air 3J hours, and the highest speed attained in light air was at the rate of forty miles an hour. France—The Patrie; has manoeuvred over Paris, travelled through the air for obr. 15min., and covered forty miles; her speed against wind was at the rate of eighteen miles an hcur. Germany—The Gross and the Parecval, both constructed by German Army officers; each has manoeuvred over Berlin. The Gross is said to carry six men, searchli-lius, and wireless telegraphy instruments; she Temained in the air ihr. SOmin., and went against wind at « speed equal to 12$ miles an hour. Count Zeppelin's large aluminium airship, which is also reported to have own bought by Germany, can carry thirty pensons. and is said to be capable of-lravclling 528 miles. In (he aerial war of the ncaT future man will be staggered not by the spectacle but by the slaughter. For the spectator there will be little to see beyond a number of faint grey linear object* like wbetsomes silhouetted against the sky. But each of these drab-colored objects is an airship which can easily carry from ten to fifty torpedoes, weighing from UOIb to 1651b. The havoc wrought by a email fleet of Zeppelin airships would be frightful. It could pursue the fastest battleship and send it to the bottom. The battleship is at a terrible disadvantage: it is easily damaged from above; it has a speed of twenty-fivo knots, against a speed of nearly thirty knots possessed by its adversary. Pursue the comparison to questions of cost and of crew.

The Patrie, costing £12,000, with a crew oi three, and Count Zeppelin's giant airship, costing £25,000, with a crew of six, are each capable of annihilating a battleship value £2,000,000 sterling, with a crew of nearly 1000 men. A BATTLESHIP'S EQUIPMENT.

Instead of acting from a fixed landbase air-battleships will act from a movable base—the fleet. Small flexible motorairships, of so little bulk that they can be stowed away in a couple of carts, can easily be carried on a battleship and inflated on board with compressed gas from steel bottles. Thus the battle-airship will take ite place with the heavy guns ami the torpedoes as part of the equipment of a battleship. To a motor-airship the North Sea or the Mediterranean is no more than a large pond. Count Zeppelin's aluminium airship can travel 850 km. without taking in any benzine. The action of radius of Lebaudy's Patrie, or of the Parsevnl motor-airship, both of which have a considerably smaller gas capacity, may be estimated at from 225 km. to 250 km.

At it* narrowest point the English Channel only measures 31km. across (about 19J miles). The distance from Norddeich to England is about 400 km. (249J miles). With airfleets constructed upon Count Zeppelin's system it would be possible to drive away from the North Sea all squadrons of the fleet which are not protected by battle-airships. BATTLES BY LAND AND SEA.

When warfare is waged in the clouds, the English Channel and the FrancoGerman frontier will be as though they were not. So, too, will the advent of the air-battleship, the fundamental difference between war on land and oa sea disappears, for the air-fleets will take part on the same day, sometimes even at the same time, in a battle by land or by sea. An aerial fleet which, during the day, has helped to decide the issue of a battle near Sedan, can, the same evening or during the night, annihilate a battle-fleet in the English Channel, which is only 200 km. distant.

The air-fleet which has been beaten in a battle on land will be driven to sea by the enemy's air-fleet. It will lx> put out of action by being prevented from taking in a fresh supply of benzine. \ fleet so pursued would probably be fired upon by the victor, at the same time, from the land and from the sea. The most important principle of strategy and tactics will be the attacking airship most be directly above its opponent, as of course, it can only hit the enemy by letting fall torpedoes. According to Major Moedebeck (the accomplished German authority on aeronautics), it will new be possible, owing to the danger of an explosion, to use guns from the cars. AIRSHIP v. AIRSHIP. This question brings us to a consideration of the fight between airship and airship, surely the most thrilling contest in which man could engage. The opposing airships will strive to rip up each other'e envelopes. This coup, bringing instant destruction upon the airship and its occupant*, can be effected, of course, by piercing the thin gas-bladder with a sharp missile. There is another weapon. A missile charged with phosphorus solution or carbonic disulphide would explode the gas-envelope and so destroy the airship.

In an aerial battle the Zeppelin airship, with its aluminium envelope, will bo a formidable foe. Not only would it be much easier to rip up the gas-bladder of the Patrie or any other Lebaudy airship, with a sharp object, than the aluminium envelope of the Zeppelin airship, but in the event of a collision between the two types, the semi-flexible or flexible one would sink on account of the damage done to its air-bladder.

An especially important mission of the motor-airship will be the laying of mines near the enemy's haTbors by night, along the enemy's coast, or directly in the midst of the enemy's fleet. The Zeppelin motor-airship is even able to descend with both cars upon the surface oi the water. On account of its large tonnage it is especially adapted for the laying r.<' mines. With a. dozen snch enorm/v . * ships it would be possible *- ■"* . air " in a few hours' time - •"' ' a y m i n€s block up the inn-"" . *n d «> completely Elbe,—f>» ! ' .iih of the Thames or the .ny Mail.