WAR IN THE AIR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 81, 1 May 1909, Page 5

WAR IN THE AIR

EXGLAXD WAKING UP. POSSIBILITIES OF THE FUTURE. London, March 12England is waking up at last, if report speaks truly, to the importance of keeping abreast of the Units hi aeronautics. The latest news is that six aeroplanes of the Orville Wright design are under construction here, and that the Wright Bros, will visit London at the invitation ot the War Office in May. It looks as though the Government has been aroused, and te now prepared to pay for what other nations have produced by inventions and experiments, but .one could wish that British brains as well as British gold had had a shall! in the splendid achievements now stauding to the credit of England's Continental neighbors. Still, if we cannot invent aeroplanes that will fly, it is better to buy them than to pretend that they are not worth having. In the wars of the future they are sure to play an important part, and England ean.not afford lo be prepared. A Royal Artillery officer, Colonel F. G. Stone, drew a graphic picture of the possibilities of airships in war, at the Royal United Service Institute a day or two ago. They would be used, h e suggested, for attacks against harbors and dockyards. They would hover over a beleaguered fort, reconnoitring tlie do. fences and sending information by wirelees telegraphy to ships engaged in bombarding, and they would be able to do a little bombarding on their own account by dropping explosives on areas which could not l>e effectively attacked by ships' guns. At present the only means of defence from such attacks are the high-angle batteries, and these can only fire to a maximum height Of 7300 feet at a maximum horizontal distance of 4800 yards. These limits naturally place th n airship in a commanding position so long as it is beyond the danger zone, and on a clear day it could reconnoitre . in absolute safety. A STRANGE BATTLE " FIELD."

The Colonel drew a striking picture of the battle field of the future. Instead of solitary searchlights here and there, he said, there iwill have to be one blaze of light from all over the area la danger. The aeronaut, blinded by the continual glare, and himself visible to all the defenders below, will have to be •ought out by the single searchlight, followed by shells from the guns below. These guns will have to be as nimble as their enemy—light quick-firers with a possible elevation of 70deg., with a 31b shell so easily exploded that the touch of the gas envelope as it hit would cause it to burst. Even then, however, the envelope would stand so much laceration that the.effective destruction of an airship would be better accomplished by a well-directed shot at the motor or the aeronaut himself. Whatever armament may be employed, Col. Stone added, an automatic rangeflnder is absolutely necessary. But artillery alone will scarcely be able to deny an enemy's airship such access to the upper air of our harbors and dockyards as may be necessary.fof reconnoitring and observation. This role can only be satisfactorily filled by harbor- airships, or, better still, aeroplanes, and th e artillery.defence in this respect regarded as auxiliary only. So the world may some day read or aerial navies grappling in the central blue, after the fashion so vividly and powerfully described in Mr. H. G. Wells' story, "The War of the Air."