PERFECT WAR ENGINE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 268, 4 April 1913, Page 3

PERFECT WAR ENGINE.

AVIATOR'S NEW INVENTION"

f' : L YLYG TORPEDO TO DROP BOMBS.

Henry X. Atwood, the Uoston aviator, wJio thrilled New York in June, l'Jll, by spiralling around the Singer tower in Ins aeroplane, is now at work on a new mechanism that threatens to add to war's terrors. It is an aerial torpedo that can be hurled from any battleship for the purpose,of destroying cities.

J,ike the marine torpedo, "the aerial weapon promises to be a vehicle for carrying high explosives, against which an enemy would be well night helpless. -Mr. Atwood said that he telt satisfied of its ultimate success. '.\o ii'ian." he continued, "need operate the aerial torpedo when once it is started. While it will look like a miniature aeroplane, lilted with wings and propellor driven by a high-powered motor, it is to be aimed so that it will lly over a city unpiloted. The torpedo* will carry a number of charges .of Jiigh explosives which by a clockwork contrivance can be released as the machine passes over a city. In addition the wings will be consirucleil of gun-cotton, so that when the apparatus drops into a c ity it: will explode and spread lire. "The aerial torpedo will be so built thai a large supply can be carried on every battleship, 'it will have a capacity for carrying at least 401) rounds of explosives, and travel at a high rate of speed for three hours. The speed, as it is estimated, will be more than a hundred miles an hour. A ship more than a hundred miles at sea could aim one of these torpedoes at any city along the coast and hope for disastrous results.

"It was not my intention to let the details of my work be made public, for a while," slid Mr. Atwood. "ISuL .1 am sniislied that the aerial torpedo is feasible—just as much so as is the marine torpedo."

When iirtkuil how lie proposed to guide tlii' tor]ii'ilo on its course, .Urf Atwood i :\|)!aii]ed thai it would not bo a dilficult matter to set the rudders of the torpedo aeroplane so iliat it would lly in the direction it was aimed. He explained that it was not intended that the torpedo should of its own accord '•hniiftu its direction once sent on its Hi;;! 11. In other words, it would travel m a straight line only. The matter of elevation will he capable of regulation, and also the time when the explosives are to lie released automatically. Mr .Atwood is also at work on a new Hying boat, which he expects to launch in f'Vbruary. lis is a firm believer in the water type of Hying machine, ami expects to see many sportsmen take up Hying next summer as a sport. Aside fi'om Hying the liostoii aviator is writing a book on aviation Unit will contain a number of new theories about air navigation. In his flights iinm .ISoston to Washington and from St. Louis to New York, he made a special study of some of the obstacles thi' aeroplane has to contend witli in crosscountry Hying.