GIANT AEROPLANE.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1916, Page 12

GIANT AEROPLANE.

IIRITISH 'ANSWER TO THE ZEPPELIN. CAR CARRYING NINE MEN. An SOO-horse-powcr aeroplane, with a car capable of carrying nine men besides explosives and guns, is the latest in British aircraft construction, according to Charles 11. Day, chief engineer of the Sloane Aeroplane Company, who returned to New York last month after a trip to Europe in connection, with contracts of his company with the British Government. Mr. Day declined to describe the huge machine in detail or to say where he saw it. It was entirely practical, he said, and had met tests successfully. It ivas regarded as Great Britain's answer to the Zeppelins, and news of reprisal raids on German territory by a squadron of th(> aeroplane battleships would not be considered surprising. Mr. Day told Mr. John E. Sloane, president of the company, that he was in the cabin of the monster aeroplane, the ceiling of which was several inches above his head. The British Government is understood to have kept the plans of the machine secret, and news of its construction has practically been limited to the official circles.-

MASTERY OF THE AIR ON WESTERN FRONT. A graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Mr. Day has been building aeroplanes for the last twelve years. The Sloane machine is largely the product of his inventive ability. During his trip abroad Mr. Day visited London and Paris, as well as the leading British and French aerodromes, where applicants for the aviation service are trained. He stated that the Allied flying corps had obtained the mastery of the air on the western front. Four distinct types of aeroplanes, he said, were now in use, each class for a specific purpose. These, he stated, included a fairly fast, stable aeroplane equipped with wireless, for artillery fire control: a fast cruising machine, with a speed of from ninety to a hundred miles an hour, carrying one or two men and a small gun for defence, and a bombardment machine, with a comparatively low speed of sixty miles and tremendous lifting capacity. The lastnamed class, he said, could carry a large load of explosives and mounted guns of as large a calibre as two inches. Mr. Day said that the bombardment machines upon a raid were always attended by an equal or larger number of fighting aeroplanes, and of thirty machines sent out on such a mission at least four or five were not expected to return. This was not necessarily because they would be shot down, he said, but- the service was such that that percentage of the machines frequently would be forced to land.

GREATEST TOft FOR RTPLANE., The biplane, according to Mr. Day, has become the almost universal type 'in use in both the British and French service. About the only monoplane at the front now, he said, is the Moraue "parasol." so called because the wings extend above the aviator. Mr. Day is convinced that the Allies will win the war, and said that Great Britain was only beginning to get her army ready, the aviation service, he said, was proving a most attractive branch to young men. Many of the pupils at an aviation camp lie visited were young men from the schools of eighteen and nineteen years of age. The test of the Sloalie aeroplane by the British Admiralty was very successful. The official report which Mr. Day brought back stated that the aeroplane showed ample control in every direction and a considerable amount of inherent stability. The mean speed, obtained in three runs, was 84.7 miles an hour, and the climbing record was 3000 feet in 7min 27see. The motor was stated to be reliable and the pilot's view good. "This is a very satisfactory performance fot a machine of this horse-power and carrying capacity," was the summing up of the official report, the test having been made under the full Admiralty load.