Evening Star Newspaper, May 23, 1930, Page 12

DIRIGIBLE FACTOR IN DEFENSE SCHEME I;zgalls Pictures Craft as Airplane Carrier of Sky in Radio Address. ‘The modern dirigible, constituting & virtual airplane carrier of the sky, is one of the most important factors of the future in America's scheme of na- | tional defense, it was declared last night by David 8. Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics, in a National Radio Forum address over Station WMAL and a chain of associated stations, The address was arranged by The Star and sponsored by the Columbia Broadcasting System. The two giant Zeppelins being built for the Navy at Akron, Ohio, he said, will be capable of launching from within their hulk six or seven fighting and bombing airplanes and then of. taking them aboard again while in the air. “The Zeppelin,” he stated, ‘provides not only the greatest scout of the pres- ent day, but also a small carrier of ex- traordinarily destructive power.” Reviews History of Aviation. Mr. Ingalls reviewed the history of aviation and told of the vital part to be played by air forces in the protec- tion of the country’s coast line. His address in full follows: During man’s triumphal march of progress he has passed many milestones. These mark the boundaries of periods which we have formed the habit of call- ing the “ages” of mankind's develop- ment. Uncounted years ago man passed through the Stone Age. Then came the Bronze Age, and more recently the Age of Steam. Today we are living in the greatest age of all—the Air Age. From the very dawn of history man has dreamed of this age. He has always looked upward toward the sky with the hope and yearning. In the clouds he has enthroned his gods. And he has dreamed of dwelling in some remote, high heaven after leaving his earthly home. As he continued to think of the boundless world above him, man dared to hope that he might travel in the sky while still alive. Indeed, we must go back to the mythology of the ancients to find the first hint of man’s ambition to fly. This ambition has persisted through the centuries—today it is re- alized. 2 Primitive man soon learned to travel by land. Later his descendants con- quered the sea. Both elements finally became the highways over - which he journeyed with ever increasing speed. But the most extensive element of all defled him The air—greatest of all roadways—he could not use. Then, 27 rs ago, came a great change. ‘The Wright brothers made their first flight. ‘We had entered the Air Age. Astounding progress has been made since the first flight at Kitty Hawk. ‘Travel by air was not merely another step forward in a familiar means of lo- comotion. It was a step away from THE EVENING STAR PRAISES THE DIRIGIBLE DAVID S. INGALLS. defense, and the incorporation therein of this great new fighting force—avia- tion at sea. Most_laymen fail to appreciate the great difference in operation between naval and Army aviation. Almost as great a gulf les between the operation of these two arms as that which sepa- rates the battleship at sea and the regi- ment of fleld artillery on shore. Navy Has Made Great Strides. And 50 we find our Navy starting off with practically no aviation after the World War, yet having today made aviation an integral part of our great fleet. First we have developed units of planes to be based strategically along our coasts to patrol and protect the so- called sea lanes of our country. These lanes extend into the great ports and parallel the coasts, perhaps some dis- tance out to sea. They are invisible, to be sure, but are as definitely determined as are the great arterial highways of the land. Protection of these lanes is vital both to our Nation's commerce and to every method of travel previously known to man. The fundamental principle of the revovling wheel was common to the wagon, the locomotive and the automo- bile. The buoyant hull bore both the sailing ship and the Diesel liner. All used the familiar highways of the land .and sea; only the means of propulsion and minor details of construction changed. But the aeroplane had noth- ing in common with any known vehicle, It involved new problems of buoyancy, new problems of traction, new problems of propulsion. It traveled in an unex- ‘plored element—the air—along a high- w{l{wthlt had thyee dimensions instead of two. Age of,Amazing Improvement. Centuries elapsed between the horse- drawn cart and the modern automo- bile—between the sailing ship and_the modern liner. But in 27 years we Have developed planes and -airships ‘that are as far ahead of the early Wright model as the automobile is ahug of "the chariot. ‘The Air Age has not been a time of gldull progress—it is an age of amas- fi {:pldhtr;?mvement . e short space of 27 years the training of the human being in the ac- complishment of this feat has been com- pleted. Man now knows how to fly. The development of the vehicle itself and the engine have been completed. We have the plane, the airship and the men to run them. And now that all this has been accomplished we face a new prob- lem. How are we to use this revolu- tionary means of transportation? Much has been done during the last few months, much more lies unper- formed. Just as the highways were true reason for the great develop- ment of the automobile, so the high- ‘ways of the air became the critical fac- tor in aviation development today. Rapidly, but not nearly rapidly enough, We are progressing along these lines. Our aviation fields are few and far between. Many of them are totally unsatisfactory in size. Many of them are poorly maintained and insufficiently equipped in many respects, and not close enough to the centers of our various communities. Our pressing need, there- fore, is the development of large, well equipped fields, close to the centers of population: and these should be con- nected by lines of smaller auxiliary fields where the pilot may land in any emer- gency—always with no danger to pas- senger or load. Somehow, too, the coun- try must be marked in order that the wandering pilot, temporarily lost, may easily re-establish his position. Travel by air cannot stop when the sun goes wn, and we must, therefore, hava the 1ds and routes’ properly lighted. ‘eather cannot be permitted to inter- fere, and so we must provide ourselves With instruments that will enable us to fly in any weather. Government Is Responsible, Something has already been done ;l::g these lines and much more will be e. rimarily, aided by many other organ- mes. Is doing & great job. The day is not far distant when man-may' use air transport in any weather in which other means of travel can operate and With as great a measure of safety. Larger, quieter, safer, and far speedier planes will soon be bearing a large part 8¢ our transportation. Not perhaps re- placing older methods of travel, but seatly augmenting them. The responsibility for the great com- mercial development of aviation in this country lies for the most part in our Federal Government. The Army, Navy and the Postal Department—each has contributed a great share in this won- derful progress. The Postal Department has paved the way by giving life blood to commercial aviation, The Army and Navy have developed the material and provided most of the personnel. Our Army Air Service has given us an inland air force worthy of our country and capable of sustaining our Armies. Naval aviation has given us a flying fleet, as- suring the protection of our coastal wa- ters and supremacy in the air in any future naval engay ment. The development of naval aviation since the World War has been astound- ing. Spurred by necessity, aviation above the land and with the armies was almost fully developed during the war. To be sure the various missions are per- formed today far better than then. Planes will fly higher and faster and will carry more destructive loads, but avia- tion over the land was a tried and known factor in warfare when the arm- istice was signed. On the other hand aviation operations above the sea were fi"ols‘: ncxgllgirlai during the late war. le of certain sea patrols 1 boats, naval aviation 83 we kngyv g day, did not exist. \ But after the World War, when we eame back to our own country and con- sidered its future protection, we appre- elated the extraordinary extent to which aviation had been applied to fighting eoperations over land in Europe. We realized that the geographical location of our country dictated a readjustment ef our Navy for purposes ‘ national the maintenance of the lines of com- munication of our fleet. In the past we have afforded protection by a great va- riety of small naval vessels. Now we find the Navy augmenting and replac- ing these surface craft by planes; and from our shore bases these planes cruise far out to sea, equipped with radio to report hostile vessels, equipped with bombs and machine guns with which to attack them. Today we find that every one of our Dbattleships and cruisers carries on board from two to six planes. These planes are catapulted from the deck into the air and later are landed on the sea alongside the ship and hoisted aboard. ‘They are used to scout . . . to spof for the great guns of the ship. But the most important feature of naval aviation is the development of our great airplane carriers and their complements of planes. As a result of the Washington . Conference, certain ships designed as battle cruisers were abandoned before completion and re designed as aircraft carriers. An a! craft carrier is simply a ship carrying Circle large number of planes and having one Mfifln deck from which planes may be launched and on which planes may be landed. These icular ships are almost 900 feet long and 90 feet wide. ‘They can attain the extraordinary of almost 40 miles an hour, and could race the fastest speed boat. These ships are the landing fields of naval aviation. Small as they are for a land- ing fleld, by constant training and per- fect effielency naval aviation has de- veloped to a point where one of these decks may be used at one time for a plane to take off trom the bow and for a.other to land at the stern, while some 30 or 49 more are being refueled in the center of the so-called flight deck. Land Plane Better for Fighting. The planes, of course, are all land planes, for we find that outside of the large flying boats, based along our coasts, the seaplane is not as efficient for naval aviation as is the land plane. The land plane is lighter and therefore & better fighting machine. It can be flown off and onto the decks of the car- riers in seas so rough that a seaplane could not take off, or land on the sea itself. Air bags, life preservers . . . but principally the great reliability -of the engines . make this method of operation not so dangerous as it soynds. Of course, the pilots must have gréat skill and training to fly the planes on and off their rolling, pitching, mov- ing flying fleld, and also great skill in navigation so that they will not become lost when flying far out of sight of land and ships. Each of these carriers affords our country a means of bringing to a naval engagement a fleet of some 80 fighting, bombing, scouting and torpedo planes. Each is a complete unit of great de- structive power to be used for protec- tion against the attacks of any other country, or as a means of offense against that country’s fleets or basis. And by complete units I mean that each one of these ships affords a land- ing field, a complement of a large num- ber of planes, a hangar for their stor- age, and shops for their repair or even for the manufacture of new planes in case of necessity. On board these ships, too, are the quarters for all the flying officers and mechanics. In great tanks on board are carried fuel for many. many operations of the planes, as well as ammunition_for the guns and bombs with which t> load the bombing planes. In a word, we have In each of these carriers, and will have to an even greater degree in every carrier we construct in the future, & complete air force in and ing, scouting, bombing and torpedoing. This floating unit can be moved at great speed for defense to any point on the coasts of our country or its possessions. It,can also be employed as an offensive weapon of extraordinary destructive power against the fleets or bases of any foreign country with which we may bz contending. Airplane Carriers Important. ‘We have heard much of the mobility of the air force, of how it can be moved | from field to field on land and afford protection at any point almost immedi- | The second new-type WASHINGTON, D. C., FRIDAY, ately. But moving the planes and]been s pilots is only a small part of moving the complete unit. We must provide near every point where an attack is likely a fleld from which to operate, quarters for the men, shops and all the and rearming appa- ratus. For gr as the destructive power of an air unit may be, it is a fragile unit and must be carefully tended. It would be of little avail to take one, two or three squadrons of air- planes with their pilots from, say, New York for the defense of Washington, unless there was a properly equipped field near Washington. For after the first fight, when all the bullets had been fired from the guns and all the bombs had been d from the planes, what destructive force would be left? It is, indeed, impossible to compare the operation of units of planes by themselves with the air force of one of these carriers, complete and competent in itself. It is impossible to conceive any more complete method of offense or defense for our country, situated as it is geographiially, than the airplane car- rier, or any more economical or cer- tain means of* protection for our people. Only last year in one of the ordina: war maneuvers one of. our great cal riers, circling about and attacking, theoretically, the Panama Canal, showed what this new weapon could do. The carrier was approaching at an angle from the rest of our fleet against the so-called enemy at dusk some 600 miles from the canal. Steaming at full speed, the carrier made for its objective. Two or three hours before daybreak the car- rier launched its full complement of planes only 250 miles from the canal. This great force of scouting, fighting and bombing planes flew rapidly toward the canal, Although every warning had been given and every preparation made, it was impossible to stop this attack. Once launched the attack of the fleet of planes from one of these carriers will go through. The only defense that has been devised is the destruction of the carrier hefore it has launched its planes. This can only be accomplished by other carriers or by lighter-than-air carriers. Shore-based squadrons of planes or bat- terles of anti-aircraft guns are unavail- ing against a well planned and executed bombing attack. Experience in the World War proved this time and again and so for the defense of our coasts we must rely upon our own carriers of planes, both ships'and Zeppelins, Zeppelins Factor in Defense. With regard to these Zeppelins, may I at this time say a word. Lighter- than-air is one of those things that, but for the Navy Department, would have FURNITURE RENTING ‘BAUM OFFICE FURNITURE Telegraph ofiice in Washington N MONDAY of this week, Postal Tele- graph opened the fine new-type office shown above. The location at Dupont Circle is convenient for thousands of Washington residents and visitors. Attractively designed writing rooms™, . . comfortable chairs . . . roomy desks . . . Beauty and good taste combined with the last word in utility. This is the second new-type Postal Tele- The Department of Commerce, |* Interior view of the new-type Postal Telegraph office in the Washington Building, New York Ave. and East 15th St. Another modern Postal Telegraph office is Iocated in the National Press Club Building. graph office established in Washington dur- ing the past three months. It marks another forward step by Postal Telegraph in the vast expansion program of the International System. From these cheerful, spacious rooms—as from any of the twenty-two Postal Tele- graph offices in Washington today—you can flash swift messages to more than 70,000 pointsin the United States—8,000in Canada. You can connect promptly with the im- portant centers of Central and South Amer- ica, through All America Cables . .. You can quickly contact European and Asiaticpoints, through Commercial Cables... You can send messages to Mackay Radio. ships at sea, by Postal Telegraph is the only American telegraph company offering a world- wide service of coordinated record com- munications. Whether or not you send a message, you are most cordially invited to visit the new Postal Telegraph offices, to inspect their modern equipment, to use them as places to rest—to telephone—to meet friends. - Postal Telegraph MAY 23, of this coun and other countries’future, The Navy, and the Navy alome, consistent! and as! lighter than air in this country is only within the last few months that the judgment of the naval officers has been justified and recognized. Not only for commercial use, but for natignal de- fense, it is becoming every day more -yp‘renz that the great Zeppelin is one of the most important factors of the future, For scouting over the vast ex- panses of the sea no instrument man has yet devised is equal to the dirigibl Capable of a speed of very near that of the airplane, carrying on hoard some six planes to protect it or to attack any- thing that can be seen, the Zeppelin provides not only the greatest scout of the present day, but also a small carrier of extraordinarily destructive power. Gradually the handling of planes from within one of these Zeppelins has been developed, until today we find that even the antiquated Los Angeles, regu- larly operated with the Navy, is con- tinually taking aboard planes and launching them while in full flight. The two great new Zeppelins, now being built for the Navy by the Goodyear Company of Ohio, will be capable of launching from within some six or seven fighting and bombing planes and later taking them on board again while in itry's_past | full -flight. These Zeppelins will pro- vide us with & means of Interrupting enemy commerce and transport, & means of disabling single enemy war- ships and perhaps even & means of an- noying and harassing an enemy fleet. And so today we find our Navy with 800 planes based on the coasts, on car- riers and on every warship of any size. ‘These planes are used to scout, to bomb and to torpedo enemy ships and to fight other planes. us aviation to- day is_an integral part of the fleet. The efficlent training and demand for only the best of personnel and material, which has been the traditional char- acteristic of the Navy for many years, has brought about this result. Navy Develops Engine. Appreciating fully the danger of fly- ing over sea in land planes, one of the most impotrant accomplishments of the United States Navy has been the de- vel ent of a reliable engine. The result, the air-cooled engine of today, has fully justified the money, time and labor spent in its development. For we find all commercial operators using that same air-cooled engine which was developed solely by and because of the Navy. By means of the reliability of the engine and because of the use of various flotation equipment, including life preservers, the operation of land planes over the sea is not so dangerous as it would seem. The records of naval aviation compare favorably with those of any other military branch in the safety of its operation. The remarkable development of our flying fleet is due in great part to the extraordinarily fine personnel that has been made available for aviation in the Navy. No efforts have been spared to secure only the best, and the backbone is formed by some of the very finest men that have graduated from Annap- olis, augmented each year by Reserves and enlisted men. ‘These men have most ably and whole-heartedly carried on the task set before them by the intelligent, broad- minded and far-seeing policies latd down by Congress and directed by our President. ‘Thus has the oountry come to fore in aviation, us with & great new industry and & system of transportation affording us an incoms parable means of insuring our national defense. G of England is mi in e riding 2 ven hhlmmbn hd.d.l\lghter, Pflnut;.l Wila and frequently goes the royal stables to watch her. uch in< GOLDENBERGS ,Fl'lrniture Store At 7th and K ALLENGE SA Specials . 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