The Aeroplane in War

by Claude Grahame-White; Harry Harper

To complete the test, the biplane was subsequently lowered into the water again; and Curtiss rose without difficulty, flying back to the shore.

The objection to such a scheme as this, of course, would lie in the probable roughness of the sea under many conditions of work. Were a high sea running, it is generally admitted that an aeroplane could not possibly rise from, or land upon, the surface of the water. Therefore, the sound plan, at any rate on the high seas, would seem to be for an air-scout to be launched from the deck of a ship.

An aeroplane on pontoons should, however, find many uses for coastal work. It could, for example, be housed in a shed on the water. It could then leave harbour on a reconnoitring flight, and return again, when alighting, to the smooth water inside the harbour. An involuntary descent, when over the water, would not cause it injury.

Apart from the work which it could perform as a scout, using wireless telegraphy to flash back its news to a parent ship, there are also the destructive possibilities of a naval aeroplane to be considered. In this regard, however, many experts do not consider that the potentialities of a naval aircraft would be so important as those of a machine operating with land forces.

An attack upon a warship by aeroplane would not, it is held, do much damage to the sea-craft, the contention being that the aeroplane would not be able to carry bombs sufficiently powerful to effect any appreciable damage. Another point made is that it would be exceedingly difficult for an aeroplanist to make good practice with his bombs, from the height at which he would have to fly in order to be comparatively safe from gun-fire, and also in view of the fact that both he, and his target, would be moving.

In this connection, however, there is much to be learned. It is not known, as yet, how powerful a bomb may be devised for the use of a destructive aeroplane; and, from the point of view of marksmanship with such missiles, types of releasing apparatus are now being devised which may ensure greater accuracy of aim than is at present considered possible.

A use for the naval aeroplane would be to cooperate with warships in attack upon land defences. A number of machines could be launched from the deck of the parent ship, and fly over docks and harbours, dropping incendiary and explosive bombs, and effecting considerable damage.

Another effective field for the use of naval aeroplanes should be in detecting the approach of submarines; but, in this regard, more data is certainly required.

Primarily for scouting, both from the land, and from a ship at sea, and also as a weapon of offence—if used in sufficient numbers—the aeroplane merits the careful attention of all naval authorities. In England, at the time of writing, very little has been done. A few naval officers have had an opportunity of learning to fly, owing to private generosity, and unimportant experiments have been made.

A very large sum of money has, however, been expended by the Admiralty upon a huge dirigible balloon, 500 feet long, which, after undergoing a tedious period of construction and alteration at Barrow, met with the untimely end of being wrecked by wind-gusts before it had ever taken the air.