The preceding brief summary of the uses of aviation in the present war justifies what we wrote at the beginning, viz., the side that has the uncontested supremacy in the air, the side that has done away with the adversary’s aviation, will be very near the final victory.
But in order to safely and rapidly reach this result, the Americans should, in the organization of their flying corps, consent, at least in the beginning, to make a sacrifice of their pride as inventors.
It will be absolutely necessary for them to commence the fight in the air with none but planes already successfully tested at the front in the various branches of the aërial service. It matters little what types they select from among the best now in use by the French, British, Italians, and even by the Germans; the important point is the achievement of swift and sure results, and these can be obtained only with such aircraft as have proved their worth in actual warfare.
Otherwise, the Americans would expose themselves, at the start, to the useless loss of numerous planes, and the sacrifice of many precious lives. They would delay for several months the perfection of an arm which is expected to give prompt and decisive results on the Western Front, and thus cause as great a disappointment to the American as to the Allied Armies.
The adoption of such a policy would not, however, prevent the American engineers from improving progressively upon their original aircraft. During the last three years airplanes have been continually modified and improved. Still greater improvements may be expected in the future, and in this line a vast field remains open to the American genius.
4. Hydroplanes. A brief mention should be made of hydroplanes, or sea-planes, which, although usually equipped only with the pontoons that enable them to alight upon the water, are equally fitted for a landing on terra firma by the super-addition of wheels. Most of the British attacks upon the German airdromes, encampments, and fortified lines on or near the Belgian coast have been made from hydroplanes. These machines have proved of great value for patrolling the coast against submarines. The aviators can see the submarines at a certain depth under water, and following in pursuit, they attack them by dropping special bombs, which, like those used by destroyers when passing over a submarine, are so constructed as to explode at a certain depth by water pressure even if they do not strike their target. The force of the explosion is sufficient within a radius of many metres to disjoint the plates of the submarine.
5. Balloons—Zeppelins. At the outset of the war the Germans had a marked superiority in dirigible balloons. They had then already completed their particular type of rigid dirigible balloon, the Zeppelin, which they have since improved and multiplied to the full extent of their ability. Only at sea have they used them for strictly military purposes, observing very advantageously by their means the British fleet and flotillas. In the fighting on the Western Front they have used their Zeppelins but once, in the course of their attempt upon Verdun, when an effort was made to destroy the Paris-Verdun railroad track. Two days before the attack they dispatched a couple of the great airships on this errand, but one was brought down and the other was driven away before they could accomplish their mission.
All the other Zeppelin expeditions on the Western Front have been made not against combatants but against towns. While they have caused a great many casualties among the civilian population in the Allied countries, a large number of them have been shot down.
France has used for distant expeditions a few non-rigid dirigibles and has lost several of them.
England, for the protection of the Irish sea and the Channel, uses some very swift little dirigibles which are very easily handled and form an excellent submarine patrol, but as fighting units they are worthless and are obliged to flee from hostile airplanes.