The Signal Corps has established and is now conducting twenty aviation training schools in the United States. Four additional schools are in process of construction and are expected to be finished in June next.
The aggregate capacity of the schools now in operation is something over 3,000 cadets; 1,926 have thus far been graduated from this primary training course and commissioned as reserve military aviators. Very few of these have received their advanced training in this country.
In addition to the above, the Signal Corps, acting upon the invitation of the several Entente Governments, dispatched some 1,200 cadets to England, France, and Italy last year, who were to receive primary and advanced training in aviation schools of those countries. The experience of a great many of these men has been most unfortunate in that at some of the schools a very serious delay has occurred in providing them with the training planes, which it was expected would be manufactured in foreign factories in sufficient numbers. As a result, several hundred of the American cadets have been practically idle and have made no progress. About 450 of them are reported as having completed the primary training, after long delay.
The Signal Corps is giving serious consideration to the advisability of bringing the remainder back to the United States to be trained. With the exception of this severe disappointment, the primary training of our aviators, according to the testimony of the aviation officials, appears to be progressing favorably.
For some time after the inception of the work the output of primary training planes in this country for use in our schools gave ground for grave concern. In recent weeks, however, the output has been greatly increased, and there seems to be no doubt of the Signal Corps having an amply sufficient number in the future. On April 1, 1918, 3,458 primary training planes had been completed. The advanced training planes are being turned out in accordance with the schedule and estimates laid down at the inception of their manufacture. In advanced training planes four types are being made, the total number up to date manufactured being 342. In these planes three types of engines will be used, of which 965 have been completed. The Liberty motor is not suitable for use in these planes.
It is apparent from the evidence that the twelve-cylinder Liberty motor is just emerging from the development or experimental stage. Since the original design and the setting up of the first completed motor in July, 1917, a large number of changes have been found necessary, many of them causing delay in reaching quantity production. Within the last two months changes of considerable importance have been made which, it is hoped, will make the motor serviceable for combat planes of the defensive type and for bombing and observation planes.
Twenty-two thousand five hundred Liberty motors have been ordered, 122 have been completed for the army, and 142 for the navy. Four have been shipped overseas. Some of those already delivered are being altered to overcome the defects ascertained during the last few weeks. It is understood, however, that these alterations will consume but a very short time.
The production of Liberty motors to date is, of course, gravely disappointing. The Government officials having the manufacture of the Liberty motor in charge have made the mistake of leading the public and the allied nations to the belief that many thousands of these motors would be completed in the Spring of 1918.
The production of combat planes in the United States for use in actual warfare has thus far been a substantial failure and constitutes a most serious disappointment in our war preparations. We had no design of our own; neither did we adopt any one of the European designs until months after we entered the war. In all, five types, at one time or another, have been adopted. Two of them have been abandoned after the expenditure of much time and money. The three remaining types still left upon our program are now in the course of manufacture. Of these the largest and most powerful is the Handley-Page heavy bombing machine, designed to carry as many as six men, eight machine guns, and a heavy load of bombs, and to be driven by two Liberty motors. The testimony before your committee shows that the Signal Corps finally decided upon the manufacture of a number of sets of parts of this machine about Jan. 1, 1918. Officials of the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps testify that they do not expect the completion of the first set of parts in this country before June, 1918.
Another type of combat plane, known as the De Haviland, is included in our program. This machine habitually carries two men, four machine guns, a moderate load of bombs and other apparatus and is driven by one Liberty motor. Fifteen have been completed; one has been shipped to France; the remaining fourteen have been very recently completed in this country.