BIGGER ROBOT PLANES LIKELY IN THE FUTURE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 232, 30 September 1944, Page 4

BIGGER ROBOT PLANES LIKELY IN THE FUTURE

YXJI'LIj the robot plane, though introduced late in the w ar > have an influence on future warfare comparable with that of the great new weapon brought into action in the Great War—the tank? Until precise information is available about the robot's accuracy and destructiveness (though there is little doubt of its capacity for destruction), no definite answer can be given to this question, but there is no doubt that pilotless bombing will occupy an important place in the calculations of military planners in the years to come.

Scientists in all countries had been interested in the pilotless plane and rocket projectile for many years before the war, and it is one of the points that most surprises Allied authorities that the Germans should be the first to develop a practical, working sample. Professor Auguste Piccard, the stratosphere pioneer, in the early 1930'5, was devoting much of his time to the study of. rocket containers to carry freight and mail across the Atlantic Ocean in a few minutes in the stratosphere.

It may or may not be true that the robot, or PAC (pilotless aircraft) as it is known in Army circles, has at present only a nuisance value, and that it failed in the objective of countering the Allied air attacks for which it was planned (wrote Lansing Warren in the New York Times). There is no denying that it is a device which is capable of perfection. Range Kow Tjimited In the view of Army experts who have examined the robots, it will take some time before they can be used for very much greater ranges than at present. For one thing, the Germans appear to have obtained the maximum power possible from the jet fuel, and the larger motor needed for a transatlantic flight, for example, would be too cumbersome and heavy. The Germans have said that Germany is too far from Britain to be in danger of robot bombing, and if they reached the point where they could utilise pilotless craft at super-distances, it is held they would have hesitated to launch an attack which soon would be given back in kind. But bigger, faster, more powerful and more destructive robots are considered a definite possibility for the future.

The principal feature of the German PAC, according to Allied experts who have examined it, is the jet-propelled motor, which all agree is a masterly achievement. It develops unexpected power, while the bomb itself is rapidly manufactured of cheap construction with a minimum cost of material and effort.

Every innovation of this kind immediately sets in motion scientific ingenuity to develop a defence. In the raids on Southern Britain some robots were put out of action by anti-aircraft fire, and others were brought down by pursuit planes. Their launching centres were heavily bombed. In this type of warfare the principles of both attack and defence are in a state of rapid evolution and the permanent nature of fighting with pilotless bombs cannot as yet be foreseen. The offensive aims will be to increase the bombs' speed, destructiveness, accuracy, and, of course, their range.