WIRELESS WAR

Evening Post, Volume CII, Issue 38, 13 August 1921, Page 11

WIRELESS WAR

AMAZING EXPERIMENTS

■PILOTLESS BOMBING SQUADRONS

France is leaving nothing; to chance, and every visitor finds that the traditional attitude of anticipation towards the next war is probably as strong to-■da-y as it has ever been. And it is all tto the credit of France that her military and .naval experts are restlessly concent, •trating their attention upon the future' developments of warfare in the air.

Expert), opinion (says Denis Gwynn in ■Review of Reviews) is gradually but surely awakening to the fact that the sfnture conquest of the air is going to depend less on the mechanical improvement of aeroplanes and airships than upon the application to aeronautics of the amazing wireless experiments which lhave been occupying the* attention of electrical engineers during the past three years.

i By far the most exciting progress in the development of aviation; that is now being made, is due to the almost fantastically promising series of experiments twith the application of wireless control to aeroplanes. The French electrical engineers have 'actually demonstrated already that fclie military and naval strategy of .all couwtries will within a few years have to Teckon with the existence of air fleets not only immeasurably swifter, more powerful; and more efficient than any machines used in the last war, but capable of flying under the, direction of wireless control exercised at great distances from the scene of their operation.

, EiABLY DEMONSTRATIONS. Moreover, terrifying progress in wireless invention has made .possible the creation of shoals of submarines and torpedoes which/can be similarly navigated 1 and manipulated; working as automatic machines, far from their base, they are capable of maintaining a prolonged' andi undeviating; course, and of changing direction at will m the pursuit of the ships they are sent' out to destroy. By the eiid of the war the experiments in the wireless direction of aeroplanes ' were already far advanced.

Early in 1918, French electrical, .experts had succeeded in demonstrating; that, from a comparatively small control station,, they "could make an aeroplane of the' kind used in :tine war, when fitted with tho necessary wireless 'apparatus, fly for several (miles. • ' '

By the middle of 1918 such improvements , had been made in the regulation of wireless wave-lengths and the arrangements of their frequency that each aeroplane could be guided and manoeuvred' separately'from those next to it, \yith) ,the result that'the inventors were how able to manoeuvre a number of aeroplanes in the air at' the' same time-from. a single control station, which was itself, so small that it could be placed) on, a cart or another aeroplane, i Later on an aeroplane, equipped withi the^ wireless /electric apparatus, rose in the teeth of the wind and manoeuvred {successfully in the air for 54 minutes, until it had completedl its circuit of a 'hundred kilometres, which it was intended to cover. APPALLING POSSIBILITIES. ' That the conquest of the air witf continue so long as science lasts cannot be doubted, and its results may bring, incalculable blessings to mankind. But »o long as the possibility of f war continues to menace, over the civilised world, the consequences of wireless aviation are appalling to contemplate. A wireless aeroplane could, for instance, make easily about ten journeys of any reasonable distance withm twen-ty-four hours, and obstacles such as darkness, ,fog, or rain, will cease to matter. Whole fleets of wireless aeroplanes capable of carrying great cargoes of high explosive or gas shells could be sent out hour after hour to attack towns or enemy forces. It is calculated, for instance, that a fleet of only 300 machines, each carrying some scwt of bombs, could, within twenty-four hours, unload nearly 2000 tons of bombs at any reasonable distance such as separates the .chief military centres of several of the principal European Powers, whereas the whole French Air Force managed to discharge an average of less thai* twenty tons a day over the German lines, even in the closing months of the war. Furthermore, the possibility of flying, at high altitudes once there is no necessity to consider the weakness of human lungs,, will make great speeds possible, and add enormously to the difficulties of defence from bombirlg attacks. Such are some of the- problems -with •whM> these latest wireless discoveries confront the militarist strategist. Their application to naval warfare is even more destructive to all the traditional organisation of attack and defence, for torpedoes propelled and guided by wireless will make it utterly impossible for a fleet to attack any base where any large quantity of electric torpedoed are to be encountered. BUSY AMERICANS.. The Americans have concentrated most successfully on the application of wireless control to naval war. The Sous© of Representatives recently granted £100,000 to Mr. John Hammond, jun., for the development of his experiments with wireless torpedoes. In one of liis official demonstrations he showed that a hydroplane flying at about 9000 ft and at a distance of six or seven miles was able to manoeuvre a ship travelling at top speed, in and out among other boats in a large port. In another demonstration a motor-boat travelling at 23 miles an hour wae steered through a crowd of merchant sliips under the .control iof an aeroplane flying at 5000 ft and from two to five miles- away, while the pilot of the aeroplane had no more difficulty in managing the ship than would a good, pilot on board her. The introduction of toi-pedoes controlled by wireless is the worst nightmare i.of all, and its feasibility has long been proved. Guided from the air and propelled by electricity transmitted by wireless, the torpedoes of the future ■will not only have an immensely longer range, but will be able to change their direction and follow their victims relentlessly until they have tracked them down. i