BOMBING TARGETS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 23 January 1939, Page 12

BOMBING TARGETS

UNSINKABLE CRAFT OPERATED BY CREW USE IN AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE Evolved for the specific purpose of training Air Force personnel in bombing, the new “Power” armoured target boat, one of which type has been shipped to Melbourne from England for use by the Royal Australian Air Force, has superseded all other methods of providing a suitable moving target. Considering that it is essential to have some device which will reproduce conditions corresponding to those likely to be encountered by aircraft during an attack in time of war, it will be seen that a target must have complete manoeuvring ability, and this involves placing personnel aboard it. for practice it must, further, be possible for this target to be at sea in the bombing range in any weather in which flying is possible, and, in view of the presence of men on board, it must be unsinkable, to stand up both to direct hits by bombs, and to any kind of weather.

Economy in initial cost, and economy in running expenses are further important considerations, but, above all things, it must provide a target which will be seen in any weather from heights up to 1600 feet. This high-speed unsinkable armoured aircvraft bombing practice target boat was produced by the British Power Boat Company, Ltd., to the design of the managing director (Mr Hubert Scott Paine), as an efficient answer to these requirements. It is operated by a crew of three, coxswain, engineer, and wireless operator, who are accommodated side by side in basket chairs, sitting amidships under the armour-plated canopy.

The hull itself is normally buoyant, and has been rendered unsinkable by the use of a special flotation preparation which gives the hull characteristics of a lifeboat, although it may be holed in several places. The vital parts of the craft are protected by special armour-plating, which is sufficiently strong to withstand any direct hits from practice bombs. This armour is sighted under the cockpit, the engiiv room and part of the forward deck, and on the ship’s sides amidships. A prearranged course is chosen and. by a specially-arranged system of wireless telephony, the controlling officer can direct operations either from land or from a plane flying above. The craft can be used for target practice by both land and seaplanes, flown singly, in flights, or in squadrons. and carrying practice bombs that eject clouds of white smoke on impact. The floating targets speed over the water at 30 miles an hour, leaving long ribbons of wash spreading out astern. Bombs are rclensed by planes either in formation or long flying, or during the course of a power dive. Successful hits are acknowledged by the crew by a smoke signalling device installed in Ihe after end of the boat, and controlled from the cockpit position. By using these boats as practice targets the British Royal Air Force has achieved sr, accuracy of aim in bomb dropping to a degree hitherto thought impossible, and which is fa) superior to anything yet revealed in accounts coming from the existing theatres of war.