DEATH FROM THE AIR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 18994, 16 April 1925, Page 7

DEATH FROM THE AIR.

TERRIBLE WEAPON OF WAR* AEROPLANE WITHOUT PILOT. CONTROLLED BY WIRELESS, j. Hitherto incredible stories of Freneli aircraft inventions—"demon" aeroplanes, without pilots, steered wirclessly from faroff to port or starboard, up or down, dropping irresistible and exterminating bombs or gases on towns and cities at the will of the distant radio operator—are now, said the Daily Chronicle in February, taking official form. It is true that tho " hush-hush " part of these infernal powers of the air is not revealed. But tho French experts who believe in the future of the craft—and there is said to be one> in full working—present a picture of a, potential reign of terror surpassing tho wildest visions of tho destruction of Doomsday. "It is the human will, the power to act, transmitted and given effect to through space!" So one of the great technicians describes this weird apparatus. The machine is a final solution of, the problem of purely automatic, manicss flight; of the dream of inventors of a machine which, guided infallibly from the ground, without any human hand at ils controls, shall rush vast distances through the air, rising or descending, wheeling or turning, just as though a pilot sat up there.

Although oilier nations besides Franco have been working secretly toward this goal, the greatest authorities in Franco affirm that this machine is the most advanced scientifically in the world, and that it is sufficient in itself, when produced and used in vast numbers, to give the nation that possesses it an annihilating victory, within only a few hours, in any great aerial struggle. Metallic equivalents of the human brain, and of human nerves, muscles and fingers, are possessed by this amazing assemblage of intricate parts, some of which have occupied 12 months in their design, construction and perfection. "Infallible Stability."

Supported by curved wings, and with an automatic engine which operates a whirling screw, the manless air machine will, after a short ruji, rise and soar, tho apparatus within its hull comprising a series of gyroscopes, operating its controlsurfaces, which ensuro infallible stability in all conditions. Watching tho machine as it climbs is an operator on the ground, who sits at a wireless switchboard. Placing his fingers on keys and depressing them, he can make the* distant machine turn either to the right or left. Tho tap of another key will send it climbing steeply, and tho pressure iof yet another will bring it earthward in a steep dive. Nor is this all. What the experts call "the ultimate triumph" is a power ,of controlling and guiding tho pilotloss piano after it has passed far beyond human vision. How this is done—tho actual detailsis tho "hush-hush" part of the wbolo affair. What is understood, "however, is that as soon as it has .passed a certain distance on its course this manless machine begins to send out, from an automatic transmitter in its hull, a stream of wireless signals, which are received by ground operators, and permit tho position of the machine in the sky, many miles away, to be followed accurately from minute to minute.

If it should be found to ho deviating from its course, the ground operators, though the machine may be invisible to them, can send a signal to it by'wireless which, duly received by its "brain," is conveyed to its controls, and affects rudders or elevators in the desired way. Use at Immense Heights. Laden with poison-gas in war, such pilotless planes will be the most terrible of all weapons. They can bo produced rapidly in vast numbers, and their engines and airscrews can be adapted to lunction efficiently at imrrtense heights. Streams of them, passing high through the upper air, can be steered until they arrive over the target provided by some great centre of population. Then at the tan of the key of a far-distant operator, their motors can be stopped and they can be made to dive with loads of poisongas upon streets and houses. Land defences would be impotent against streams of such projectiles. Even if high-flying airmen succeeded in shooting some of them down before they reached their objective, they could be despatched in such numbers, day and night, that the destruction of a certain proportion of them would not save from a fearful fate the densely-populated areas against which they were directed. War is accepted as a game of move and counter-move. 'Against any new weapon it has been reckoned, so far, that some effective defence can be obtained. But what is the defence against great fleets of these winged bombs, raining death remorselessly from on high in the upper air?