BOMBS FROM THE STRATOSPHERE

Southland Times, Issue 23306, 16 September 1937, Page 4

BOMBS FROM THE STRATOSPHERE

NEW AMERICAN “AIR SUBMARINE”

RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF MILITARY PLANES

(Special to The Times)

WELLINGTON, September 15. Military aeroplanes which will laugh at anti-aircraft guns and operate from heights miles above defences are described by Major C. C. Travers, a British army officer now on a visit to New Zealand.

“The only thing that can be said of the air forces of the various Powers today,” said Major Travers, “is that they will certainly be obsolete within three years. The Western Powers probably occupy the same position as the Japanese, who have been building British type machines engined with creations of proved performance but of too great age. Today the Americans have just developed two types of machine which when put into operation will make all others obsolete. “The first of these is the new Sikorsky bombing plane, built by the United Aircraft Corporation for the American Navy. It is a huge experimental ship driven by four Pratt and Whitney engines of 1050 horse-power each and allmetal, high-wing, full cantiliver, with the present designation of XPBS-1. Its military loading is at least as big as that of any known flying machine, it has the long range needed by navy patrol vessels and it is a flying-boat. It has many devices for safety and is equipped with roomy living accommodation for the crew. It exceeds all previous flyingboats by five or six tons in lifting capacity, and will be useful for civil aviation as well.

“The second machine is a high-speed bomber which can actually operate from the stratosphere. It is designed to fly from five to seven miles high and will be able to go much higher in comfort It is the first ‘air submarine,’ as the builders say, and has the benefit of a compartment divided into two, in which the air pressure can be regulated so that the aviator flying high will have no trouble in breathing comfortably. It is even possible to have different air pressures and densities in the different compartments. “Use of such a machine will mean that existing aeroplanes will not be able to intercept it until it is over its target, if it chooses to descend, or that it will be able to bomb cities with incendiary bombs (the type of aerial attack now admitted to be the most dangerous on a large scale) and escape with impunity. Such things as ground level air defences, of course, become ludicrously ineffective. Also, if the bombing ‘air submarine’ is to be brought down it will probably have to be over its target, where it will do much damage. “These things are yet some distance ahead, but not very far ahead. Types of each machine have been built, operated with success and will be reordered. Events in aviation are now moving so fast that one of the disturbing facts in the international armaments situation is that the countries will soon have many millions invested in aeroplanes which will shortly be on the out-moded list. Some country, nearing the end of its resources, may be tempted to embark hurriedly on a military adventure by this spectre of obsolescence of its war material.”