GUN AND ENGINE BATTLE.

Waikato Times, Volume 87, Issue 13275, 2 September 1916, Page 3 (Supplement)

GUN AND ENGINE BATTLE.

'.By C. G. Grey.) It is rather curious to note how history repeal- itsell m aerial warfare as in other bianclies of war. In land war there has always been a continual duel haiweeii guns and fort ilicat ions, first of all somebody would produce a which would batter down anv toilless, and then some one would produce a fortress which was impregnagabio against anv guns then existing- Similarly in naval war thoie is the same duel between the makers of guns and armor-piercing projectiles. :| orial wart are this antagonism takes rather a different form, because, so Ia r as one can see at present, it is lmpossiulo to make anv aircraft proof gainst direct hits bv shells, even tnough one may armor the body s,) protect the engine, petrol tanks, and crew against small-arm tire or shrapnel bullets. The only protection any aircraft, whether airship or aeioplane, has against tire from the ground is either speed or height ; and I t'H 1 sj)«vd ;ui(l powrr ol an aeroplane depend ultimately on

lis engine power, while tin- he'ightreaching power of an airship (lojxmkls "ii its gas capacity, assisted in some measure sil s o I>y engine iiouer. J.vcifi:asi\(; uaxgf. ,Ai tiir- beginning of tin* war, before* tlii' Germans saw what could bo done uatli ant i-a ire raft guns, it was generallv considered tiiat it was fairlv sale to fly at anything over 4000 ft. it was soon discovered, however, that machine guns could reach 4000 ft without difficulty, and could even make themselves unpleasant at 6000 ft. Therealter SOOOft was taken as ;l ,safe height at which to 11 y, because it was out of reach of the machine guns, and, although well within range of the antiaircraft gnus, it was found that either the guns were not sufficiently accurate or the gunners were not sufficiently experienced to make anvt-hing like decent shooting at that altitude. -U this ]>oint the Germans concentrated on the development' of their anti-aircraft guns, and produced types which uere not only much larger, hut were apparently much more easih handled and much more accurate ii> eir shooting. The earlv anti-aircraft .'.tins were oi about 3-inch calibre, but to-day there are whole batteries of (!- mcli anti-aircraft guns all alono- the German front, frequently arranged in groups, so that they throw a rciilar bouquet of .shells. So remarkable is the accuracy with which these guns are handled that an aviator considers that he is certain to be hit it he Hies at anything under 10,0001 1, wherever anti-aircraft guns exist, in numbers; and even at 13,000 ft or 14,000 ft their shooting is a great deal too good to be pleasant for" any one who is not living a fairlv fast machine.

HIGHER AND HIGHER. An aeroplane which normally llies at only about seventy miles an hour, findiiig itself flying against a wind of perhaps forty miles per hour, is only making progress oyer the ground at the rate of thirty miles per hour over the ground, and consequently offers what looks like an almost stationary mark. It is obvious that it will take four minutes to cover a distance of two miles atthis rate and in those four minutes, while it is covering a mile oil each side of an anti-aircraft battery over which it may have to pass, that battery can get in quite a number of shots at it, and

have time to correct its aim after each shot, so that, even at very great altitudes, a slow machine- is in considerable danger of being hit. So well are these facts realised that,

whereas at the beginning of the war any aeroplane which could fly at- over sixty miles per hour in still air, and could climb to a height of 5,000 feet, was considered good enough for war service, it is now a recognised fact that to be anything like a first-class war machine an aeroplane must bo able to do at least ninety miles per hour and climb to at least 15,000 feet. In fact, anything between 12.000 and 15,000 feet is now considered quite a reasonable height- for reconnaissance. When it is remembered that the world's record for speed is 135 miles in an hour, made by a French aviator, and

that the world's record for height is 25,750 feet, or thereabouts, made by a German aviator just before the war, it is easy to . realise the prospects of the average aeroplane of the future, since it almost always follows that the record of one period is the normal performance of the next.

THE NEXT MOVE. Up to quite recently, at any rate, the Germans have been distinctly superior to the Allies in the matter of engines, for, thanks to the support given by tho German Government to various motor firms three or four years before the war, the Germans started aerial hostilities with engines of between 75-h.p. and 100 h.p., whereas the Allies' engines only averaged between GO h.p. and 70 h.p., and this proportion has been maintained fairly regularly ever since. The latest German Mercedes engines give between 160 h.p. and 200 h.p., and these are fitted in quite small aeroplanes, with the result that the machines have very great yieed and climbing powers. In the meantime the Allies' aviators have had to be content with something between 100 h.p. and 150 h.p. It is true, of course, that in all tho belligerent nations there are a certain number of very high-powered engines in an experimental stage and all the belligerents have tried in one way or another aeroplanes driven by two. three, or even four different motors of about 100 h.p. cnch. but all these mnlti-en-eined aeroplanes have been giagntic machines designed more for weight lifting and climbing than for sheer speed. The problem now before engine designers is to produce an engine of reasonable size to fit into an aeroplane to carry only one or two people, and yet of such power as to enable any average aviator to break existing world's records for speed and height whenever unduly pressed by anti-craft- guns. Aeroplane manufacturers and designers have produced aeroplanes which ar* rapidly approaching the utmost limit of simplicity and lightness and unless somebody invents some utterly new material, it seems unlikely that- there will be very much more speed or lift- to be got out of aeroplanes with existing engine power.