Show ua U so E exposes exposes air secrets but mashington ASHINGTON ameri acan V can aviation turned an important corner here authorities agree with the unprecedented public showing of the united states army air corps most advanced equipment which hitherto has been shrouded in mystery conceived originally to inform congress of the latest developments of military aviation the demonstration was so convincing to president roosevelt that at his instigation it was kept open for three additional days giving thousands of average citizens a chance to see the results of the close operation cooperation co between the mili I 1 iry branch of uncle sams de rense nse forces and the american aircraft supply industries held at bolling boiling field near here the army air exhibit consisted of two feature attractions a three quarter mile lineup of ships in which one or more of each type of plane used in the army was featured and two hangars jammed with an array of camouflaged pursuit ships and enough aviation instruments and tricky equipment to make a would be spy deliriously happy despite shrouds of taped canvas which blanketed certain vital mechanisms show Alys mystery tery ship A headliner was the ardys mystery ship the much discussed air interceptor pursuit plane said to have flown more than mph in test flights nearby was 9 garish rish group of weirdly camou Q fc cd ged pursuits including the P 39 anich aich has a tricycle landing gear some were covered with blobs of dark dusty green and foggy gray others were black and dull green while a flying fortress was a nightmare of shocking pink and weary blue however the crazy quilt patterns served the purpose of blurring outlines and eliminating reflections from wings and other surfaces officials explained certain to have a effect on future support tor for americas military aviation was the evidence of q L 4 ON PARADE spectators looking over a standard douglas bomber B with irith special arni armament ament equipment during the army air corps exhibit at bolling boiling field new equipment still in the secrecy or experimental stage buas concealed by tarpaulins president roosevelt spent 50 minutes at the field the publics keen interest in understanding many of the features which hitherto have been regarded as intelligible telli gible only to most advanced aeronautic engineers both government officials and the public took ample time to digest information presented to them in the form ot of animated displays charts and cutout models newest methods of testing wing strength and stress and the famous goodrich deicer de icer an ingenious air and rubber device which officials said has done more than any other single development to make high altitude and winter flying safe were presented aerial photographic equipment complete with portable developers for fast wartime scouting was ranged near compact communications units with which headquarters can maintain contact by radio telephone or telegraph with planes in the ai air the noted link trainer a mechanism which sharpens the sense of balance of embryo pilots shared honors with other equipment used in the training of uncle sams airmen who admittedly are the best in the world new airplane motors and the electrically tri cally operated machine guns mounted in the wings of the ardys largest ships drew the attention of all including president roosevelt who spent an hour asking questions about some of the equipment mounted on each plane in the exhibit were its regulation guns radio and photographic equipment while an ominous note was provided with racks fully laden with bombs and other deadly cargoes which efti officials referred to as specialized the exhibit was open to all the only ceremony being the handing out of copies of the espionage act cautioning citizens against discussing what they had seen with foreign ager agents ils everyone read the text of the act c thoughtfully only a handful I 1 threw their copies away |