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Show Voice Orders Rule Air War i Development of Radio Telephone Permits Personal Direction of Fleets. PREVENTS MANY ACCIDENTS At Signing of Armistice Training In Voice-Commanded Flying Was Well Under Way Pilots Directed Di-rected From Ground. Washington. Previous to the entry of the United States Into the war, the problem of airplane radio development had received attention from the army. In August, 1910, the first wireless transmission from airplanes was made. In the years following the development of the airplane radio was carried on through a series of accomplishments. These may be summed as follows : 1912 Message transmitted from airplane air-plane to ground by wireless telegraph over a distance of 50 miles. 1915 Fan type of driving the wireless wire-less power plant on the airplane developed de-veloped and adopted. 1916 Radio telegraph transmission from airplane successful over 140 miles of distance; radio messages transmitted between airplanes in flight ; airplane radio telephone constructed. con-structed. 3917 The human voice transmitted by radio telephone from airplane to ground. Talk Thousands of Miles. Contemporaneous with this was the commercial development of the radio telephone for ground and ship use by engineers of the American Telephone and Telegraph company. This culminated culmi-nated in a successful transmission from the naval radio station at Arlington Arling-ton to stations thousands of miles away. In May, 1917, steps were taken to combine the experience of the engineers engi-neers and of the army In developing the airplane wireless. Six weeks later the airplane telephone tele-phone was a fact, and In October, 1917, a long-range test was made. Telephonic Tele-phonic communication was carried on between airplanes in flight up to 25 miles apart and from airplane to ground up to a disttuice of 45 miles. The development of voice commanded command-ed flying was definitely begun at Gerst-ner Gerst-ner field, La., in May, 1918. On June 1 an aerial review was given by an air fleet of two squadrons of 18 planes each, followed by a close order drill by a section of six airplanes. Throughout the review and tlie drill command was exercised by the voice of the commander flying with the fleet. In September following, voice commanded com-manded flying was Instituted at several sev-eral other fields. Avoids Many Accidents. By using the airplane radio te'e-phone te'e-phone in instructing aviators in aerial gunnery it was found possible to reach the same efficiency with a saving of one-third of tlie time. By exercising control over pilots in the air, accidents were practically eliminated. At the signing of the armistice, development de-velopment 'and training in voice commanded com-manded flying was well under way. Numerous demonstrations were held during November and December and a fleet of 204 airplanes was maneuvered in the air at San Diego by voice command. com-mand. In tlie practical application of the airplane radio telephone to airplanes, over 6,000 flights have been made with this apparatus in this country. In the last 2,000 flights there have been only 74 cases of airplane trouble and ouly 25 cases of radio trouble. Shipments of the apparatus to France in quantities began August and September, 1918, and of trained air service radio personnel In October. Had the war continued the voice-commanded military air unit would undoubtedly un-doubtedly have made itself felt. |