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Show LIBERTY MOTORS ACHIEVE FAME ON BATTLEFIELDS OF FRANCE Senator Thompson Vividly Describes Activities of American Flying Corps; Allied Airplane Predominance Now Due to Marvelous Engine and U. S. Production Methods. ' The first Liberty-engine equipped airplane air-plane shipped ' from this cuim.try to France arrived May IS. 191s, not July 1, as was indicated by earlier reports. If l'.'.Ouu Liberty-equipped airplanes had been snipped across when the earlier ear-lier criticisms of the program were made, mere would have beeu no facilities facili-ties ror baudlin them. In a receut eouvoy all the transports, twelve in number, earned Liberty engines en-gines and American-made airplanes as a part of their cargoes. The loss of the fust five Liberty airplanes air-planes flown from the American lines was due to lack of suitable landing ground, and the planes landed by mistake mis-take within the German lines. The Libcrtv e'nyino is proclaimed the best that is "made tor flying purposes, aud airplanes equipped with it have attained at-tained a speed of 1U.3 utiles per hour. Result of Trip. This and other interesting explanations explana-tions of the airplane situation in 1 ranee were male by senator Thompson betoro the senate recently, following the senator's sena-tor's return from a trip through Lug-laud Lug-laud and France. He describe.! one of the large llandley-Page bombing planes, type U-4UH, as capable of carrying twentv passengers besides the pilot and 2'JUO 'pounds of bombs in addition to the machine gun equipment, fore and aft as well as in the center. Following Follow-ing is that part of the senator s address relating to aircraft: "I also visited arious training and flving sehoo's. both in France and England.' Eng-land.' including the largest flying school in the world at Issoudun. which has about oO'iO enlisted men 'and about SOU officers an. I a total student membership member-ship of about 2'WO. all of whom are American voung men. Hero they are oiven about six weeks' final training ami taught to use all kinds of planes, including the three different types required re-quired for all flying. squadrons, namely, the fightine. or scouting plane, called in the United States service the pursuit pur-suit plane; the battle, observation, or reconnosanco plane; and the bombing plane The fivers are dividod into three clashes and are permitted to choose service with the character of plane they are hest able to handle. "I also inspected the largest aviation assembling plant in the world at Eomo-rantin Eomo-rantin Here is where most of the Liberty Lib-erty motors are being installed in the De" Haviland 4 and De Haviland 9 nlanes commonly referred to as the f H 4 and the D. H. 9. Some criticism criti-cism on this side of the Atlantic has been made for the delay in the delivery i of. his character of planes, the errone ous statement being made on the floor of the senate as lale as last July tnat there was only one Liberty motor battleplane bat-tleplane in Lurope. The truth is, delivery de-livery of these planes was not expected earlier than the nrst ot July, yvhile, as a matter ui tact, the first Liberty motor mo-tor plane arrive. l, was set up complete aud enristened on May IS, 191s, aud they have been arriving over there at tuc rale of five to ten per day ever since. " Every transport on our way over to France "twelve in number carried Liberty motors and planes. Complaint was also maUe because we did not have as many as 10,OUU or U.UOU planes oyer there, when, as a matter of tact, if they had beeuthere they could not have been used, because there was uot suflicieut hangars or airdromes to take care of their., or ample flying stations or fielus from which to fly and land; and neither was there a sufficient number of flyers, fly-ers, or competent men in the aviatiou ser ice to properly take care ot the planes, or sufficient supply of gasoline or lubricating oil. The first five Liberty Lib-erty planes had the misfortune to laud within the German lines by mistake, so the importance of having suitable grounds on which to land, ana to know wuere tu land, can readily be seeu. It i squires about fifty experienced men anu three extra plaues behind the lines to keep one man flying. -While, of. course, there was some delay in the development de-velopment of this wonderful Liberty-motor, Liberty-motor, which is not to be wondered at, but having produced the best motor in existence rather than adopting some inferior in-ferior motor, it has certainly beeu worth whatever loss has been caused bv the ueiay and will prove a greater benefit in the long run." Allies First in Air. The fact is. that the allies predominate predomi-nate in the air as thev do in man-power and in artillery. Jt is, indeed, gratifying gratify-ing to know, however, that the delay has ended and that planes are now arriving ar-riving at the distributing points in France about as rapidly as they can be taken care of. I 'enjoyed a flight ever France in one of the completed and thoroughly equipped Liberty D. H. 4 planes. These planes are regarded by experts to bo the best all-purpose plane in existence, one that can be used fairly successfully for all three purposes pur-poses required in a flight, to wdt: battling, bat-tling, observation and bombing. They are each modernly equipped, carrying a pilot, who is armed with a Marl in machine ma-chine gtm capable of shooting 600 shots per minute, and the propeller in front of him so synchronized with the gun as to pormit the pilot to fire right between the blades without hitting them, and aiso carrying an observer Hrmed with a Lewis machine gun, ychich has a greater shouting ability, because it has an independent inde-pendent train and can be pointed in any direction. The 1. H. 4 Liberty plane weighs about oSOO pounds, equipped with piiot and obsener, and carries oOO pounds or" bombs, equally divided, hanging from each wing, and so arranged tnat the operator may drop the bombs in fifty-pound fifty-pound pacs-ages, or, if he preters, can drop the yvhole oOo pounds at one time. Lach plane is also equipped yvith a wireless telegraph outfit, besides other modern devices for navigation and communication. com-munication. Visits Handley-Page. - "The Liberty motor is acknowledged to-be one ot tue best, if not the best, motors ever n.ade for flying purposes. A plane so equipped has greater speed, being a maximum of about .13o miles per Uonr, and can fly higher, yvhich is one of the greatest advantages in a fdght, than any other plane of this type yet manufactured. "It yvas my privilege to visit the Handley-Fage plane, in England, and ou September 1 to enjoy a flight over tue city of London in one of the large haudley-Page bombing planes, the type commonly known as U-40U, yhich can carry tweuty passengers besides the pilot and 2UU0 pounds of bombs besides machine gnu equipment, fore and ait as well as in the center. The wings of this plane measure J00 feet spread from tip to tip, and the body is 6o feet in length, and the piane weighs, without with-out equipment, three and a haif tons, and can carry, in addition, almost its own weight, so that it weighs, when fully equipped, about six tons and costs about JoO.uOO. It has two S50 horse- power motors, both the Kolls-Royce a,nd Liberty motors being used, placed on each side of the nose of the machine instead of directly in front, with platforms plat-forms built so that the motor can be cranked or repaired in the air. It carries car-ries 300 gallons of gasoline and can travel about S00 miles without landing. land-ing. - "While this may seem like a big story, yet this plant is now turning out another plane twice as large and with more than tyvice the capacity, carrying fiftv passengers, over two tons of bombs, and will be able to fly from London to Berlin, bomb that city and return home without leaving the air. I would not give thest facts, except I know they are well known to the enerav bv reason of the fact that the verv "first Handley-Page plane put into 'commission on trial by the British land- ed within the German Hues by mistake, and Germany immediately ueau to duplicate du-plicate it. This, however, was a ood thing for Mr. Page, fur alter a lou;, hard struggle to get recognition from his own government for the productiou of this wonderful machine as sooa as it was adopted by Germany it was inime- j diately approved by the British, and now they cannot be manufactured fast enough. T had the guoa rortune to witness wit-ness several airplane battles at L'hateuu-Thierrv; L'hateuu-Thierrv; Verdun, Belgium and along the English front near Arnicas. "I also visited various flying schools in England, principally ;it Lhattis Hill, near Winchester, whero J took another airplane flight, and flew over to a targe flviug school at Lecombe Corner, some distance away, and back again. We have seventy-two different flying schools in England in connection with the English aviators, both American and English f iyers being trained and fitted for service, and from which place the flyers are sent to the front in France" as they become proficient. Protection of Men. "Special attention is given to the training of all young men for the service serv-ice they are to perform before they are placed in danger. Every possible" precaution pre-caution is taken to protect them by our government. There are mx rest camps in England where those who disembark disem-bark on English shores rest up before goinc o France to enter the training i camps there. I learned of at least four- j teen different kinds of schools in ! France, as follows: Artillery, airplane 1 and air photography, observers, trans- ' portation facilities, blacksmith1" nsr and repairs, gas schools, machine gun and automatic rifle, signal corps, French mortar, pigeon schools (training, the handling of, and caring for, pigeons for messenger service"), engineers, camouflage, camou-flage, armv school of the line and general gen-eral staff "college. " From Motor Age. ; ious temptation. But the next question 1 was to provide them with clean and sat-l sat-l isfactory amusements and give them de- cent accommodations during their time on l furlough. The upshot was the formation of the war camp community service. ! formed for the express ourpose of caring ; for our sailors and soldiers when they j were away from camp. In this work the I motor car has taken a distinguished part. ! as is evidenced by an article on the car 1 I in community service in the October is-j is-j sue of MoTor, the National Magazine of ! Motoring. I "There are countless ways In which the nien in our 200 or more camps and ! posts are benefiting from the automo- bile, thanks td the care taken by the war ! camp community service to get them in j touch with owners of cars." says Arthur ! L. Drew, the author of the story referred to. "Community service, which operates in the towns and villages near the military mili-tary and naval centers, has reported that if every automobile placed at the dis-i dis-i posal of the men in the camps were j charged for at current local rates. It I would require an appropriation of $1,-I $1,-I 000.000 to cover this item alone." I As a concrete instance of the value of 1 this service the author tells how the women car owners of Montgomery. Ala., carried teachers to and from camp, in order that the many drafted mountaineers, mountain-eers, who could not. read or write, might be ei'en the rudiments of an education. To do this the women had to be on the job at 6:30 each morning, as the only f hour available for lessons was from 7 to S H would be hard to imagine a finer spirit of loyal co-operation than this; incidentally it is the spirit that wins wa rs. |