Show CURTISS BELIEVES AEROPLANES WILL iI RENDER MODERN BATTLESHIPS BA USELESS FOR O WAR YAR NEW KEW YORK May Mar 16 Glenn Glenn H. H Curtiss Curtiss Cur Cur- tho the aviator believes that the tho day of and monster battleships is past and aud that by the time timo the tho next great war breaks our the hugo huge battleship battle ship Fori Florida a and tho other costly floating float float- lag ing forts of this sad find other navies DaVICS will willbe willbo bo be useless Swarms of light swift aeroplanes he says will replace the tardier more sluggish sluggish slug slug- gish ships of the sea and will swarm like deadly dradi insects over tho old fashioned fashioned fash I na navies es dropping their terrible I poison in the shape of picric acid Mid bombs before the unwieldy men of war are able to retaliate Moro More than a thousand aeroplanes can he launched for the tho price of a single battleship he ho sas sa's says I I was waa much mitch int interested in th the I launching of the Florida the tho other day said Mid Mr Curtiss I I heartily subscribe to the tho preparations we are making to defend our country from nfl all aggression But I do not believe that wo we are arc goin going about it in tho the right way in in view o of modern conditions Battleships have been impressive o en engines n. n gines ines of war but their day ii is practically done aone Gone It is as aR sure as death and taxes that the airship will supersede the great grett P lt floating structure of steel with its ito immense im im- im menso mense guns Imagine for instance that a hostile hostilo fleet be anchored anchored twenty miles off New York Suppose it consists of some of the most powerful of modern vessels like Jike the Florida Before it could begin to shell tho the cit city our fleet of aeroplanes would start from tho the New Now Jersey flats Suppose wo we have only of them Each is able to carry 20 pounds of bombs bomb Bombs were wore used in the South African African can war which weighed not moro more than ten pounds Th They were made of picric acid So far as I r know thero there is nothing more mora deadly The missiles can be hurl hurled cd down upon such a broad target as a war wares yes ves vessel sel with great precision For Foreign ign experiments exper carried on in secret have demonstrated demo dem that objects can bo be dropped from a moving aeroplane and lind d' d hit a target tar target tar tar- get within a radius of twelve e feet During the dav day the aeroplanes could soar away at a cat hei ht They could be ho painted the col color of the sky Before Before Be Be- fore the tho lookouts on en the hostile fleet fled could discern the tho fliers the tho aeroplanes could swoop down and blow the warships warships war war- ships to pieces Before Defore tho the ships could coull bring any of their clumsy guns uns into action th the aeroplanes would be bo off Before another year has passed many nations w will ll devote the tho million they are now spending spendin on in building fleets of aeroplanes It is inevitable I |