Show THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE SUNDAY MORNING JUNE' 7 3931 90 onlral led files of the How a ro1 Distinguished Army Flying Expert Sees Air Engagements of the Future and the Strategy Most Lively to Win i ! i XjtAX ? !r f 1 3) G CARL SPATZ tie author oi the following article has be- ' hind him the background of military training and experience which peculiarly qualify him to write as an authority on practical wartime aviation A graduate of the United States Military Academy in the class of 1914 he became a £rst lieutenant in the aviation section a year later He served under Pershing m Mexico and with singular distinction in the A E F After the armistice Major Spatz returned to America a holder of the coveted Distinguished Service Cross and plunged into the study of aerial maneuvers and formations As Assistant Officer and later as Commanding Officer in the Army Air bases on both coasts and in Texas and Michigan he shared his counsels ivith superiors in Washington and gained their approval with the result that many of the modern notions of aerial warfare may be recognized as his He gained fame as commander of the army plane “ Question Mark ” when it established an endurance record of ISO hours 40 minutes and IS seconds in January 1929 At the present time Major Spatz Is on duty at Rockwell Field Coronado California where he is in command of the bombardment group By li iw CTD Major Carl Spatz U S Cl X V 7 r ‘O V 'VP e f ' f - 1 'V V This Striking Drawing by Louis Biedermann Gives an Inkling of How the Air Battles of the Future Will Be Fought Far Above the Battle Area At XX Right Twelve x Pursuit of Ships Capable 190 Miles an Hour In Regular Flying Formation The large drawing on this page merits careful study on the part of any one who really desires to understand the functions of the various types of planes used and the strategy of the attack The armament of the air is composed chiefly-- Cf large planes which are known as bombers and lighter planes known as pursuit ships The message bombsrs slower than the purthe of elev suit planesbeing in squadrons in acing fly wires with rical cordance with the old maxim that t insulation heavy “there is safety in numbers” has mostly elimi- -- -n A single bombardment airplane for this trouble nated $ built to carry heavy loads example most satisThe rather than to maneuver ana fight would ba an easy target for a flight factory antenna k has been found in hostile pursuit But a squadron of to be a trailing bombers huddled in ‘close formation 125 feet wire each belching machine gun Are from its long which is six guns at the rate of mora than wound onto a seven thousand rounds per minute spool before a would mean almost certain destruction landing is made for a single squadron in pursuit altitudes Changing A great deal of time is spent trainconditions weather ing pilots to properly fly in formation and distances brought in order that a squadron may maneuver The their obstacles quickly and safely when the need sets had to be selec- arises tlve to prevent inter- ' So far only the activity that takes ference from ground at low altitudes within sight of place stations which meant people on the ground has been additional weight in described Since tne World War wa the ships have been steadily going higher and Due largely to the higher in an attempt to prepared for untiring efforts of In 1916 the altitude warfare high Charles H Howard waa done below eighteen thou- fighting and Second Lieutensand feet but if a war were to break ant Ivan L Farman out today that ceiling would be greatly these difficulties have raised Especially with radio control been fairly well there is a great tactical advantage in reand altitude conquered’ The airplane that can go search is still being highest is beyond reach of enemy ships conducted ft and at the same time Recently in order ‘ being in position to dive down deliver to put the entire an attack on enemy aircrafts or on equipment to a practv ground objectives or to drop bombs while remaining aloft were gone to the effect that the enemy ical test and bfore the great armada of 672 planes flew over New Yerk in Numerous difficulties arise however situation had changed that weather which to some degree offset the ada mock bombarding raid a war was conditions along the squadron’s proassumed to be raging on the Pacific vantages In the first place an airplane posed route were extremely hazardcoast between Los Angeles and the ous that a large formation of enemy designed for high altitudes must make Mexican border A theoretical enemy sacrifices in performance or speed bombardcrs were beaded for Paris or was attacking our shores that our own bombers were being attand our Temperature is a factor which must be taken into consideration acked twenty miles away yet so far group was given the job of destroying as the force in the air was concerned the enemy fleet and air force For the pilot to be obliged to handle r The the information would have been radio oxygen tank and all at great 91st Pursuit Squadron and the 11th useless altitudes is a man-siz- e Bombardment Squadron — the two x requirement tactical units of this group— were The most difficult obstacle to overThe Seventh Bombardment Group come has been the natural reluctance sent out their planes loaded with stationed at Rockwell Field Coronado bombs and ammunition completely of pursuit pilots to accept the addiCalifornia has proven the practicabilmanned and groomed for action Radio tional equipment and operate the radio radio for military ity of inter-plan- e sets Flying close combat formation orders were sent from the command airplanes is quite a job in itself But the Dur-s- uit In this process many difficulties-- ' ship to the squadrons the commander arose In the early trials the roar of moving them at will within a radius of pilot must also watch his instru- two hundred miles ments navigate receive and transmit the motors drowned out reception Ail maneuvers were carried out with visual signals fire his machine guns necessitating specially constructed helmets with the headphones built in precision to the complete satisfaction-o- f and — if flying at the high altitudes d now reached — regulate ms oxygen the proponents of Each click of a spark plus-wasolidly received along with a jumbled — air squadrons breathing apparatus v in-it- V u- 1 a A tX A thirteen years have elapsed the great war closed yet pioneers of aerial warfare who braved and found death overseas would hardly recognize their squadrons SJf As Pictured in the Upper decked out with new equipment and Hand Corner Will Right employing modem tactical theories In these few years the picture of Be the Commander of the Armada In His Plane (2) -of airplanes wandering freat swarms Radio Orders to His Dictating towards the fighting front has Squadrons 1 A Squadron of units changed to one of Pursuit Planes at an Altitude flying precise highly maneuverable of 30000 Feet Bearing Down formations which are strictly conUpon the Heavy Enemy trolled However many planes may be Bombers (3) Destroying a in flight all are responsive to the City at an Altitude of 20000 orders of the commander at a moment’s Feet Pursuit Planes In the notice while within a radius of two Distance (4) Will Be Within hundred miles Control of the Commander Radio of course is the anwser Within a Radius of 200 Miles In the next war instead of each With Only the Hanging Aerial his own his in own battle pilot fighting (5) for Transmission of way large formations will move as Messages units resembling well drilled infantry regiments The commander office and ail will actually be in the sky will be moved to the aid of the friendly s The walls of his aerial office will be bombers operating vicinity with This may all sound theoretical but maps upon which colored papered the mark will locations of his it has already been worked out and pinheads units The radio operator will hand training activities now are directed to him a message: a pin will be moved these lines A weather report will come in and he Radio I say without trepidation is will tell a squadron a hundred miles the most important single factor in An order the development of aerial tactics since away to change its route will come in irom a division comman-de- h the war Once a squadron of airplanes and a squadron twenty miles away took off in 1918 it was out of contact ONLY A s: Air Corps in Collaboration with Lieutenant Harold W Bow- man 7th Bombardment Group A C A At it 0 t - li t v i u h L A a r it y t : anti-aircra- X with the and ground units other except those within and so sight far as control was the r’t n 11 77'T hi A ' ’ !U4 i 4 Photograph of Major Spatz Seated at the Desk of His Control Ship High in the Air from Which He Commands and Directs Units of the Seventh Bombardment Group Having Every Plane With-in Two Hundred Miles Under Constant Supervision Due to Radio Signals ' concerned arm waving tail wagging signals used while in the air were about as ineffective ss mental telepathy would have been Word might have come in to the home five station minutes after tbeplanes Ktwspapar Fsaturs Svrvloa -- - s till radio-controlle- |