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Show "STRIKE GERMANY THROUGH THE AIR," SLOGAN OF AIRCRAFT ORGANIZATIONS Recent Conference in Washington Shows the Great Importance of the Participation of the United States in This Regard Has Better Facilities Than the Allies Had at the Beginning Be-ginning ofthe War. AYasliington. "We Must Strike Germany Ger-many Through the Air" is the new slogan slo-gan which has resulted from the meeting meet-ing in AVashington of members of the aircraft production board of the United Unit-ed States and the'board of governors of the Aero Club of America, after study of the present war situation and of the ways and means , for carrying on an effective eampaigu of education. Alan R. Hawley, president of the Aero Club of America, issued the following fol-lowing statement : "Germany's U-boat warfare and the necessity of keeping the German fleet bottled up are occupying the navies of the allies, and no decisive victory over the Germans is expected in naval actions ac-tions in the near future. Likewise advances ad-vances against the Germans on 'land are slow, and Germany has seemed able so far to always throw new thousands thou-sands of men and new lines of trenches and countless guns to meet the advances of the allies. The only victories on the part of the allies so far have been as a result of supremacy of the air, as a result of the matching of skilful, daring allied aviators against German aviators and observation observa-tion balloons. Masters in the Air. ' "It was not until the Germans were deprived of their aerial eyes and the allies' aviators, being masters of the air, could follow the movements Of the enemy and locate their batteries and their strongholds, that the allied victories vic-tories became possible. "AA'hile the United States is beginning begin-ning to help substantially now, effective effec-tive help of the kind that leads to permanent per-manent victory can only come at the end of months of preparation, and in considering in which way we can best prepare to help to achieve permanent victories it is found that the aerial branch of the service affords the greatest great-est possibilities. "British, French, Russian, Italian and American authorities who have studied the matter closely have come to the conclusion that the addition of 10,000 aviators today to the allies' present aerial forces would insure blinding the German batteries and preventing pre-venting German aviators from conducting conduct-ing operations over or near the allies' lines. An additional 10,000 aviators would make it possible to conduct aerial raids on a large scale and to strike Germany in the most vital places, to strike hard enough to lead to permanent victories." The authorities who met in Washington Wash-ington readily agreed that every effort should be concentrated in striking Germany Ger-many through the air. Several instances in-stances during the meeting emphasized that although different persons present pres-ent had obtained their information from separate sources, their information informa-tion was practically alike. Board of Governors Meets. The meeting of the board of governors gov-ernors of the Aero Club of America was held in Washington and Howard E. Coffin, the chairman of the aircraft production board, who is also a member mem-ber of the board of governors of the club, presided. The members of the board present were : Mr. Hawley, James A. Blair, Jr. ; W. Redmond Cross, Charles Edwards, Max II. Fleischmann, John Hays Hammond, Jr.; Capt. James E. Miller, Raymond B. Price, Henry A. AVlse AVood and Henry Woodhouse. Having reached the conclusion that fforts must be concentrated to get and train thousands of aviators and arrnnge to manufacture tens of thousands thou-sands of modern airplanes of different differ-ent tvpes for training, bomb-dropping, artillery spotting, fighting machines and submarine destroyers, the board next turned to consider the ways and moans of getting the aviators and machines. ma-chines. To do this the aviation training facilities fa-cilities and the sources of supplies for aircraft must he greatly extended. It was shown that at the beginning of the war Great Britain did iwit have one-third one-third of the aeronautic manufacturing facilities we have In the United States today and there was read a statement from the British controller of aeronautic aero-nautic supplies reporting that there are 058 firms engaged on work for the British directorate of aeronautic supplies, sup-plies, 301 of which are direct contractors contrac-tors and G57 are sub-contractors. This report states that the total number of hands employed by the 50 firms of greater prominence is 66,700. There was also brought out the fact that the British budget for aeronautics for the present year totals $575,000,-000. $575,000,-000. This is made public as a result of its publication In connection with a discussion which took place in the house of commons recently. England and France had to come up from a production of a few airplanes a month to the present production of about 4,-000 4,-000 airplanes a month and have had to do that with limited resources in personnel per-sonnel and materials. The United States today has a better start than either France or England had at the beginning of the war and it has tremendous tre-mendous resources in workmen and materials. It is all a question of adopting an extensive enough campaign to insure large production and of placing orders for continuous deliveries of airplanes and training of aviators and mechanics in large numbers. To do that there will be required large appropriations, but no trouble is anticipated In that direction. The government's committee on public pub-lic information has Issued the following follow-ing statement regarding part of the details of the steps already taken to train aviators in large numbers : "Last month a group of army officers offi-cers visited the training camp of the Royal Flying corps at Borden, Ont., one of the four camps established in Canada, and the aviation school at Toronto, where cadets are trained under un-der military discipline for the service. In these schools there has been incorporated incor-porated the latest European experience in the development of this new art of the air. "Our officers were deeply impressed with their observations, and as a result re-sult we called together here the heads of six prominent engineering schools, which also have military training, and made arrangements to establish a similar sim-ilar system in the United States. The six institutions are the Universities of California, Texas, Illinois and Ohio, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Technol-ogy and Cornell university. Three technical instructors from each of these places were sent to Toronto. They returned after a comprehensive study of the course given there, prepared pre-pared to teach it themselves. These six engineering schools have opened similar cadet aviation schools at their respective institutions. Courses in Aviation. "These cadet schools might be described de-scribed as laboratory courses in aviation. avia-tion. The students are given thorough instruction in the theory of flying, Including In-cluding the necessary physics and mathematics and the mechanics of airplane air-plane construction. The training schools are thoroughly equipped with samples of airplane parts and instruments instru-ments for demonstration, as well as text-books. Technical matters relating to map-making, photography, bomb-dropping, bomb-dropping, sun-sighting and all similar subjects which a military aviator must know are also taught. All during this time the cadet is under military training, train-ing, following the methods which Great Britain and Canada have found so successful. suc-cessful. At the end of two months of this preliminary work the cadet is given giv-en a final test to determine whether he shall go on to the aviation camp. "General Squler's office has been handling these schools. All applications applica-tions from persons who wish to become military aviators have been turned over to this department, over which Prof. Hiram Bingham of Yale has been given general direction by General Squier, and there have been far more applicants than could be admitted. The schools begnn on May 10 and 25 cadets a week are entering each of the six colleges, which means that as soon as the first entering class completes com-pletes its preliminary work approxi-! approxi-! mately 150 students a week will be available for the regular training camp with a good ground work on which to start their practical training. Six Hundred Cadets in Six Colleges. "There will be GOO " cadets in the six colleges by July. In the meantime arrangements are going ahead for the nine aviation fields to receive re-ceive their men when they are ready. The aircraft production board Is working work-ing constantly with the military departments de-partments in preparing for the construction con-struction of these fields. The standard field on which we are basing our program pro-gram will provide for accommodating two squadrons of 150 students each with the necessary officer instructors and enlisted men, together with a certain cer-tain number of additional enlisted men who will be training at the same time. "The hangars will take care of 72 airplanes. The preparation of these fields will cost approximately a million dollars each, Including the construction construc-tion of the necessary buildings, dormitories', dorm-itories', work Shops and hangars. A standard set of buildings has already been worked out, the fields will be approximately ap-proximately a mile square, and great care is 'being taken by the military officers of-ficers as regards their location. "We are estimating about four months as the period for getting these students ready for army service. "The aircraft production board is working hard to assist the military departments de-partments in their arrangements to have all these related activities co- , ordinated and at the same time to get the necessary training machines ready in time for their use. "Both the manufacturing problem ' and the training problem will be much simplified the second year if we can ; establish the proper co-ordination of effort this year. The manufacturing capacity can easily be doubled the second sec-ond year. In getting the co-operation of the manufacturers in placing their facilities at the disposal of the government gov-ernment we have found the organization organiza-tion of the Aircraft Manufacturers' association, as-sociation, effected last February, of great assistance. "A prominent British general has asserted that America's greatest contribution con-tribution to the war will be aircraft and aviators. We believe that once started upon quantity production American mechanical genius will overcome over-come any present obstacles to the prog-gress prog-gress of the art." |