Show NEW ATTACK PLANES ARE SPEEDIEST YET U S orders swift death messengers buffalo N Y america is forti lying in the air winged messen gers of death and destruction cap able of speeds conservatively placed at better than five miles a minute are being turned out here for the military the curtiss wright fac fee tory is a beehive of activity with orders for planes of different types for both the army and the nay nax y several types were tested here re bently as the two military arms ac cepter them and sent them on to ce squadrons one tested was a twin all metal attack plane which harry woodring sec detary of war asserts is the fastest such in the world A visiting army pilot who stood near by when the craft streaked by overhead aid that s the fastest attack plane in the world and there s no kidding about it guns fired electrically th the e american ship is a mid wing monoplane with a long tapering sil very fuselage its wheels retract as it speeds through the air with its two cyclone 1 1000 horse power en gines at full throttle it carries two men the pilot in the front cockpit and the observer or gunner aft in the nose are im placements for four electrically fired machine guns As a defense against enemy planes there is a gunner in the rear cockpit he has a gun mounted on a turret which he can swing into almost any direction thirteen of these fat fact attack ships are being turned out rapidly for the army air corps meanwhile this plant is turning out an order of single seater P 36 A pursuit planes having just been awarded the contract in the mount of 4 from the war department these pursuit planes speed through the air like a bullet they are powered with double row pratt whitney wasp engines of 1050 horse power although the speed of these is a military secret secretary woodring admits they fly at miles an hour it is estimate ed that they climb at better than 3 feet a minute flies nearly straight up B S kelsey of wright field was flying one here recently that shot almost straight up into the air until it was out of sight in a few minutes lieutenant kelsey who is one of the army s crack test pilots ripped through the clouds and then dove earthward only to stand the ship on its tail again and zoom up to a low hanging cloud bank another plane seen in flight was NAs a new navy scout bomber it is as ay n gle motored biplane for use on the navy s aircraft carriers it hasche has the conventional arresting gear for short landings on the carrier decks it has machine guns firing through the propeller arc and carries a load of bombs which can be dropped on a target while in a vertical dive |