| OCR Text |
Show They Will Destroy the Big Battleships Now Building New York. May lC. Glenn IT Cnr-llss. Cnr-llss. the aviator, believes that the day of Dreadnoughts and monster battleships is past, and that by the time the next great war breaks out, the huge battleship Florida nnd the other costly floating fort of this and other navies will be usclesj. Swarms of light, swift aeroplanes, he says, will replace the tardier, more sluggish ships of the sea. and will swarm like deadly Insects over the old-fashioned navies, 'dropping their terrible poison In the shape of picric neld bombs before the unwleldly men of war are nble to retaliate." More than a thousand aeroplanes can be launched lor tho price of a siuge battleship, he says "I waa much Interested In the launching of the Florida the other day." said Mr. Curtlss. "I heartily subscribe to the preparations we are making to defend our country from all jik'grcasion But I do not believe that we are going about It In the right way in view of modern conditions. condi-tions. ... "Battleshlns have been. Impressive engines of war.-luiftholr day is practically prac-tically done. It Is as sure as death nud taxes that tho uLrtblp will, supersede super-sede the great floating structure, of steel with its Immense gutis "Imagine for Instance, that a hostll fleet be anchored twenty miles off New York. Suunose it Consists of some of the most powerful of modern mod-ern vessels like the Florida. Before it could begin to shell the city, our I fleet of aeroplanes would start frotn i the New Jersey flats. Suppose we I have onlv 200 of them. Each Is able to carry 200 pound9 of bombs. "Bombs were used in the South I African war which welghetl not more than ten nounds - ,Thev were made of picric acid So far as I know, there i nothing more dfadly. ' "The missiles can be hurled down upon such a broad target as a war vessel with gToat nreclsion. Foreign experiments carried on in sc-crei, j have demonstrated that objects can be droonod from a moving aeroplane and hit "a target w ithin a mdlus of twelve feet j "During the dav the aeroplanes could soar awav at a great height. They could he nalnted the color of, the sky. Before the lookouts on the hostile fleet could discern the fliers the aeroplanes could sweep down and blow the warshlns to pieces. Be- 1 fore the shlos could bring any of their clumsv cuns Into action, the aeronlnnes would be off. Before another vear has passed, I mauy' nations will devote the millions mil-lions thev are now spending on DreaduauLhls in building fleets of aeroplanes. It Is inevitable." . |
