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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0082.PDF
pjcfifj JANUARY, 29, 1910. MILITARY ASPECT OF DIRIGIBLE BALLOONS AND AEROPLANES. By COL. CAPP£R, RE. Concluded from page 61.) Enemy's Airships.—The third obstacle to the use of the airship is the enemy's airship. Generally speaking in war, like must be fought with like, and I do not think that airships will prove any exception to the rule. Seeing the vast importance that reconnaissance by these vessels may be to an army, it is absolutely necessary to prevent the enemy enjoying these advantages whilst retaining them for ourselves. If my conclusions are correct, terrestrial artillery will be entirely unable to prevent them obtaining most important information. Therefore we must use aerial. I consider it essential that any serious war-airship should be capable of attacking a similar vessel of the enemy. In any close encounter the destruction of both attacker and attacked may easily be brought about, and though on neither side would the personnel probably shrink from such mutual destruction, it is desirable to avoid it ourselves, whilst ensuring it to the enemy. There is no particular danger in using naked lights (at a distance from the envelope) on any well-made dirigible balloon, the cars of which, whilst remaining light, can easily be made capable of standing the shock of recoil of small guns. A war-airship must, to my mind, carry an armament probably of very special design, with shells similar to the Krupps, so that one hit on the huge envelope of an enemy will prove destructive to it. To ensure success we must have numbers of such ships sufficient both to destroy the enemy's air fleet, and leave us with a handsome surplus for other purposes, and the victory will go to those who can move the speediest, manoeuvre best, and probably highest, and shoot the farthest and straightest. Offensive Powers of Airships.—There is a second use of air ships, which though often exaggerated, we can by no means afford to neglect, and that is their actual offensive use. Now every large airship has a considerable carrying capacity surplus to the fuel and crew, &c, required even for fairly long voyages, and its armament. This surplus capacity can be utilised for carrying high explosives. It is contended by many that it is useless for an airship to carry bombs, as you cannot drop a bomb with any accuracy from any considerable height. But why should such bombs not be fired by compressed air or small charges, so as to start with a fair muzzle velocity ? Neither their walls nor the tubes from which they are fired need be heavy, and with practice fair shooting should be made at the small ranges at which they would be used. At night when airships can keep low down, I am of opinion they could be used with deadly effect on transports, and with considerable power of destruction on bridges, dock gates, arsenals, &c, whilst incendiary bombs may play havoc in supply depots. and stores, and airships so used would cause both moral and material distress to camps, bivouacs and horses, and undoubtedly would harass, by the need for constant watchfulness, posts on the lines of communication and at places far away from the field army. That the risks to be run by airships so employed would be con siderable is undoubted, but I am not disposed to admit that they would be so great that their employment would not be warranted, nor do I think we can afford to neglect the possibility of their use in this manner, nor to guard against it in the only possible way by having a sufficiency of airships ourselves to destroy the whole of the enemy's fleet. Transport.—Suggestions to utilise airships for transporting troops in any numbers may be looked on as chimerical. At the same time they may have a limited but important utility for the purpose of transporting individuals from point to point where roads are blocked, or ordinary facilities wanting, and it is not inconceivable that an air ship at the immediate personal disposal of the Commander-in-Chief might enable him to keep a close and personal view of the distribu tion of his forces, and the changing incidents of battle, which, with the help of the excellent communication systems now in use, will enable him to recover that direct control over the units of his force which it is now assumed it will be impossible for him to maintain. Position of Dirigible when at Rest.—I have hardly time to touch upon such questions as to whether a dirigible balloon should be filled at the base and return there almost daily, or be filled in the field, marching with the army and kept there. Whether it should be kept in the open air, either at anchor or fastened to the ground, or whether portable shelters should be carried for it. These are moot points, and besides entailing very considerable questions oi transport and personnel, are so dependent on actual experiment that I am not at present able to offer any opinion of value on the subject. The only point on which I have a decided opinion is that all troops not actually engaged in battle, or hastening to points where their immediate presence is necessary, must be instructed to render any required assistance when called on to do so by the officer in charge of an airship. Circumstances may render it necessary for an airship to come to earth in unforeseen places. Its crew, though ample for jts management when in the air, are quite insufficient to manage it on the ground, where it is peculiarly helpless, and failure to render active and immediate assistance may easily result in the total destruction of the ship. Use of Aeroplanes.—I now pass to the consideration of aero planes. The aeroplane as at present evolved is of but little use for war. It can be used for carrying in our own country despatches, maps, &c., with speed and certainty in fair weather; it may even carry single passengers from point to point, but it is not yet useful either for reconnaissance or for offence. Before many years are passed, however, the story will be a different one, and all the uses to which a dirigible balloon can be at present put can be fulfilled by an aeroplane, with the possible excep tion that it may prove impracticable to fit it with wireless telegraphy. Its great speed, however, will enable it to bring back news to a central point without undue delay, and to battle against all but the strongest winds. It has been objected that, owing to its inability to hover, no useful reconnaissance can be made from it. The objectors, however, neglect to consider two facts :— 1. That when working against the wind its speed, as compared with the stationary earth, is only the difference between its speed through the air and the speed of the wind against it ; and 2. That it can circle round a small radius and thus remain practi cally above one spot for considerable periods. Invulnerability.—It is extraordinarily invulnerable. The sus taining surfaces may be pierced with many holes without seriously affecting its flight, and some of its main frames may be bruised, or even shattered, without involving its destruction, whilst its small size and high rate of travel will render it a very difficult mark to any artillery. It, again, must be fought in its own element—the air. From its cheapness and from the rapidity with which it can be made, it is probable that, if used at all, it will be used in large numbers, and will form a scouting machine of the very first importance. It may also be used to some extent for the same destructive purposes as a dirigible balloon, the small bombs it can carry, and the absence of mechanical appliances for launching them accurately, being partially compensated for by the largely increased numbers available for any special duty. Aeroplane v. Dirigible Balloon.—A very interesting and im portant question has to be considered, which is, how far can the aeroplane counteract the dirigible balloon ? The present is undoubtedly to the dirigible balloon, but every airship of existing pattern will, in my opinion, be driven out of the field, before ten years are passed, by the aeroplane. The height to which present patterns of airships can ascend is limited, and these heights will undoubtedly be reached by aero planes. I hesitate, however, to say that an aeroplane will be able to ascend to heights of 10,000 ft. and over, whilst there is no obstacle to designing airships which can go to 15,000 ft. or more. It is merely a question of size. Within the limits to which aeroplanes can reach, I cannot see how a hostile airship can exist in their presence. They are, as mentioned before, very invulnerable, whilst the airship is peculiarly easily destroyed. It can never pay an airship to attack an aeroplane ; it will always avoid it if possible, and as its speed will probably be considerably less it can only avoid it by keeping above it. An aeroplane can probably not ascend at anything like the pace at which a dirigible can if the latter throws out ballast. Should, however, the aeroplane get above the airship, even at a distance, it can swoop down on it at a terrific pace without much danger, and would have little difficulty in destroying it. From 20 to 100 aeroplanes can be built for the cost of one dirigible, so the loss of two or three would be no great price to pay for the destruction of an airship, which would not be secure from attack even if it remained close to the ground. As soon, and the tinve is close upon us, as the aeroplane shows itself capable of raising two men in ainy ordinary weather to a height 78
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