AMERICAN CONTRIBUTIONS
As a part of the American effort for effective prosecution of the war
in the air, American skill, ingenuity, knowledge and determination in
research solved some problems in air navigation and air fighting that
will be contributions as important to aeronautics in peace time as
they were in war, when they helped to turn the tide of battle against
the enemy. The account of American achievement in the delivery of
telling strokes would hardly be complete without a summary of these
developments, discoveries and new applications of facts or methods
already known.
Of great importance was the devising of the Liberty Motor, which met
a keenly felt need for a high-powered engine for use in battle and
observation planes and also made possible rapid production of motors in
large quantities. Not only did this aid our war associates and hasten
our own progress toward making our influence decisive at the front but
it will have an important influence upon the commercial future of the
airplane.
The discovery of a method for obtaining helium in large quantities
at a low cost from natural gas will have results of the highest
consequence for air navigation. Being non-inflammable it makes the
dirigible a safe means of transport by air and so greatly increases
the possibilities of long distance flights above both oceans and
continents. The propaganda balloons devised by the meteorological
and other services of the United States were most useful in the
dissemination of information in enemy countries, where the results were
important in the undermining of morale. They also make possible the
mapping of the air highways across the Atlantic and the observation of
air temperatures and air currents--a service which will be of so much
importance to the future of aviation that it can not yet be estimated.
The ingenuity and resourcefulness which found a means of treating
cotton fabric to make it as good as linen for the covering of airplane
wings made a contribution of signal value to American effort in the
war, for without it our air program would have been completely balked.
Other nations had attempted to solve the same problem and had devised
cotton substitutes for linen, but none of them had proved equal to the
strain which airplane wings must bear. The American process gave a
substitute as good as linen, and better in some respects, and it has
already proved a contribution of very great value to the building of
airplanes for commercial purposes, for it simplifies the obtaining of
raw material and lessens the cost of production.
Many problems connected with work in the air were under study by
scientific experts in the army service when the armistice was signed
and many smaller problems had been solved and contributions of less
value had been made. Among them was the devising of a new and improved
compass for air use; the developing of new and more serviceable
cameras for airplanes; the construction of a leak-proof tank for
airplanes which lessens the dangers of flying; the devising of several
kinds of ingenious signaling lamps for both day and night use. Several
new types of planes were developed under the urgency of the country’s
needs that make important aeronautical advances.
One of the most important of all the airplane improvements of the
entire war was the developing and the successful application by members
of the Bureau of Aircraft Production to American airplanes of the radio
telephone. It made possible voice communication between planes in the
air and between the ground and the planes. For some time before the
armistice was signed squadrons of American planes at the front were
being maneuvered and fought by radio telephone and German orders had
been insistent that an American plane thus equipped should be shot down
and brought to the rear for examination. Important for war purposes
as was this development, the result of months of investigation and
experiment, its possibilities and its value for peace time uses are
even greater.
Although not completed in time for war use, an invention for the
control and direction by wireless from the air of boats and torpedoes
in the water and of airplanes from the ground was mainly developed
under the spur of war needs and its promise was high for decisive war
usefulness, as it is also for peace-time purposes.
To create a new industry and bring it into quantity production; to
work out a method of instruction and training; to train thousands of
fliers in all the specialized branches of flying to a high degree of
skill; to train the tens of thousands of mechanics necessary for the
upkeep and supply of a large aviation service; to bring that service
up from a point of utter negligibility to a state of such efficiency
and importance that it gave aid of high value on the Western front; and
during the same time to make contributions of the highest consequence
to air navigation--that is the summing up of America’s achievement in
the air, in a year and a half, for the prosecution of the war.
PART TWO
THE NATION BEHIND THE FIGHTERS