Fruits of Labor >>

Fruits of Labor

Nine grave gentlemen last week presented to the President and the public the product of some eleven weeks' deliberation. The nine, headed by Dwight W. Morrow, washed their hands of a troublesome job. They had done their duty and they were free. The President and the public could do what they liked about the report of the President's Air Inquiry Board, Summary:

Preamble. "The conflict is one between the old and the new, emphasized by the sharp adjustments required in a period immediately following a great war. Such conflicts of thought have gone on from the beginning. They will go on until the end. It is in many ways desirable that they should go on, even in armies, subject always, of course, to that essential discipline without which an army becomes a mob. What is needed, is a more generous appreciation by each side of the difficulties of the other side. On each side there is need of patience with what seems the unreasonableness of the other side. The fundamental problem may not be settled. It may, however, be understood if men will approach it with less feeling and more intelligence."

Part I (Questions which the Board asked itself and which "despite the conflict of testimony admit of answers").

1) In determining an aviation policy for the United States Government, what should be the relation between the military and civilian services? "Our answer to this question is that they should remain distinctly separate. "The peacetime activities of the United States have never been governed by military considerations. To organize its peacetime activi- ties, or what it is thought may ultimately be one large branch of them, under military control or on a military basis would be to make the same mistake which, properly or improperly, the world believes Prussia to have made in the last generation. The union of civil and military air activities would breed distrust in every region to which our tension." commercial aviation sought extension."

2) How can the civilian use of aircraft be promoted? "To the end that this important field should receive the attention that it deserves, we recommend that provision be made for a Bureau of Air Navigation under an additional Assistant Secretary of Commerce. We recommend the progressive extension of the Air Mail Service, preferably by contract, and also that steps be taken to meet the manifest needs for airways and air-navigation facilities, including an adequate weather service maintained by public authority and planned with special reference to the needs of air com-merce."

3) What should be the military air policy of the United States?

"Here our obvious general policy should be to maintain our naval aviation in due relation to the fleet. Our national policy calls for the establishment of the air strength of our army primarily as an agency of defense."

4) Is the United States in danger by air attack from any potential enemy of menacing strength?

"Our answer to this question is No.

"This conclusion is based on the facts as they now are. No airplane capable of making a transoceanic flight to our country with a useful military load and of returning to safety is now in existence.

"Commander Rodgers, in command of the PN9 on the recent flight to Hawaii, states that there is no airplane in existence which would be able to come to this country across either ocean carrying a heavy military load, nor is the construction of one to be expected with known materials and known motive powers. Commander Towers, one of the oldest flyers in the Navy, who participated in the flight in 1919 from Newfoundland to the Azores, expresses the opinion that for either of our coasts to be bombarded from overseas would involve transporting airplanes by surface craft across the ocean. He adds that 'with op- position it would be entirely ridiculous.' "

5) Should there be a department of national defense under which should be grouped all the military defensive organizations of the Government?

"We do not recommend a Department of National Defense, either as comprising the Army and the Navy or as comprising three co-ordinate departments of army, navy and air. The disadvantages outweigh the advantages."

6) Should there be formed a separate department for air, co-ordinate with the present Departments of War and Navy?

"Our answer is No.

"The quoted opinion of General Pershing and the direct testimony of General Summerall, General Hines and General Ely, of Admiral Sims, Admiral Eberle, Admiral Robison, Admiral Coontz and Admiral Hughes stressed the need of the Army and of the Navy for their own air service. Modern military and naval operations cannot be effectively conducted without such services acting as integral parts of a single command."

Part II (Recommendations).

In the Army, an Assistant Secretary of War in charge of aviation should be created; a flying officer should be placed on the general staff; two additional brigadier generals should be created in the air service; extra pay and if possible some form of insurance should be granted to those on flying duty as compensation for extra hazards; means should be taken to strengthen the aviation reserve and to study the desirability of using enlisted men as pilots.

In the Navy the recommendations are similar but with slight variations to conform to the different organization of that service. Instead of representations on a "general staff" it is suggested the naval aviators should be represented in the office of the Chief of Naval Operations and in the Bureau of Investigation; flying officers with general naval training should be placed in command of aircraft carriers, etc., and flying officers should be given general training as much as possible without detaching them from flying duty; no prejudice to a man's promotion should be caused by reason of his devotion to flying duty alone.

In the aircraft industry, production should be stimulated by letting standard contracts for two or three years for the bulk of the Government's needs, and small contracts on liberal terms should be made with firms which maintain competent staffs of designers, in order to encourage improvements in design.

Obiter Dicta. "The next war may well start in the air, but in all probability will wind up, as the last war did, in the mud. . . .

"The rapidity of development in the new science must of necessity in any country result in there being but a small proportion of absolutely new and up-to-date planes out of the total possessed by any service.

"The fact that any plane is 'obsolete' or 'obsolescent' does not necessarily mean that it is 'un-safe.' . . .

"Our strength of air arm in proportion to general military es- tablishment compares favorably with that of any other power. . . .

"In particular, much criticism has been directed against the DH plane, of which a large number were on hand at the close of the war. . . . A late report shows that the British Royal Air Force in their trans- Africa flight, recently completed, used DH planes substantially like ours and equipped with American-built Liberty engines.

"Our DH planes, . . . though referred to by some critics as 'flaming coffins,' have in the last three years been flown approximately 1,000,000 miles 'cross country' on the Army airways without a cas- ualty. . . .

"Our Navy was the first among those of the world to adapt the airplane to use on and over the sea. This was accomplished through the development of seaplanes and flying boats. In these types of airplane we have continued to hold our lead. The Navy early developed the catapult for the launching of planes from ships. No other navy has as yet produced a successful counterpart. We have done more extended cruising with large seaplanes than any other navy. . . .

"There is a controversy in regard to the ability of airplanes under war conditions to sink the largest naval vessel. In our records will be found a complete summary of naval experimentation on this subject over the past 15 years. This is a highly technical question, and, in our opinion, any present answer must partake more of prophecy than of fact."