When Congress authorized the five year building program for naval aviation in 1926, the Navy had 351 serviceable airplanes on hand. The program is now well under way. On July I, 1927, there were 468, and on July 1, 1928, 624 airplanes in service in the Navy. The building program provided for 1,000 airplanes to be built over a period of five years. Three years remain to complete it. This wise provision of Congress has enabled the Navy to replace its obsolete aircraft with planes of the most modern type and to provide the additional planes necessary to meet the increasing requirements of the fleet. Naval aviation activities since the aircraft carriers Lexington and Saratoga joined the flag have been greatly extended. The fleet air squadrons work under three general categories: those which work from the carriers; those which work from the battleships and cruisers; and those which are not carried aboard ships but which work from the water, accompanied by seagoing tenders, which quarter the crews, and which carry the supplies and workshops necessary to maintain the planes during extended cruising.
To meet all the requirements of naval aviation the designer is confronted with problems which do not arise in the design of other types of military or commercial aircraft. The highest standards of performance, speed, maneuverability, climb, reliability, and all other characteristics of military aircraft, are essential. In addition to these requirements naval aircraft must be designed for practical use with the fleet, under conditions of service that are entirely different from those found in other forms of aviation activities. When aircraft are being catapulted into the air from the decks of battleships and cruisers at sea, or when alighting on the decks of aircraft carriers where the landing space is not one-tenth of the area of the ordinary landing field ashore, or when working on the water under average service conditions, they are subject to stresses which call for unusual features of design. Great credit is due to the designers and engineers who have successfully solved these problems.
Naval aviation has passed the critical stage and is now firmly established as a practical part of the fleet. No great stretch of imagination has been necessary to foresee the possibilities of aviation, but it has required patience, perseverance and engineering skill of the highest order to develop aviation to the point where it could be applied practically to uses with the fleet at sea.
Most of us have forgotten that Mr. Eugene Ely, in November, 1910, made the first airplane flight from a ship. He flew a fifty horse-power Curtiss land plane from a platform built on the bow of the U.S.S. Birmingham. anchored at Hampton Roads, Va. In 1911 he made a successful landing on the deck of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania lying in San Francisco harbor. But air activities from ships at sea were not practical until the successful development of the catapult and the airplane carrier. The Navy previously had been confined to its work with airplanes operating along the coast from naval air stations or in conjunction with seagoing tenders.
During the antisubmarine campaign in the war, the patrol type of airplane, sometimes called flying boat, was used extensively by the Navy. It was in one of this type, the NC-4, weighing 28,000 pounds, equipped with four motors and carrying five persons, including the radio operator, that Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read, U. S. Navy, in 1919 made a non-stop flight from Newfoundland to the Azores. It is worth noting that this was the first successful transatlantic flight. Many persons believe that the recent brilliant flight by Colonel Lindbergh from New York to Paris was the first flight across the ocean. Lindbergh was also preceded by Hawker and Brown, who flew a land plane from Newfoundland to Ireland shortly after Read’s flight. Miss Earhart’s flight from Newfoundland to England was the second flight to be made across the Atlantic by a seaplane. The newspapers are carrying headlines of attempted seaplane flights from the Azores to the United States, but these have not yet materialized (Aug. 3, 1928).
Aviation Records Held by United States Navy Since 1926 | ||
(World Records) | ||
Record | Plane | Date |
Altitude | Apache (landplane) | July 25, 1927 |
Seaplanes | ||
Duration | PN-12 | May 3, 4, 5, 1928 |
Distance | PN-10 | August 15-16, 1927 |
Altitude | Apache | July 4, 1927 |
Speed (for 1000 km.) | Corsair | May 21, 1927 |
Seaplanes with useful load of 500 kg. | ||
Duration | PN-10 | August 15-16, 1927 |
Distance | PN-10 | August 15-16, 1927 |
Altitude | Corsair | April 14, 1927 |
Speed (for 100 km.) | Corsair | April 23, 1927 |
Speed (for 500 km.) | Corsair | April 30, 1927 |
Seaplanes with useful load of 1000 kg. | ||
*Duration | PN-12 | May 25, 26, 1928 |
*Distance | PN-12 | July 11,12, 1928 |
*Altitude | PN-12 | June 27, 1928 |
*Speed (for 2000 km.) | PN-12 | July 11, 12, 1928
|
Seaplanes with useful load of 2,000 kg. | ||
*Duration | PN-12 | July 11,12, 1928 |
*Distance | PN-12 | July 11,12, 1928 |
*Speed (for 2000 km.) | PN-12 | July 11, 12, 1928 |
* Have not yet been authenticated by the F. A. I. |
Commander Byrd’s flight over the North Pole and his Arctic explorations, and the long distance flights over land and sea by American and European aviators have been notable achievements. Though not directly related to naval aviation, these flights and the record-breaking performances in speed, altitude, weight carrying and endurance show the progress that aviation is making from year to year. They also foster public interest in aviation and stimulate developments in the art. Incidentally, since 1926, fifteen of these world records have been established by our naval airplanes of the purely service type. These records were made in connection with experiments to determine the amount of fuel and military load which could be carried on naval missions.
The Navy is now operating from ships at sea, in the neighborhood of 225 airplanes of all types. Bombing, torpedo, scouting, observation, and fighting planes are carried on the Langley, Lexington and Saratoga. Observation planes and fighting planes are working from catapults on board battleships, and each light cruiser carries two observation planes on its catapult. The development of catapults for use on board ship has gone hand in hand with the developments along other lines of naval aviation. When the five-year building program was authorized in 1926 there were thirty-two catapults on battleships and cruisers and one on the aircraft carrier Langley. Since then eleven more catapults have been installed on battleships and one on each of the carriers Lexington and Saratoga.
The air-cooled motor has contributed greatly to the success of aviation activities on board ship. The water-cooled motors built during and subsequent to the war weighed about 2.2 pounds per horse-power, and were too heavy for shipboard planes carrying military loads. The Navy Department, consequently, encouraged the development of the air-cooled motor, in which the weight has been reduced to 1.43 pounds per horse power. By the elimination of water, radiator, piping, and other changes, fewer spare parts are necessary, which simplifies the problems of maintenance afloat. The elimination of the radiators and water piping also has lessened the vulnerability of aircraft to gunfire. Saving in weight has resulted where metal construction has replaced wood and wire, besides giving a greater degree of safety and less chance of serious personal injury in case of accident. Improved landing gear to absorb shocks in landing, the development of a light, reliable self-starter, and other improvements in the design of material have facilitated the work of the aviator on board ship. Improved designs of flotation have been secured for work on the water, and better instruments have resulted in more accurate navigation, more reliable communications, and higher scores in bombing.
Of equal importance to the development of aviation material has been the development of personnel. To keep pace with the annual increase in planes, the facilities at Pensacola for the training of aviators have been doubled. In 1925 a ground school course in aviation was added to the curriculum at the Naval Academy. This was extended to one month’s training in practical work with aircraft at Annapolis immediately after graduation from the Naval Academy. These officers are then sent to general service in ships of the fleet at sea for two years. During this period of two years’ service at sea, they are sent to the air stations at Hampton Roads or San Diego for a month’s practical course in flying. Upon the completion of the two years’ sea service a selected number of the officers are sent to Pensacola for the regular flight course of forty-two weeks, which includes every phase of aviation except work in the fleet. Those who complete this course satisfactorily become qualified naval aviators and are assigned to aviation duty in the fleet.
Since the naval air station at Pensacola was first established in 1914 it has trained over thirty-four hundred pilots. It is the principal aviation training school in the Navy and all officers and enlisted pilots must complete their training there.
Two rigid airships were authorized in the five-year building program. They are to be of approximately 6,500,000 cubic feet as compared with the 2,777,000 cubic feet of the Los Angeles, which was acquired from Germany after the war as part of the reparations agreement of the peace treaty. The Los Angeles has been used only for experimental work, and for training personnel, as the treaty stipulated that she could not be used for military purposes. Experience gained with her has resulted in improvements in handling gear and mooring masts, reducing the number of men required to handle her on the ground, and the cost of operations. New materials to take the place of gold-beater’s skin are being developed, and improved manufacturing processes have greatly reduced the cost of gas cells. The new dirigibles will have better stream-lined forms and controls than the Los Angeles. Improvements in the details of the design of structure promise greater strength to meet service conditions. The increase in size, combined with the above improvements, will result in greater all-around efficiency of the new ships. They will be valuable additions to the Navy.
The Saratoga and Lexington have helped greatly to increase the air strength of the Navy. These ships were designed as battle cruisers and were about half finished when the Limitation of Armament Treaty was agreed to. To avoid scrapping them they were converted into airplane carriers at a saving of several million dollars. They are of 33,000-tons standard displacement and are larger than necessary. Smaller ships would have answered the needs of the Navy better because, under the limited tonnage allowed, we could have a larger number of small carriers, which is preferable to a smaller number of large carriers. We need more carriers, and good ones can be built of half the displacement of the Lexington. It was hoped that Congress would authorize one carrier of about 14,000 tons this year, but the bill did not pass.
Each type of aircraft used in the Navy has been created for a definite purpose. No one type of aircraft can possibly combine in itself all the good qualities of the other types, but each must possess the best qualities possible for its purposes. There must be a careful balancing of types and of numbers, therefore, to meet all the material needs of the Navy. That the material be well designed and well constructed is one of the great essentials; that the personnel be skilled in its use is the other. These two essentials go hand in hand.
The Navy is a great machine composed of many elements. Whether these elements be acting separately on independent minor missions or acting together in a combined and coordinated effort of the whole, success or failure will depend upon the qualities that have been developed in the material and personnel. If the highest standards are maintained, the Navy can be depended upon to perform successfully whatever missions it may be called upon to do in peace or war.