PATRICK TAKES UNION HEARERS ON AIR TOUR

"The economic independence of the United States is at stake, if we do not immediately build and subsidize a commercial air-force of our own" was the warning struck by Major General M. M. Patrick, chief of the Army Air Service, at his lecture on aviation at the Union.

"Nowadays an army or a navy without an air-force is like a boxer entering a fight blind-folded;" whereupon to prove his point, General Patrick proceeded to show some terrifying pictures of the bombing of the battleship Alabama. Exactly six minutes elapsed between the moment when the 2000 lb, bomb struck the deck of the doomed ship to the time when its keel disappeared beneath the sea. And to show how much the art of air-offence has improved, nowadays three air-planes can drop in one fight as many tons of bombs as were dropped on London during the entire war. Indeed, the most extraordinary event in the twentieth century has been the evolution of the air-plane. What a difference between the days of Orville Wright, when the pilot, lying on his back for part of the flight, and steering from a small wooden seat near the propeller, reached the astonishing height of 350 feet, to the present days, when parachutists can drop safely from an altitude of 21,000 feet, and gasoline can be transferred from one plane to the other high above the earth. How could Farman, who, in 1903 filled his tank with a tin-can, have realized that twenty years later 2000 gallons of gasoline would be the average lead of an army air-plane?

General Patrick went on to tell of the wonderful work which the Army testing fields are accomplishing; helicopters, parachutes, bombing-planes are gradually being perfected and strength- hened. It is all a question of design; a compromise must be struck between speed and carrying-power, between maneuvering ability and the rate of climbing. As an example of carrying power, General Patrick showed picture of the Darling Bomber, the largest air-plane in the world, which is as high as a three-story house, carries 2500 H.P., and weighs 4300 lbs, when loaded.

"But, as in all other things, it is a question of dollars and cents," said general Patrick. "As soon as the businessmen of this country realize the commercial possibilities of the air-plane, as Europe has already done, then and only then, will the civil air-force begin to attain the technical skill and pre-eminence which the Army Air Force has developed in its few years of service.