Revieiv of Ftviews, lU/lS. 



THE NEXT WAR. 



141 



ping machines that aircraft can be used. 

 Whether they are more effectively com- 

 bated by other airships, or by specially 

 devised artillery is another debatable 

 question. Germany has been most active 

 of all countries in perfecting airships, 

 and she has demonstrated recently how 

 great is the improvement made in them. 

 But the most powerful Zeppelin yet 

 built whilst more or less secure in the 

 air is helpless on land, and must always 

 seek the shelter of its shed or run the 

 risk of being torn to bits by the first 

 moderate gale that blows. This means 



that no such airship dare ever land in a 

 hostile country, out must be sufficiently 

 powerful to return to its base before its 

 lifting agent becomes exhausted. 



The following account of what has 

 actually been achieved by the builders 

 of aircraft is written by Messrs. T. R. 

 Macmechen and Carl Dienstbach, and is 

 published by special arrangement with 

 Everybody s Magazine. We may not 

 agree with their conclusions, and fore- 

 casts of the next war, but their theories 

 are based upon what can really be done 

 rather than upon fanciful assumption. 



THE NEXT WAR : IN THE AIR. 



BY T. R. MACMECHEN AND CARL DIENSTBACH. 



All European military experts know 

 that the next great war — for which the 

 grand amphitheatre is now being pre- 

 pared — will be fought under new condi- 

 tions, and that the nation which com- 

 mands supremacy in the air will have an 

 advantage that can hardly be overcome. 



The problems of the next war will be 

 greatly multiplied if the powers engag- 

 ing in it are fairly matched in the air. 

 If they are not, the war will be over be- 

 fore it is well begun. No nation without 

 an air navy can hope for success against 

 an enemy with powerful fleets of dread- 

 nought air-ships and of cruisers and tor- 

 pedo craft in the form of aeroplanes 

 having a speed of 80, 90, and even 100 

 miles an hour, because it will find it im- 

 possible to mobilise its army. 



It is too much to expect of men that 



England has been quick to recognise 

 the threatened danger. The new E.itish 

 cruisers are to be fitted with heavily 

 armoured and curved upper decks, and 

 with steel umbrella-like coveringa for 

 funnels. The cruisers will also carry 

 guns that can be elevated to an angle 

 of 80 degrees and that will have an effec- 

 tive range of 9000 yards. At a distance 

 of \\ miles one of these guns can send 

 a 3 1 -pound shrapnel shell to a height 

 of 13,000 feet. Thus the men in the hos- 

 tile air-ships and aeroplanes will find 

 the air filled with danger to themselves. 



THE NEW SHARPSHOOTERS. 



France in a time of peace lives in 

 dread that the morrow will see fleets of 

 German aircraft threatening to shower 

 destruction u]ion its cities and fortresses. 



At the present moment the German- 



they will stand helpless while death and French frontier presents the paradoxical 

 destruction is rained down upon them 

 from an impregnable fortress floating in 

 the air. 



Any sea navy which the otherwise un- 

 prepared power may have will be all but 

 useless. Only a few hours will be re- 

 quired for air-ships to make a desperate 

 attack upon any naval base. Weather, 

 unless desperately bad, will not hinder 

 the attack, for the reason that the 

 modern air-ship is now sufficiently 

 powerful to make detours and come 

 with the wind to the point of naval 

 mobilisation. 



appearance of an inland preparation for 

 a great naval conflict. France has estab- 

 lished military aeroplane cami:)s at Toul, 

 Verdun, Chalons-sur-Marne, Bar-le-Duc, 

 and Epinal, and within the year has 

 built great sheds in which to house her 

 air-ships. The French army has three 

 very large demountable air-ship sheds 

 and a portable hydrogen factory for 

 field service. 



THE AEROPLANE V. THE AIR-SHIP. 

 While France long ]>laced its main re- 

 liance in the aeroi^lane, it now realises 

 that the greatest danger will not come 



