WOOD ON THE WING 



589 



a sufficient and constant supply. In fact, they promise 

 to do so. 



The use of wood in airplanes constitutes a new field 

 for this most necessary commodity. It would be surpris- 

 ing to the layman to see the work that is being done all 

 over the country in perfecting this use. The best engi- 

 neers of the country are busy designing, many of them 

 being gathered in Washington with the Council of Na- 

 tional Defense. There is a national advisory committee 

 on aeronautics whose members are performing experi- 

 ments and plotting curves all day long. Some are spe- 

 cialists on propellers, others on the structure of the 

 planes, to say nothing of all the work that has been done 



and as to workability or ease of manipulation in manu- 

 facture. 



It is currently reported that those who have studied 

 the possibilities of manufacture within the next year 

 agree that Germany can almost keep pace with the com- 

 bined output of England and of France. Numerically, 

 there will be no marked supremacy in the air on the 

 western front until the United States gets into the game 

 and gives the Allied forces a distinct advantage. For 

 the Allies to win the war, it is generally admitted that 

 the German air forces must be literally smothered, thus 

 putting out the eyes of the Teuton armies. In addition, 

 the war which has long been practically a deadlock in 



Copyright 1917 by Underwood & Underwood, New York. 



SPEED IS SUGGESTED BY THE VERY LOOKS OF THESE BODIES 



In this general scene in a manufacturing plant is shown a line-up of airplanes almost finished and ready for delivery to the Government Each 

 of the long slim bodies shows the seats for observer and pilot In the lower left-hand corner are rudders painted with the red, white an 

 stripes which are the emblem of identification for the American flyers Each week sees this room emptied by the transfer of the Ijodies to the 



id blu 



final assembling rooms The factory in which this picture was made turns out scores of machines every month and within a short time the very 

 planes here shown will doubtless be carrying American aviators over the fighting lines in France. 



on engines. The research branch of the Forest Service 

 has been busy in this field, and the timber tests con- 

 ducted at the Forest Products Laboratory have been in- 

 valuable. Private firms have had their own experts in- 

 vestigating. If air supremacy does not come out of it, 

 then American inventiveness and ingenuity have at last 

 been stumped. 



Back of all there is the insistent thought that the for- 

 est resources of the country, serving so well in war in 

 addition to their basic value in ])eace, are worthy of every 

 effort that can be made to conserve them. They furnish 

 in the case of airplanes, a material for which there is 

 no substitute as to strength in proportion to lightness. 



the trenches, must be carried into Germany by the air 

 route, with destruction showered from the skies, ten 

 times as far inland as the range of the biggest guns, upon 

 the great War works at Essen and upon the fleet at Kiel. 

 This is to be an important phase of America's helpfulness 

 in winning the war. 



The editorial staff of American Forestry has made 

 contribution to the aviation corps of the United States 

 Army through the enlistment of Mr. C. W. H. Douglass. 

 With commendable patriotism Mr. Douglass made no at- 

 tempt to exert the influence at his command toward j)ro- 

 curing a commission. He was content to go as an en- 

 l^ted man and is now with the army in European ter- 

 ritory. 



r^ H. SHATTUCK has left the University of Idaho to 

 ^^* become professor of forestry in the University of 

 California. He will pay especial attention to developing 

 the department of grazing and announces a class of 28 

 students in this subject. 



rpORESTRY students of the University of Missouri, 

 -'- Department of Agriculture who belong to tho 

 Tenth Engineers, Forest Regiment, are C. R. Fritchle 

 and E. B. Hotze, of St. Louis; F. G. Kraft, of Kennett, 

 Missouri, and G. A. Calloway, of Lafayette, Missouri. 



