The New Gun-Tunnel Airplane 



It has removed the airplane's "blind spot" so that all the 

 vital parts of an attacking machine are exposed to its fire 



A "Gotha" engaging an ordinary airplane and, by means of its end-on, underneath fire, baffling the 

 pursuer. The gunner is shown lying in the fuselage vault below the plane, along the tunnel of 



which he trains his gun to meet a tail attack 



THE latest development in military 

 flying machines seems to be the 

 German three-seated "Gotha." The 

 design and construction are interesting be- 

 cause an effort has been made to give the 

 passengers a fighting chance for their lives 

 when they are placed in such a position 

 that they cannot return the machine-gun 

 fire of an aggressive adversary. 



A flying machine moves in three direc- 

 tions. Therefore its guns should be able 

 to fire up and down, from side to side, 

 and fore and aft. Suppose that one ma- 

 chine is being pursued by another and 

 suppose that the pursuer maintains a posi- 

 tion somewhat below the tail of the pursued. 

 Clearly, the advantage 

 is all with the pursuer; 

 the intervening tail of 

 the pursued machine pre- 

 vents his being fired up- 

 on from above. 



The new Gotha is de- 



The dotted lines show the direction of 

 fire between the two types of machines 



In no other type of airplane is this possible 



signed to improve this precarious position 

 of the pursued. Hence the fuselage or 

 body of the machine is vaulted below like 

 a tunnel, and along that tunnel a gun can 

 be trained to meet a tail attack. The 

 accompanying illustrations show the pos- 

 sibilities of the new construction so clearly 

 that extended comments seem unnecessary. 

 It is evident that the military airplane 

 is rapidly becoming distinctive in design. 

 Hitherto there was no way of telling a 

 military from a sporting machine, just as 

 there was a time when a man-o'-war on 

 the seas could not be distinguished from a 

 merchantman at a distance. 



The day is surely approaching when the 

 construction of a fighting 

 airplane will be as un- 

 mistakable as is that of 

 a battleship. The great 

 difficulty of mounting 

 guns on warships so that 

 their fire can not be im- 



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