A still later development are the giant planes of the N. C. type with a wing-spread of 126 feet and driven by four Liberty motors. They carry a useful load of four and a half tons.
The Flying-tank--an Armored German Airplane designed for firing on troops on the march]
Early in the war, large guns were mounted on airplanes, but the shock of the recoil proved too much for the airplane to stand. However, an American inventor produced a gun which had no recoil. This he accomplished by using a double-end gun, which was fired from the middle. The bullet or shell was shot out at the forward end of the gun and a dummy charge of sand was shot out at the rear end. The sand spread out and did no damage at a short distance from the gun, but care had to be taken not to come too close. These non-recoil guns were made in different sizes, to fire 1-1/2-inch to 3-inch shell.
Another interesting development was the target airplane used for the training of aërial gunners. This was a small seaplane with a span of only 18-1/2 feet, driven by a 12-horse-power motor, the whole machine weighing but 175 pounds. This was sent up without a pilot and it would fly at the rate of forty to fifty miles per hour until its supply of gasolene gave out, when it would drop down into the sea. It afforded a real target for gunners in practice machines.
An N-C (Navy-Curtiss) Seaplane of the type that made the first flight across the Atlantic]
Early in the war an American inventor proposed that seaplanes be provided with torpedoes which they could launch at an enemy ship. The seaplane would swoop down out of the sky to within a short distance of the ship, drop its projectile, and fly off again, and the torpedo would continue on its course until it blew up the vessel. It was urged that a fleet of such seaplanes protected by a convoy of fast battle-planes could invade the enemy harbors and destroys its powerful fleet. It seemed like a rather wild idea, but the British actually built such torpedo-planes and tested them. However, the German fleet surrendered before it was necessary to blow it up in such fashion.
With the war ended, all the Allied powers have large numbers of airplanes on their hands and also large numbers of trained aviators. Undoubtedly airplanes will continue to fill the skies in Europe and we shall see more and more of them in this country. Even during the war they were used for other purposes than fighting. There were ambulances on wings--machines with the top of the fuselage removable so that a patient on a stretcher could be placed inside. A French machine was furnished with a complete hospital equipment for emergency treatment and even for performing an operation in case of necessity. The flying hospital could carry the patient back to the field or base hospital after treatment.