American Airpower Comes of Age

AMERICAN AIRPOWER COMES OF AGE
eral miles from Gibson House, but several very close by.
Charges quite heavy. Rockets? Pilotless planes? Bombs? There
were some delayed fuses. What were they? They were pilotless
planes, over 200 of them have landed in and around London.
One of them just missed the Gibson House, came down out of
the clouds in a dive, levelled off and then started a slow turn
and finally crashed into the ground, exploded about 1 1 ⁄ 2 miles
away. The force of the explosion just about lifted all of us out
of our beds, about 27 hit within 5 miles of our house. They
finally settled down to a regular frequency during the day,
about 1 every 5 minutes. Off for Algiers from Bovingdon at
22:55.
At 6:00 A.M. there was a terrific explosion that shook everything.
Sleep thereafter was impossible so I got up, dressed and
had breakfast. At that time I did not know where any of these
things had landed. Read cablegrams and war reports until
9:10. Then I learned that one of the planes had hit nearby,
what I really learned was the location of one of them. I took off
to see the effects and what remained.
The “Drone” landed in an orchard about 100 yards from a
small village. The explosion had knocked out all window
panes, crushed in roofs, blown down a few trees, made a
crater about 6 feet across and 4–5 feet deep, but no other
damage. As a matter of fact there was an old shed, looked as
if it might well be pushed down, still standing. Accordingly I
judge that the gadget had not more than 1,000 pounds, probably
about 500 pounds explosive. It was made of pressed steel,
about 26 feet wing spread, jet-propelled, automatic gyro-pilot
controlled. This particular “Drone” came down through the
clouds in a dive with a dead engine, then levelled off and made
a semicircular course before it hit the ground. Around the
crater was the steel cylinder fuselage, bolted together, steel
sheet wings, the jet tubing from engine, hundreds of feet of
flexible cable, insulating tubing, hundreds of small, finger-size
dry batteries, actuating valves, bell cranks for controls, many,
many small pieces of sheet metal, 1 1 ⁄ 2 inches square, synthetic
rubber gaskets, a very sturdy piece of metal probably engine
bearer, pieces of wing one part looked as if it had been perforated
by anti-aircraft, pieces of cylinders.
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