The torpedo boat can only
aspire to harass its enemy by buzzing around, hoping that a lucky
opportunity will develop to enable it to rush in and to launch
its torpedo. It is the same with the aeroplane when arrayed
against a Zeppelin. It is the mosquito craft of the air.
How then can a heavier-than-air machine triumph over the unwieldy
lighter-than-air antagonist? Two solutions are available. If it
can get above the dirigible the adroplane may bring about the
dirigible's destruction by the successful launch of a bomb. The
detonation of the latter would fire the hydrogen within the
gas-bag or bags, in which event the airship would fall to earth a
tangled wreck. Even if the airship were inflated with a
non-inflammable gas--the Germans claim that their Zeppelins now
are so inflated--the damage wrought by the bomb would be so
severe as to destroy the airship's buoyancy, and it would be
forced to the ground.
The alternative is very much more desperate. It involves ramming
the dirigible. This is undoubtedly possible owing to the speed
and facile control of the aeroplane, but whether the operation
would be successful remains to be proved.
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