The Daily Star Mirror

RADIO CONTROL OF SHIPS NEXT
Successful Steering of Iowa From Another Vessel Leads to New Tests.
PLAN TO EQUIP OTHER SHIPS
Battleship Runs Without a Hitch Five Miles From Operator During Bomb Tests-Army and Navy Officers Call It a Scientific Triumph.
Washington.-The performance of the battleship Iowa under radio control during recent aerial bombing tests may lead to revolutionary changes in naval development, officers think.
Without a person on board, the Iowa was maneuvered from the battleship Ohio, five miles away, with the utmost precision and there was not a hitch in the mechanism in more than two hours while the Iowa was being bombed.
It was a scientific triumph. The Iowa was a real "Flying Dutchman," a counterpart of that mythical crewless ghost of the seas, as she obeyed the will of Capt. F. L. Chadwick on the Ohio, almost hull down on the horizon. The invisible, magic fingers of the radio reached out across the sea to whirl the Iowa's steering wheel, operate the fuel oil and water supply valves and start and stop the ship.
So perfectly did the control function that the officer on the Ohio maneuvered the Iowa away from the attacking air forces at the moment the bombs were being released, varying the speed of the target vessel at will.
Officers Much Impressed.
Army and navy officers who witnessed the test were much impressed by the possibilities of development of the radio control idea for use in future wars. It was said to be apparent that radio control might eliminate some loss of life in such enterprises as "block ship" operations as when the British undertook at Zeebrugge and Ostend to bottle up German submarines. The "block ship" of the future, it was pointed out, might sail serenely into an enemy harbor without a soul on board and be sunk to obstruct its channel by the electrical explosion of her magazines.
Already the navy is working out plans for shifting control at will from a surface vessel like the Ohio to aircraft, either heavier or lighter than air. The radio control device on the Ohio is so simple, officers say, that little difficulty is anticipated in adapting it for use in an airplane or a dirigible.
When this development is worked out the controlling aircraft will be able to work at an altitude of 10,000 feet and above, safe from any gunfire from below, and steer the controlled vessel anywhere on the sea within fuel radius.
To Equip Other Ships.
A movement is afoot to install radio control on at least one more obsolete battleship and two old destroyers to serve as targets for aerial bombing practice and further experiments with radio control. Extension of experiments to the possibility of applying the radio control idea to aircraft also is under consideration and it is within probabilities that giant crewless bombing planes, loaded with high explosives could be launched against naval vessels, cities and forts with no costly sacrifice of trained officers and men.
The entire radio control idea, a post-war development, in its present application is in its infancy, naval officers believe, and they expect great developments in the efficiency and scope of the control within the next few years.