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At the beginning of 1912 the Signal Corps placed orders for five new airplanes under the general requirements that they would have higher motor power, be faster, and able to carry more weight.  Four of the planes were "Scouts" (two-seaters) for reconnaissance, - two being Wright, one Curtiss, and one Burgess-Wright which was to be equipped with a Renault motor.  The fifth plane was to be a Wright "Speed Scout" with a speed of 65 miles per hour.

The first of these airplanes, the Curtiss Scout, was delivered at Augusta in March but did not complete its test until it was returned to College Park in May.  The first Wright Scout arrived at the same time.  It was similar, in general, to the Wright B, but larger and stronger with a 50 horsepower engine,-- the original B had been equipped with an engine of only 35 horsepower. Orville Wright came to College Park to be present for these tests which were flown by his pilot, A. L. Welch.  Welch made 16 flights in the following two weeks, on nearly all of which he was accompanied by either an officer or soldier.  On June 11th, late in the afternoon, Welch gave notice that he would conduct a speed test.  I had started back to Washington by car and was carrying Lieutenant Hazelhurst with me. As we arrived at the gate Welch was nearby at the end of the runway waiting for a passenger who had not appeared.  He ran over to the car and asked if we could wait long enough to allow Hazelhurst to be his passenger,-- to which we agreed.  On the second lap of the course in his turn, while flying at about 50 feet in altitude, he swerved and crashed into the ground, nose first, only a short distance from where I was waiting.  Both occupants were killed.  The machine was so badly broken up that it was impossible to determine whether a structural failure had been the cause or whether, in the turn he had nosed up, lost flying speed, and stalled.  I always leaned to this as the cause.  It has always been my opinion that the major contributing cause of the early crashes of these underpowered planes could be traced directly to stalls at low altitudes. 

    Since the beginning of College Park new students were progressively assigned for flying training.  Four students were added to the roster at Augusta,-- Lt. Colonel C. B. Wender and Lieutenant Winter of the National Guard, and Lieutenants Leighton Hazelhurst and Harry Graham of the Infantry.  On our return to College Park nine more entries were added to the student roster.  They were: Captain Hennessy and Lieutenants Rockwell, McLeary, Brereton, Park, Goodyear, McCall, Ellington and Sherman.  The air arm was beginning to grow.

    We, who were associated with aviation, felt that the airplane was capable of offensive use if properly designed and armed.  Unfortunately the guns available in the Army were neither designed for nor suited to mounting on the airplanes we were flying.  But in early June, I. L. Lewis, who had invented some famous guns, brought one to College Park that he thought would serve the purpose.  Captain Chandler elected to test the gun and asked me to be his pilot.

    The Lewis gun was air-cooled, weighed about 25 pounds, and fired standard Army ammunition which was loaded in circular drums mounted on top of the gun.  It could be adjusted to fire at rates of three to seven hundred rounds per minute.  We tested it at a rate of about 500.  Our firing tests against ground targets proved that the gun could be easily operated and was about as accurate as could be expected.  We were very impressed and anxious to get some of these guns to continue our training and tests.  A request was made for the purchase of ten of these guns.  The Signal Corps approved, but the Chief of Ordnance was against the purchase and insisted that we should use only guns then supplied by the Ordnance Department.  The inventor, Lewis, was forced to go to Belgium to manufacture his guns and, after we entered the War in 1917 we found it necessary to purchase these same guns from him to equip our planes. 

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