World's Largest Plane

The Barling Bomber is being assembled by the Army Air Service at McCook Field, Dayton, Ohio. It has a wing spread of 120 feet, a height of 28 feet, measures 65 feet from nose to tail. Fully loaded, the bomber weighs 20 tons, is propelled by six Liberty motors with a total of 2,400 horsepower, dwarfs every airplane built up to this day. To keep the dimensions within reasonable limits, three wings are used to give the enormous carrying capacity required. The plane represents an investment of half-a-million dollars, and since the first flight of a machine is always an experiment, the pilot has considerable responsibility--one false maneuver may spell a tremendous disaster. The plane has a great military interest apart from its gigantic size, as it will carry a bomb 4 tons in weight, the biggest ever raised in the air. According to the designer such a bomb dropped in the center of a city will dig a crater 50 feet in diameter and destroy or damage all buildings within half a mile radius. The plane with an efficient crew will thus be the most formidable offensive weapon ever devised.