LOCAL AVIATOR DROPS BOMBS IN KIAUCHAU FORTS

George Takasow, Whose Air Apprenticeship Was Served in Seattle, Now Attached to Japanese Forces.

By JOHN EVANS.

AVIATOR GEORGE TAKASOW, the Japanese whose air apprenticeship was served in Seattle and who within the year went to Japan to instruct army aviators, is now with the Mikado's fleet before Tsintau and is carrying his father, a second lieutenant in the army, with him as military observer and bomb thrower.

This interesting information is contained in a letter received by A.E. Tatsuni from Takasow Saturday. The letter is dated at Tokyo, September 8, the day on which Takasow was to depart for his station with the Japanese fleet at Laosnan Bay, the naval base near Tsintau. A portion of the letter, translated, follows:

"Less than two years ago I was making my first exhibition flights at the Seattle Potlatch. Tonight, accompanied by my lieutenant father, I am leaving to join the converted scout cruiser Shibuya, for patrol, observation and bomb dropping duty at Tsintau. My father, who had his first rise in an aeroplane with me when I returned from Seattle, has been transferred to the observation corps and assigned to command of my aeroplane, which now is a hydro with a big seventeen-foot pontoon.

"I have no rank in the army, being simply a volunteer pilot under the direction of my father or any other officer detailed to my aeroplane. The government purchased my Curtiss fo $6,500 and paid me for making the changes necessary to make it available for scout duty from the fleet.

Changes Made in Machine.

"You would not know the machine now. Within the pontoon is a long steel brace running five feet forward and aft of the center and resting on the cross braces. In a swivel bearing in the center is mounted a laminated spar which rises through the center of the place and three feet above it. This is the central support for all brace wires from the main sections, each being attached to a central ring which surrounds the spar or mast like the rings to which a sail is attached. These under flying conditions are rigid, but when it comes time to lift the hydro back on the deck of the vessel, a sling is attached to the engine, bed and top of the spar, and, after the plane is clear of the water, I release a lever and the pontoon swings back under the wings directly opposite the position it has in flying. The rings turn about the spar and the rigidity of the plane is not interfered with.

"When the hydro-aeroplane is raised above the level of the deck, it is swung back and placed in a cradle just forward of the funnels. Actual launching can be accomplished in four minutes after the engine has been tested and all supports checked up carefully. Removal from the surface of the water takes ten minutes, and is a dangerous proceeding as the observer and members of the crew assigned for the purpose have to use great care to keep the machine from smashing against the side of the scout boat. The craft is lifted by a fort-foot crane arm.

"The machine is different, too, in that instead of the upper and lower sections being separate, it now consists of a middle section of usual construction, with the ends of the wings built like two great boxes, each containing an aileron. In this way damages can be repaired almost immediately as extra end and center sections are carried and the machine can be made new, so far as the wings are concerned in six hours of fast work.

May Go to Europe.

"Japan needs aviators badly. If Tereda is in shape to fly now, he would do well to come over here. The government will buy his machine, give him instructors to teach him to fly expertly and will give him a chance to show his love for his native country as soon as he is capable. We look for the war to last for years, and it is whispered about that Japanese troops and aviators will one day be needed in Europe."

On September 16, just eight days after the departure of Takasow from Tokyo, the news dispatches carried tidings of a Japanese aviator flying over the fortress at 'Tsintau and dropping bombs on the defenders. The identity of the airman is not known, but the Japanese colony of Seattle is wildly excited over the exploit and united to a man in the declaration that Takasow and his father were respectively the airman and the bomb thrower.

George Terada, the amateur airman who is now trying out his tractor biplane on Harbor Island, smiles enigmatically when asked if he intends to go to Japan to aid his native country. However, the hangar is the scene of much hurried work nowadays and it is believed that the machine will disappear in the near future, with Japan as its ultimate destination.