CHAPTER X
KINDS OF FLYING
NIGHT FLYING—FORMATION FLYING—STUNTING—IMMELMAN TURN—NOSE DIVING—TAIL SPINNING—BARREL—FALLING LEAF, ETC.
Owingto the fact that skilful landing is the most difficult thing for a flier to acquire, and because more accidents occur to the novice when he brings his machine to the ground than at any other time except, perhaps, when stunting too near the ground, night flying is especially hazardous. With properly lighted landing-fields in peace-times much of the peril of landing after dark can be eliminated, provided the night is clear and no fog or mist has settled over the aerodrome since the aviators set out. If a mist has settled over the landing-place the flier must take his chances and come down by guesswork, unless his machine is equipped with wireless telephone, for the compass and other instruments cannot tell him exactly where he is with regard to hangars or take-off on an aviation-field. Indeed, if the telephone operator on the ground cannot exactly locate the flier, it is exceedingly difficult to direct the airman to the exact corner of the field in which he should come down.
On a clear night, however, with flambeaux, search-light flares, etc., a pilot has little trouble in landing, forthe straightaway can be as illuminated as it is in broad daylight. Nevertheless, when the aircraft is high in the sky, owing to the vast distances of infinite space, the speed at which an aeroplane moves, and the drift out of its regular course, due to the wind, it is often difficult for the flier to keep his bearings. For that reason aviators try at night to locate the lights on a railroad-track, the reflection of light on a river or stream, and follow them to their destination. The Germans in their raids on London usually tried to locate the Thames River, which they then followed until they reached the metropolis, which they usually succeeded in doing on moonlight nights despite the British long-rayed search-lights, swift-climbing Sopwith Camels, and the barrages formed by the thousands of anti-aircraft guns. As a matter of fact, no adequate means of preventing aeroplane raids was developed by any of the countries involved in the Great War, for the simple reason that there is no way of screening off a metropolis so that those modern dragon-flies cannot fly around, over, or through the screen. That is another reason why a huge commercial aerial fleet will always be a tremendous danger and perpetual threat to any contiguous country or neighboring city, because these aerial freighters can be loaded with inextinguishable incendiary bombs as easily as with passengers, and 10,000 such aeroplanes could drop on a city within a hundred miles of its border enough chemical explosives to raze it by fire.
Considering all the chances taken by the Hun andthe Allied fliers during the Great War, and the kinds of machines they flew, and the circumstances under which they flew, it is amazing how successful they both were in their night-raids on one another’s territory, and the amount of damage they wrought. Every night, rain or shine, the British and French and Americans dumped from forty to fifty tons of high explosives on German objectives, and it is truly amazing how few machines were lost.
Night flying for commercial purposes, though, might easily be developed into a comparatively safe means of aerial transportation. The machines, however, ought to be constructed like the Sopwith Camel, with a very fast climbing and a very low landing speed, in order to get clear of obstacles quickly and to come to a stop as soon as it reached the earth. The wing-tips should be equipped with lights, and small red and green lights, called navigation lights, should be installed on port and starboard struts. Under the fuselage a signalling light could be used, and Very lights, rockets, parachute flares, or Borse flares could be employed, as in war, to illuminate the fields, give the pilot a clew to his whereabouts, and at the same time reveal to the wireless-telephone operator on the ground the position of the ship in the air. This would also prevent collisions. Care should be exercised so as not to blind the pilot when he makes his landing. An electrically lighted “T” with observation-towers would also aid in the safe landing of an airship at night.
With the growth of flying, lighthouses and captiveballoons poised high above the fog or clouds will undoubtedly be established all over the land, equipped with different lights so as to indicate to the flier just where he is located. The French have already developed such a system.
Of course a forced landing at night is very dangerous, and this may happen at any moment. It was reported that a pilot was killed every night patrolling over the cities of Paris and London looking for Boches. It was also reported that every Hun plane brought down during a raid on Paris cost the French Government $3,000,000 in ammunition, aircraft, etc.
With the establishment of municipal aerodromes at regular intervals, equipped with proper lights, signalling devices, wireless telephones, night flying can be made as safe as night sailing along the coasts, and with the increase in the size and number of aircraft, night flying will become as commonplace as day flying.
Stunting
There is no gainsaying that stunt flying, or aerial acrobatics, was absolutely essential to the flying of scout and combat machines in the Great War, for in order to survive in the war in the air it was necessary for the pilot to be able to manœuvre and dodge about in the sky as easily as a fish in the water; otherwise, the flier would be shot down by a more agile machine or clever aviator. Clouds offered such excellent cover for aeroplanes to ambush unsuspecting novices, and decoys were often placed to induce some adventurous combat machine to dive down on the decoy, only to find that a formation of five or more aeroplanes were diving down on him. To escape from such a predicament required knowledge of all the manœuvres an aeroplane could possibly make.