The Parma herald. (Parma, Idaho) 1903-1917, 1917-02-01
French and German Speeders Go
MuCh Faster Than Amer
lean Machines.
They BATTLE $4,000 FEET UP
Flight Lieutenant Faulkner Gives In.
teresting Account of Fights Be-
tween Hostile Bird Fleets In
the War Zone Along West
ern Front.

New York.-The swift German
Fokker, less than year ago king of
the air on the western front, is now
obsolete.
This was the news brought here by
Flight Lieutenant Lloyd Faulkner, of
the British army, recently injured in
an airplane when shot down near
Ypres.
In the desperate competition to
build the most efficient hawk Of the
| air, the Germans themselves have IN
doubtedly improved over the Fokker
type, but a new allied airplane has
| just arrived on the front which ex-
ceeds by far anything the world has
ever seen, according to the lieuten-
ants story.
'The new machine, the name of
which may not be mentioned, makes
1873 miles an hour" he said. st is a
great surprise and is only arriving on
| the front now.
"The most wonderful feature is its
ability to climb. 1t can ascend
straight up, without banking, and has
reached $4,000 feet in seven and a
! half minutes.
"This makes it the ideal machine
for Zeppelin work, it can get height
quickly enough to catch the dirigible.
"Our new machine is the greatest
| fighting machine in the world and will
guarantee that we maintain the su-
premacy in the air."
Lieutenant Faulkner received his
preliminary training as an aviator in
the Wright school at Dayton, Ohio.
He said the machines used in the
United States were way behind those
possessed by the belligerent nations.
"Our battleplanes weigh two and
half TONS" he said, "and are driven
by two Rolls-Royce motors of $50
horse power each. They have twin
propellers, and can make more than
100 miles an hour. Other big planes
have 300-horse power motors driving
one propeller.
Smaller Machines Faster.
"The smaller machines, which car
ry only pilot, are much faster. The
Sopwith pup makes 13S miles an
hour; the Newport bullet 135 miles /;
the Spat 40 miles, but all these are
surpassed by the new wonder.
AT the front our work is divided
into four classes. The first is the
reconnaissance, during which we
sometimes fly from 100 to $50 miles
back of the German trenches. This
work is done by regularly organized
squadrons, in which the most impor-
tant machine is the one carrying the
camera. The reconnaissance unit is
composed of five battleplanes and ten
or twelve Newport scouts or Sopwith
pups little fast machines, carrying
only one pilot and a machine gun.
The little machines are the destroy
ers or guards, for the big battleplanes.
The big machines each carry at least
two men and two guns.
when in flying and working for
nation, the reconnaissance squadron
is arranged in this way: The cam
era battleplane flies at about $500
feet, with a fighting battleplane on Ell
Their side, flying at about 5000. To
the rear, directly behind each of the
fighting battleplanes, are two more
battleplanes, flying at 1000 feet.
These five machines fly 100 to ITO
miles an hour. The little destroyers
with their faster speed fly all about
them, always ready to attack an en-
envy squadron.
"If the little fellows happen to be
off on a bit of their own and the bat
tleplane squadron sees enemy ma
chimes the pilots fire their alarm pis-
tolls and call the destroyers, who
drive off the enemy, unless he is in
much superior force, and then there
is a fight.
Flying at six or seven thousand
feet, the observation machines are al
WAYS being "archied," which means
they are being shot at by every sort
Of gun, even those firing five-pound
shells. Hits by antiaircraft guns are
one of the natural risks and we used
to bank back and forth, or zig-zag
through the air, so as to throw the
gunners off. That does not always
WOTh, us L lb4uu Oul NhSn d SAGll
carried away one of my ailerons and
1 landed in a smash that sent ME to
the hospital. 49,
-7-, Fokkers Very Speedy.
while doing this reconnaissance
work it is always necessary to look
out for Fokkers. You'll see five or
six black spots up twenty to twenty
FIVE thousand feet and when they get
over you they'll suddenly nose-dive
and drop. These FOkkers drive by at
tremendous speed, firing as they go, |
and then they scuttle for safety.
1.-THE second important use for air
planes is artillery observation work /
First Lieutenant Vernon Castle was
doing this when / last saw him in the |
late fall, and had been mentioned in |
dispatches for his excellent work. Be |
fore going up, the pilot arranges his |
signals with his battery. He uses !
wireless.
observation pilots also watch ev-
cry movement behind the enemy's |