The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-14

and study the country as it lay there below me. It was a great map, which changed every minute, bringing more and more into view as we mounted the sky. At the height of the Washington monument, the horizon was 3V miles distant, and at 2000 feet could see for a radius of almost 60 miles. At the height of one mile on clear day 1t is said that the areonaut has vision of 96 miles all about him, al- though this is limited somewhat by the curvature of the earth and the conditions of the air. The circle in
 creases in the same ratio as he rises, and at two miles, which is the usual height of our observation machines, he has vast expanse below him. l did not rise to the height of a mile. but was so high in the air that I could see the city of Buffalo far off at my right
 could follow the windings of Niagara river, which separates this country from Canada, and look far out upon Lakie Erie with it's mighty freight steamers bringing down flour and grain from the bread basket of the northwest to be transshipped for New York and across the ocean to be con stunned by our allies.
 The earth below seemed to change as we rose. The world from an airplane ] is far different from the same world viewed on the ground. At short dis l tance from the surface the ragged roughness of the land disappears and l the country becomes beautiful patch l work of field and forest of many colors l and of all hues and shades of green and l yellow. The fields grow smaller and l smaller. The wide roads stand out like broad lines running through the green. | You can see where they are raised | L 70 kN1A V%Ir rp
 mark the hills and the hollows The whole is like relief map drawn to perfect scale, the length of which de- creases as you ascend. The lakes turn into ponds, the houses grow smaller. until at last the homes of the farmers become toy dwellings or Noah's arlss and the men in the fields dwind1e to the stature of Tom Thumb or less. A little higher the roads turn to ribbons, and the automobiles racing along them look like bugs or beetles running back and forth upon the whie and red streaks below. The towns become play villages and the city of Buffalo dwin
 dies. The whole is in such perfect TO- lief that photograph of 1t tells tie gunners exactly where things are and just how they must shoot to land their projectiles upon the works of the en- emy. It Is this that enables the spy machine to be of such value in our 1 warfare in Europe. Every detail is visible and the planes are now equipped with wireless telegraph instruments l with which they can direct the artil
 lery just where to fire. It was from an airp1ane like this that the
 French discovered that the whole German army was advancing toward
 Belgium and not making their attack, as was expected. upon the French frontier That discovery saved the day
 in Europe and prevented the imnne- diate success of the Germans. As it
 is now, the observation planes make the most of their flights at height of two miles above the ground. They
 are then out of reach of the anti
 aircraft guns and have the whole field
 Of battle spread out below them.
 Returning to my flight. we scared this
 way and that over the country. now ris.
 ing, now falling, and even looping the
 loop at the will of the aviator. The ! only difference in sensation was tha,
 the air grew colder as we rose, and
 caught my breath once or twice as we
 made great dash I observed that tho
 rush of the wind and the noise of thu
 machine affected my hearing. I had te
 raise my voice, when I spoke to the pi
 lot. and this feeling continued for some
 time after I came to the ground. l cal [
 one has pads over his ears. As we de
 scended the machine shot aImos straight downward. and we were goin, at rate of something like mile
 minute. We seemed to be diving straigh , into the earth when the pilot pulled
 lever and we coasted about for leve place upon which to land. We foun, ; it in the flying field from which we ha |. risen. As the wheels struck we bounced I judge, as high as the tops of the or , chards nearby. We bounced again an again. but without any noticeable shock , and then skinned over the road on tn l tires until we reached the exact spo f frcm which we had started.
 During the same day my daughter, wh . was with me, took a half hours fligh s in the same machine, flying this wa I and that among the clouds and alightin : with no perceptible palpltation of tn T heart.
 e My machine was a military tractor ( y the type chosen as the training machin l for our army. It Is about the same a d the standard machine now used for Car
 ada and Great Britain, and 1t will |
 turned out in great numbers for trainin t our aviators for France. There Is
 large number of students being traine