The Cordova daily times., 1918-09-19
AMERICAN AVIATION FIELDS
 IN FRANCE DESCRIBED

AMERICAN AVIATION CENTER. Issodoun, France, Aug (by maiD D.- This American flying camp is the largest in France. and i3 said to be greater than any other in the world.
 A flying field of thirty-siz square miles, the area of an American county, with nine separate flying fields, on which American aYiatOrs advance to the stage of flight cOmbatants and air planes liberties, Nicuports, Caproni and all the others, with officers, in. structors and newly-equipped ayiators swelling our squadrons each month these were some of the main features of this vast aviation ground
 As the Associated Press correspon- dent entered one of the field a big, gray machine rose from nearby field with a loud droning' noise.
 There goes a Liberty uirplane,' said one of the officers. It was one of the fast-increasing number now coming. and every flight was watched with keenest interest and growing en- thusiasm by those who win pat it to the supreme test on the fighting front. Only one opinion was heard among these men. that it was the big gcst and fastest machine of them all II was doing wonders in quick ascent, "Ed besides straightaway flight 1t had been put through all the intricaCies oi acrohatic flight and had been pro nOunced equal to the whole range.
 Gro"I5 of aN.>tors were lined up as We arrived, preparatory to taking the air They were 1.-the. stocky young men. like two football elevens about {" take the field The flying grounds stretched off for miles-nine ueds of four square miles each-all clean-cut stubble fields on which the machines could light without shock. Above them Circled countless planes. singly and in squadrons. drawn out like wild geese, looping and diving and in all the evolutiOns of flight, with groups of acrobatic planes over to the right making headlonE spirals. wing slips and rcnversements.
 In hn pi nt barracks, onestory pine shacks 100 feet long. not very ornamental but these barracks had risen on this level plain to house the army of flying men on the way to the fighting hue.
 We went from field to field to note each stage in the development of com bat aviators. Generally speakinp. it was explained. there are three dis tinct branches of this aviation for wariare-chase and combat work, in which most of the fighting occurs bombardment of enemy forces. camps and towns and scouting or reconnais. sance work for purposes of obscrva- tion of enemy activities It k for combat and bombardment that the training is done here. and of those go- ing forward monthly about four-ffths are combatants and one.fifth lombard ment pilots.
 These are the 'grasshoppers, |" said the captain as we came to field No. 1, where the initial groundwork and theory of flight begins The grass. hoppers were diminutive machines with just enough horsepower to jump over the ground, and occasionally rise ten feet. The men call them taXis and roulers. They were skipping about singly and in squads Two were hay ing race across the plain. and one taking dive, buried its nose in the ground. This was the circus part of flying. at the start, but there was plenty of very practical work beside, with motor instruction, gunnery, trap shooting. rife range and machine gun firing Small dummy enemy airplanes dotted the field as targets. and the bounding grasshoppers took their shots and were rated by the watch ing instructors.
 On the second field the aviators had left the grasshoppers and were in a double-control machine. accompanied by an instructor. They were getting the feel of the machine in actual flight, and if the rudder was not ma nipulated deftly the instructor was there to make the correction And it was necessary here to learn how to come down as well as go up. and to come down at a definite point. Small numbered flags marked the landing point of each machine and the descent must be made close up to this flag.
 Tho captaip nf SalJ No 2 u,,, ohnut