Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1918-08-01
AMERICAN AIRMEN
ARE A BIT TOO KEEN
Have the Valuable Fault of Early
Taking TO Stunts. IS Brit
iSh Criticism.

With the American Army IN England, |
Julv 70 Almost every airplanc used 10y |
the Allies soon will carry bombs. Experts !
in aerial warfare are convinced that the |
rcneral efficiency of the corps Will be
increased If bombing device Is added 10
every plane sent out, even though II De
az the tvrc once intended only Tor recogn-
izsnce work, and Americans now training
in England are being rs carefully drilled
in bombing as in handling machine gun
Lessons learned during the resistance
offered in the recent offensive have served
to increase the already high regard oi both
British and American officers IN the AR
service for the low flying, bomb-carryIng
craft. and. over the camps and country
side where aviators are being trained,
plancs arc in evidence almost every hour,
dipping down from high in the air and
skImming the nearby country, barely
missing trect0ps and houses. IL Is the
newer |, sson they are learning, and OBJ
servers back from the front where the
Allied planes did such rem arkable work
not ONLY in scouting and dIStracting the
enemy but actually in breaking up forma-
tons and at points checking the onward
movement have urged concentrations
on that form OF training
British trainers, detailed TO American
aviation camps, have been Il cral III their
praise of the new fiiers from overseas,
their ONLY criticism being that the Ameri-
cans are "a bit too keen Their tendency
has been to go in for flying stunts rather
too early in training. but even thus the
trainers have admitted Is q valuable fault,
although one not to be encouraged
II has been pointed out o the Americans
that team work as we'll rs individual
efficiency is a prime requisite and the
| Americans have stea died themselves 10
the routine their trainers have found
makes for general advancement II not Tor
/ individual applause. Fancy Tying, the
| acrobatic work that once found favor and
( drew heavy gate receipts al aerial exhIbi-
/ tons in the nited States, is still taught but
1 the learning Of that form Of flying also
! has come 10 be regarded me rely as routine
and wholly incident 10 the steady, low
/ fyIng desirable for attack ing camps and
1 troops in formation
Accidents have occurred IN the camps
/ where the Americans are beng trained
and few men have been killed, but the
/ records show that the percentage Is far less
/ in England than in the United States.
| Those In training here are inclined TO
attribute the di ifference more to luck than
/ anything else, although there also Is
pointed out the probability that the aver
age airplane us ed in England is better
made machine than the average that has
| been used in the United States.
The bombing de vices being attached to
virtually every pla ne is not the contrlv-
ance that was used in the earlier days of
the war. That used then was little more
than a mechanism that released the pro-
iectile. allowing it to fall at point approx
matelv near the target The device now
being used Is one with which the operator
NAV with much practice become almost
as prohc lent in craftsmanship as an ar
| tileryman is with hls gun. Almost every
| light plane will carry bombs of at least
| 25 pounds and from the heavier types
there will be hurled the huge containers
| of high explosive not materially different
from those used by the Germans in some
of the more recent raids.