Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-09-09
BOMB SIGHTS ARE
AID To AVIATORS
IN MAKING HITS
Art Of Dropping Missiles From
AirpIaneS Has Been Greatly
Developed Since Beginning
of the War,


Behind British Lines in France,
Sept 8-Aerihl bombing lis today
ter of luck, and the straight eye of
supposed possible a year and half
ago. In the early days OF the war,
dropping bombs was largely mat
ter OF luck, an dthe straight eye of
the aviator was the only factor re.
lied upon for success.
Today, however matters are en-
tirely different. Accurate bombsights
have been produced which, carefully
used, are a guarantee Of the bomb
falling on the object aimed at, with
In very small margin of error OF
course, in the case of all such instru-
ments, the human element is some
times responsible for errors of cal
oulation, and a small error on a bomb
sight at $1,000 feet will send a bomb
far out Of its course. In the words of
an American airman who has done
some splendid raiding work in France
1T is wonderful what you can miss
with a bomb"
From this it must be thought that
the majority of allied bombs do not
reach their billets in Germany or in
the German lines for aerial photo
graphs taken after raids have shown
that they do But emphasis is laid on
the importance of the personal factor
in bombing. In the excitement OF
work of this kind--often in the midst
of heavy shell fire--a very cool head
IS required to manipulate an instru-
ment as delicate as a bombsight Brit
fgh oil T1ln TaRniUn
very thorough training in bombing
before they are allowed to proceed
overseas, and must obtain a certain
number of hits before they can grad
uato.
1t is thought that quite lot of the
wanton and useless destruction of
! riyae property in England by Ger.
man raiders is due to sherr bad bomb
ing. Undoubtedly the central powers
are behind the allies in regard to
bombing gear, for on large German
twin-engine bombing airplane recent
ly captured was found a crude copy
of an English bombsight which was
introduced more than two years ago.
Aerial bombs range in size from 10
pounds up to fifty or sixty times that
weight and are roughly Of two kinds,
incendiary and high explosive. They
are generally laid on their sides in
racks underneath the airplant; bl
sometimes they are carried in cells
especially fitted in the fuselage Cor
body of the machine In either case
they are fused and released by levers
placed convenient to the pilot or OBJ
server, the bombs themselves being
far out of REACH.
When a bomb is released it docs not
fall directly downwards but takes
forward path as it drops, in the d.
rection in which the machine is trav-
cling. This is due to the momentum
impaired to it by the speed OF the ajc
craft.
A factor Of great importance in
bombing is the Ume-length of the
fuse For example, If a railway juno
ton was being attacked, a bomb which
exploded on conact would do Far more
damage than one with a delay fuse
for the former would have q wide,
low radius of action-smashing up
the railway lines-while The latter
would during the delay bury itself in
the ground and merely make a deep
crater of small area.
The reverse, however, would apply
in the case of a munition factory. A
bomb exploding on contact would go
off as soon as ii touched the roof. do
ing little or no damage to the remain
der of the building: but an appropri-
ately timed delay fuse wuld give the
bomb time to crash through to the
middle or groun floors, where it would
be Intimately more destructive.