Weekly journal-miner., 1918-01-30
LONDONDEFENSES AREv|EWEDFROM
 AN A|RP[ANE
CORRESPONDENT OF AS SOCIATED PRESS TAX FEN OVER WORLDS ME TROPOLIS IN A FAST BRITISH MACHINE.
By Associated Press.

By Associated Press.
 LONDON, Jan. 26.-Flying at speed of 80 to l40 miles an hour and at a height of 2,00G to 5000 feet in one Of the latest and fastest British battlcplanes, a correspondents of The | Associated Press inspected the outer air dcfenses of London on a crisp morning recently.
 Few Americans nave any adequate idea of the magnitude of these de- fences and their present high state ot efficiency. Millions of pounds have been spent on them and an army IS constantly employed in manning and maintaining them.
 A motor car took the correspond cnt to somewhere in the outskirts of London" where it passed through roads camouilagcd by shrubbery to great acrodromc, one of the finest in England This acrodrome boasts several Americans among its most et' ficient flyers, but it is not pcrmissi- ble to give their names.
 Upon the party's arrival England Is daredevil flyer put on show This man, who looks more like a meow, mild-manncrcd drygoods clerk than a wizard of the air, put the ma chine through a series of perform anccs that made even some ot the veteran flyers who watched from be- low hold their breath. Looping the loop, nose diving, banking, volplan- ing to within few feet of the earth and then pointing the nose of the machine skyward for rise at express train speed were but but few ot the moves this pilot went through with his observer. When he came down the correspondent was taken up in ,he same machine but with another pilot. for a ride through the clouds and birds eye view of the outer de- fences of this particular part of Lon- don.
 This machine was a - fighter, l This type of machine mounting a synchronizcd machine gun, has earn ed the reputation of being perhaps the most reliable of the fighting planes turned out by the British manufactur- CTS. The pilot on the trip was young member of the Royal Flying | Corps who was to go to France the next week. The night before this ! flight he had been up fighting with f German Gothas at a height of be- tween ll,0G0 and l2,00O feet.
 The machine rose to 5000 feet IT. ten minutes. It started off the ground with a tremendous rush the instant 1t
 was released. As it rose smoothly, | higher and higher, the sensation was rather of the earth moving away from the machine, than the machine nov ing from the earth. There was brisk wind, the pilot said it was blow inp between 5 and 30 miles an hour and the sky was full of fast moving clouds.
 The lest view of things below was had al 2,GUO feet AcrodromcS with battlcplancs ever ready for the Ger man raiders could be seen dotting the landscape. Batteries of anti-aircaft guns could be disccrncd here and there.
 The flight around the outer city was made al an average speed of so miles an hour, over factories and suburbs, great arsenal. famous school and town best known for its American colony. Up aloft the weather was tvDical of the New York autumnal day. There was just hint of frost on the roof tops which made them show up more plainly than usual through the light mist All was quiet and peaceful in an area which the prcscncc of the GothaS would in an instant transform into a battlefront, cncircled by the barrage from the an ti-aircraft guns thousands of feet be- low. After completing the circle of the metropolis the fighting plane slantcd l bacl, to earth at l40 miles an hour That's not really fast" remarked the filct. "In actual fighting we often have to make 300 miles an hour and
 the plane is built to stand that speed
 without the slightest danger 
 l