New-York tribune., 1918-04-28
Eyes in the
Air Ser
vice
RE perfect eyes required Of !
successful aviator? Not At ,
: If evidence to be found
s@Tho o,,Jo

4 n it evidence to be found /
The London Aeroplane, i !
be believed. Indeed, according to an -
icle on the British medical air serv;,l
men are now flying for England with :,
eye; others are "blind as bats" With,
spectacles; and, in fact, a good stom.,
IS Tar preferable to good ewes. Tho II
count follows:
There are few points which those j
charge of the air force medical sorry.
might we'll consider at the outset of a.
duties with advantage and so poss,b,v oa]
tam more useful pilots than are admittsI
under present arrangements.
"One suggests that there is at nrss,,
TOO much lnsistence on what the doctor
are pleased to consider perfect vision g.
watson Cheyne laid much stress on ~!
point in his speech. and it is one ~ >,
very few on which one feels inclined 70 a;.1
agree with him.
men are passed for front line ssrr;,
with the infantry who would be conde,n.]
at once by any present doctor of the R N
A. 5. or r. f. C., yet one contends that !
man needs to have far better sight if be l
to be hit for infantry fighting than he do.]
for flying.
ITO begin with, every aviator flies in oos
gies, and if his goggles are knocked off Id
chances of getting home with undamapsl
eyes from any considerable height or All
tance are small
Furthermore. goggles either of ordinarJ
glass or of tripleX can be made to suit ;nd]
vldual sights, so the short sighted or asticl
matte aviator can have his goggles made Il
fit mis- peculiaritics.
Also, If it be necessary for man tn wea
glasses in order to be fit for fighting cor
wee, an lnfantryman is far more Ikel, I'd
have his glasses knocked off and sma ID
and so is far more likely to be left at
mercy Of an enemy than is an aviator
"Iherefore il seems evident that if mar
is unfit either to fight OF fly without glasses
but IS hit for either with glasses, he is much
less likely to lose his glasses and his life !.
employed as an aviator than an infantry
man.
Several of our best pilots before the wa,
had to wear glasses, and are still fyinc
Early III the war they were taken into the
services because they knew how to fy
They fly in OFFICIALLY adjusted glasses. and
when on the ground they either 90 abou,
with defective sight or escape challenge b,
wearing an eyegiass, which is regarded a,
harmless swagger and not as a proof Of
their unftness to iy.
AT least one general officer and one lieu
tenant colonel R. +. c. are as blind as bat,
without glasses, yet they have not been con]
demned as unfit to fly. Also one of our best
civilian pilots, who consistently flies the
fastest scouts, has only one eye. So that
rather upsets the idea of necessity for peu
feet binocular vision
Perfect heart and lungs and stomach arI
much more necessary than perfect sight. fol
they cannot be adjusted artifcially to pet|
lection. 1t IS merely waste of time to aeI
cept man because he has perfect visoJ
and then discover when he has been trained
to fly that he cannot so above 10000 feel
without bleeding at the nose or faiiting d
being sick or something of that sort.
Part of the physical test fol. the aspiI
rant aviator should be to put him in al
aeroplane-perhaps a dozen of him at
time IN an obsolescent multiple -engined msI
chine kept for the purpose-and push him
up to $4,000 feet. Any of him who tainted
or bled or were sick or died of heart fail
ure could then be rejected at once and mucl
national expense would be saved Any d
him who survived, if somewhat defective ID
sight, should be issued with glasses propI
erly suited to his vision
I'm all seriousness, though, one strongIy
recommends that the present absurd insist
ence on perfect vision be relaxed in favor
of the permission of the use of glasses to
correct sight which is fairly good but not
good enough for present requirements"