Omaha daily bee., 1918-09-01
army FLYERS GIVE
OMAHANS ATASTE
OF HIGH LIFE IN AIR
Zoom at Violent Angles, Make
Falling Leaps, Barrel
Rolls and Nose
Drives.
Continued From Page One.)

pumped Connell full Of machine gun
bullets.
A falling leap was executed by the
pursued in an effort to throw off his
enemy. Then he did five Immelmann
turns in succession. This consists
of turning the machine over upside
down, turning it sideways and finally
righting it again. Several barrel
rolls" and failing leaps" were exc
cuted also by the two lieutenants.
and they provided a good program
of thrills for the thousands below
before they sailed off to the other
audience" at the Field club, which
was being entertained by General
Lee.
Omaha Officers Fly.
Four other machines were in readi-
ness by this time, all of them Curtiss
Hispano Suiza machines with room
for pilot, gunner and four machine
guns. Three officers from Fort On'a-
ha went up with the pilots in these
machines. The Fort Omaha passen-
gers were Colonel Hersey. Major Van
Nostrand and Lieutenant Case.
The four machines took the air
one after the other at about half
minute intervals, piloted respectively
by Lieutenant Kelleher with Colonel
Hersey as passenger. Lieutenant
Battles alone. Lieutenant Stanley with
Lieutenant Case as passenger, and
Lieutenant Davidson with Major Van
Nostrand as passenger,
After getting into the air they
disappeared behind the hill to a "ren-
devious where they got into "
shaped battle formation and then
sailed back over the starting field.
Just at this moment General Lee
appeared from the east coming back
from giving the multitude at the Field
club a series of thrills. He came
down from high altitude in thrill
ing "tail spin" until he was only few
feet from the ground. Then,
being right over some trees, he side
slipped" to get over them and then
came down on the held.
Fly Over Fort.
Along came the four planes from
the rendezvous" in battle formation
and at the same time the two scout
planes were seen at Fort Omaha fly
ing around the observation balloons
there. They stayed only short time
and then few back to the starting
field in about three minutes, a dis
tance OF six or seven miles. They
joined the four in battle formation
and performed stunts for both crowds
of spectators.
After an hour and a half of flying
the machines returned to the starting
field, their youthful pilots cutting up
ali sorts OF capers iu the process of
coming down and landing as light
IS feather on the big meadow.
The young aviators take their pro-
fession with the greatest nom
chaance. 1t is real sport, they say,
and not dangerous.
Safer Than on Street.
"We feel no more nervous when we
are up in the sky than when we are
along the street." said Lieu
tenant Earl Carroll. "In fact. ! rather
think we are safer in the sky"
And say, don't the ladies love the
,viatorsl Well, the fair young danes
were out there in their prettiest
clothes looking at the handsome
chaps and talking and joking with
Them and inviting them to dinners
and parties!
Two of the flyers wore, each on his
head, a green silk stocking,-wore it
in place of a cap. wore it for good
luck and because a girl somewhere
had asked him to wear il.
So it seems that, though flying may
be what the flyers say it is, hum
drum, easy sort of thing, there is
plenty of romance In the lives Of
The young knights of the air.
About eight men are required to
AXE care OF each airship. There are
lA men in squadron Of the Ameri- |
,an air army and a squadron con-
sists Of only IS flying machines.
Each squadron has a sign that is
al its own. The one to which the
Ayers who visited here belong has a
picture of big, black cat in the act
of making a flying leap through the
air. This is painted on the side of
III the fuselages. Each machine bears
The large circle painted on the wings,