The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1918-09-14

America came into this war. q would
like to harp on this theme. but must
keen to my storyD
with the airmnn came tho %bsr-gun-
nor In 1914 and the early part OF
1913 pilots and Observers carried
rifles. and tbs pilots. nj that time. sat
behind. There were no machine guns
on uirplancs. Men undoubtedly
fought IN the air, but these scraps gene
orally resulted IN two machines man
ocuvcrtnE round each other and oc-
castonullN getting IN n shot some
times one machine or the other was
forced To aud Tor lack Of gasoline. n
WAS extremely lucky VI you gould put
IN p shot that would either disable the
pilot or knock out the machine. Not
until the advent OF the Lewis gun dii
Aerial gunncrN really begin 10 make
itself felt These handy little Weapons
were mountc ON Swivcl-pins on cach
side Of the machine, and cut down 70
decrease weight. THIS. however.
though the beginning. was never sntls-
factory. and the s%toppagcs M tho ma
chine gun were frequent. In the MID
die OF 1918. the German AviHtk had
"a single movement gun IN the rear
cockpit which caused quite q lot OF
trouble to the allies, This was follow
81 hy the French Niouputt machine.
which had e LOWS gun mountcd over
the top plano, and AT the same time
we developed a ring mounting In the
observers cockpit II thus became "a
race not only In machines but also IN
gunucrN rs to who could bring tho
most effective fire 10 bear on the al.
Vcisary. In the autumn OF 1918, cN-
l"rtWruts were made with the NiCkcrg
gun firing through the propeller. The
blades were protected by steel plates
called dcflcctora. which were 40 placed
that when a bullet struck the blade u
glanced of. No form OF synChronizcr
gear had then hcon evolved. but u was
the beginning OF "a system which IN
now universal Late In 1918. the Fox
kcr made It's appearance. This MAJ
chine bad not "A great speed. but 10
did have n synchronizing gear, ! a., a
gear which enable the machine gun
TO fire through the glades of the prO-
pcllCr without hitting the blades and
without any loss of efficiency. II had
quite u success for a time until the
French got out the Spad gear and the
british the Nickers gear. The latter
was used by MS quite extensively over
the lines. but owing 10 the difficulty
OF training mechanics In It's use. aud
the small! amount THAI wins known OF
N IN those daya. II left quite a lot TO
he desircd. This was followed by tho
Constantincsco gear, which proved
very satisfactory. Here. then. was a
definite progress IN aerial gunncry,
and today We have on every machine
two or three or four machine guns,
two firing through the propeller. aud
two being used by the observer be-
hind. In the case Of a two-sc1tcr, n
YOU consider tho amount Of round
which can he fired on tho enemy from
a machine. you viii understand what
u menace ~ Is, You can fire 600
rounds per inmate from each gum:
hence the pilo, can fire 1890 rounds
per minute. aud tho observer can
reach the same figure with his two
gum
Machines. OF course. are specialized.
There are single -seater machines.
which depend entirely on their power
of manoouVrc and gunftrc. There AFRO
two-seater fighters where the pilot and
observer have to work together 'ha
whole time. There are machines de-
signed for cooperation with artillery
which carry m observer ana wireless.
There are large machines for day
bombing and atili larger machines d6-
signed FOR night bombing Owing to
the pace al which machines manoeu-
vre the sighting of machine gums be-
comes "a very important factor. To hit
AN object In a vital spot. going i20
miles an hour. when your own ma
chine IA travelling at the same pace.
requires "a vast amount Of training for
pilIts and observers, who practice
gunncry continuously from tho imo
they 20 To- the ground school untl they
go overseas. In the moitcr OF aights
perhaps the most noteworthy develop
ment was a compensated foTf- sight
which allowed automnticnilS for no
speed Of YOU own machine, but. tho
most valuable adjunct TO air fighting
was tho Tracer bullet. a bullet neither
eN plosiVo nor flaming. but which
leaves "a phosphorescent tTail. You
can thus see " your bullets are going
the way you want. and are entering
the machine aimed at.
Al extremely interesting form oe
flying has been perfected recently
cloud formation flying.
, In the olden days, and until most
recently, pilots have been chary about
o DIN into clouds except as &c means of
e defense. Actual cloud flying has been
regarded with a certain amount OF
n skepticism. But loud fixing today ~
a necessity. with the fighting still ia
u progress over French and belgian lant
= n Is obvious that wc must make tho
r. Bochc realize what Il viii mean whom
n "" get on his land
The old maxim OF cutting tho enc
u my's communication Is only possibte
g az the present moment by the air, and
We can reach him in the air now with
7 our largo machines. We can giyc him
= "a foretasto OF what war will be when
We are IN German territory. We can
! make IL exceedingly hard Tor him To
feed his troops In the field. By tho
ktnA ANAAANNkI ~ Wv WI w NfNH AfNR
. II sim harder for him 10 maintain tho
! output OF his factorios--hy destroying
them.
> Every day is not a fine day. and
cloud flying has become the fashion.
II Is now possible for machines 10 go
y In formation through the clouds
meet above them and continue that
formation on a compass bearing to
their objective. come down through
tho clouds, bomb their objective 10 ~
again and come home That sounds
simple. but II II simple only II pilots
are properly trained for u, and have
the right instruments.
In the autumn OF this year We shall
carry roughly 500 pounds 100 miles
farther. u next year eight times that
amour twice as far.
I would like TO write something
about aerial photography, that most
useful adjunct Of the york OF the gen
eral staff. hut considerations OF space
Il forbid. | have c~ndcaNorcd 10 show to