The patriot. (Glenmora, La.) 1918-1955, 1918-10-25

and the early part of 1918 pilots and observers |
carried rifles, and the pilots, at chat time, sat
behind. There machine guns on AIR |
planes Men undoubtedly fought the air, but
these scraps generally resulted in two machines
msneuvering around each other and occasionally
getting in shot Sometimes one machine or
the other forced to land for lack of gasoline
1t extremely lucky if you could put in a shot
that would either disable the pilot or knock out
the machine. Not until the advent of the Lewis
gun did aerial gunnery really begin to make itself
felt These handy little weapons were mounted
on swiveIpns on each side of the machine and cut
down TO decrease weight. This however. though
the beginning, was never satisfactory and the
stOppages in the machine gun were frequent. lii
the middle of 1915, the German aviatik had sin
gle movable gun in the rear cockpit which cauSe'
quite a lot of trouble to the allies. This was
followed by the French Newport machine, Wii'ch
had Lewis gun mounted the top plane, and
at the same time we developed ring mounting;
in the observers cockpit. 1t thus became race
not only in machines but also in gunnery as 10
who could bring the most effective fire to bear on
the adversary. In the autumn or 1913 expert
ments made with the Vickers gun hrlng
through the propeller. The blades were protected
by steel plates called reflectors, which were so
placed that when a bullet struck the blade 1t
glanced off No form of synchronZer gear had
been evolved, but it was the beginning OF sys-
tenn which is universal Late in 1913 the
Fokker made its appearance. This machine had
not great speed. but it did have syachronlzing
gear, i. e., gear which enabled the machine gun
to fire through the blades of the propeller with
out hitting the blades and without any loss of
efficiency. 1t had quite success for time until
the French got out the Spad gear and the British
the Vickers gear. The latter was used by us
quite extensively over the lines but owing to the
difficulty of training mechanics in its use and the
small amount that was known of it in those days,
aft LAT To ha rad big
lowed by the Constantinesco gear, which proved
very satisfactory Here, thea. was a definite
progress In aerial gunnery, and today we have on
every machine two or three or four machine guns
twa firing through the propeller and two being
used by the observer behind. In the case of
two-seater, If you consider the amount of rounds
which can be fired on the enemy from machine
you will understand what menace it is. You
can fire 500 rounds per minute from each gun !;
hence the pilot can fire 1900 rounds per minute,
and the observer can reach the same figure with
his two guns.
Machines, of course, specialized. There are
single-seater machines, which depend entirely on
their power of maneuver and gunfre. There are
twoseater fighters. where the pilot and the OBJ
server have to work together the whole time
There are machines designed for cooperation
with artillery which carry observer and wire
less There are large machines for day bombing
and still larger machines designed for night bomb
ing Owing to the pace at which machines
maneuver the sighting of machine guns becomes
a very important factor. To hit an object In a
: vital spot going 120 miles an hour, when your
own machine is travelling at the same pace, re-
uuires a vast amount of training for pilots and
observers who practice gunnery continuously
from the time they go on the ground school until
they 20 overseas.
An extremely interesting form Of flying has
been perfected recently-cloud formation flying.
In the olden days, and until most recently,
pilots have been chary about going into clouds
EXCEPT as a means of defense. Actual cloud fly
ing has been regarded with certain amount of
skepticism But cloud flying today is necessity
Every day is not fine day. and cloud flying has
BECOME the fashion. It is now possible for ma
chimes to 90 I'm formation through the clouds and
meet above them and continue that formation
ON compass bearing to their objective. come
down through the clouds, bomb their objective
go M again and come home. That sounds simple
hut ii is simple only If pilots properly trained
for 1t. and have the right instruments
Long-dstance air raids into Germany are nov
quite common. An Independent force Of the r. A
F. has been formed for this purpose alone. 1t II
independent of the army and carries out bOml
raids only from its headquarters in France
would like to write something about aeria
photography that most useful adjunct of tn
work of the general staff, but considerations D
space forbid / have endeavored to show tn
vital Importance of the air force, both offensiv
and defensive. My message can be summarize,
in very few words. Send your Liberty en-
zines In thousands. Send over your bright youn
American flyers in tens Of thousands and tn
end Of both the war and the Hun will be 4
sight.