The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1919-06-10
AVIATION SERGEANT
COMPLAINS OFFICERS
DON'T SEE" GENIUS
by George 4. Bye

London, May l9-lBy Main,-A ser
geant In the British air force, who was
AT various times mechanic. observer
and instructor in aerial gunnery, was
demobilized today and delivered him
self of the following grumblings;
We've got democratic outfit all
right have no complaint on that
score. But it's been hard time for
u man with ideas. The trouble is that
every bloke that went into the air
force had-or quickly got--some pet
scheme that he wanted to have adopt
ed, anda so many of these ideas piled
up that very few of them ever rose
TO the surface of the air ministry.
You cant blame any man for push
Ing his own idea. Naturally he is en-
thusiastic about 1t. He thinks 1t the
best idea of all. Wen. officers were
just as badly affiliated with IDEAS as
the ranks--and what ideas have any
chance against standing out against
officers?
Take my case, for instance. When
l was n mechanic we had to set out
bucket flares In the shape of an l.
every night to guide our flyers to "A
safe landing. The figure l. showed
both the direction of the wind and the
best ground, Wen. after | had seen
the men nearly every night going
through the awkward performance of
watching the weather vane, ! planned
a landing these bucket flares. / got the
the big idea.
you see ] a man electrician by |
profession, and / have connected up |
electric carriage signals that flash diff |
ferent letters or numbers. BY con
Meeting up series of high.powered |
lamps with the weather van. / planned
Il landing signal that would be clec.
trically automatic. | had the thing
described thoroughly, diagrams and all.
and sent it to the G. O., but never
heard another word about it.
Then | invented IA new method of
synschonization for gun firing through
the propeller | didn't even get thanks
for il. However, ! was able to use
some of my ideas myself when | was
aerial gunnery instructor. First, you
know. we used to send up machine
dragging n sort of kite-tail ON a 200
foot rope that represented a German
machine. our noviCes went up to
shoot at the kite.tai, and from records
of their hits we could tell them of their
mistakes and inaccuracy. This was
tried out over a deserted part Of the
English coast, but it brought about a
number of casualties and had to be
given up.
Eventually we came around to the
Kodak gun, where machines fire at
each other but the trigger makes snap
shots instead of bullet shots. over
these pictures we would lay tIanspar
ent carts that would tell just how
far from the bulls eye the enemy
machine lurked when the trigger was
pulled. | had nothing to do with the
actual devising of the kodak gun but
was one among many that helped
to perfect it, and the charts, for best $
use in teaching aerial gunnery
And what did | get out of il? Moth
ing. We've got a democratic army all !
right. Any man can rise to be an Of I
ficer, and all that. but so far as in a
ventions in the air forces are con $
cerned any ideas from the ranks have il
a solid wall of human nature to break II
through before they are considered. $
The officers exploit their own ideas e
first and it usually takes such time a
% have them adopted and put in force fi
hat there is only the barest chance of tC
| private or non-commissioned officer C,
having the miraculous luck of an ac- tc
Of his plan by the al, in
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