Evening star., 1923-06-06

IO0-mile course they bombed" Dal-
ghren and Quantico. At Fort Wash
ington they were met by the pursuit.
ships. which had come down from
boiling Field TO guide them 10 Wash
fngton, This quartet had selected =
base for bombing Washington, ap-
parently to an ina ginary attack on
the Ohio valley. The bombers on
their trip up the Potomac manervered
into their various battle fornLa tions:
First in column one behind the other.
then in three sections OF three planes
each, and a mass formation, i'm all Of
which they were aligned a little
above the other, as in steps.
Motors ROar Message.
The eighteen liberty motors in the
Langley bombers roared with an jim
tensity that penetrated every portAin
of the broad sweep OF territory la
meath them. Added to this voluminoUs
hum were the motors OF eight Mar
tins at Boiling Field of the De HaYi-
lands and the numerous types OF
scout ships ">Hn'
Thousands of heads turned sky
ward as the mammoth exhibition
bore down on the city. Washington
never has seen its equal and only a.
small number of Shriners ever had
witnessed such superior gathering
of aircraft.
The White House, Treasury, the
Avenue, the Capitol and Union Sta
ton were among the victims" of the
crusade from the clouds. The rail
arteries OF the city also were severed.
After every strategic point had sat,
isfactorly been treated with, the
fleet moved over to Boiling Field and
landed one by one. The limitations
Of the field prohibited landing in
Co. afS NOD
carried out its part of the traffic reg
ulations and all landed for luncheon,
the field was choked with aircraft,
ranging in size from the tiny Sperry
Messenger to the huge Owl, the larg-
est flying ship in the air service.
Difficult Flying.
Many persons on the ground found
the performance of the aircraft not
particularly thrilling. but that type
of flying is the most difficult and
dangerous of all. A pilot must con-
stantly keep his eyes open to see that
they do not run into the other fellow
and that he himself is not hit. He
must anticipate every movement
made by the planes around him, and
must live in an atmosphere of feel
ing just what tho other ships are
going to do.
Air service records show very few
survivors of collisions in the air. The
best men Langley Field could offer
were in the maneuvers today. Lead
ing the formation of pursuit ships
which was made up of a French Spad, a
Dutch Fokker, and two British SE-5Ss
were Col. Charles H. Danforth, com
manding officer of the field and a
former Washington newspaperman;
Capt. r. H. Wooten. Lieut.. Carl a.
Cover and Lieut.. L. c. Langmead.
The bombers were led by Maj. J.
N. Reynolds, and the other pilots
were: Capt. E. c. Black and Lieuts.
II. L. Clark, C. b. Austin, J. L. Gres-
ham, Charles M. Cummings, {. NJ.
Robin, Alfred Lindeburg and Howard
Craig.
Yesterday afternoon, Capt. Clair.
Street,, operations officer at Boiling
Field, piled q reporter OF The Star
into the rear cockpit Of De Havi-
land plane and hoped down to Lang
ley at 100 miles an hour. He arrived
a bit more than an hour from the time
when he took off and after discharg-
ing his passenger returned to Wash
ington. BY special arrangement of
Gen. Patrick, provision was made for
a representative OF The Star to fly up
from Langley IN the leading bomber
of the formation and participate in
the maneuvers.