Evening star., 1929-10-06
NEW AIR TACTICS
CLOSE ARMY SHOW
Specialized Combat Thrills
Spectators and Shows
Devastating Force.

The military exposition which closed
at Washington Barracks last night in
troduced to the National Capital sew
eral of the latest advances in combat
aviation, and brought 20 this city, for
the first time, squadron of the IA
nous 3rd Attack Group, from Fort
Crockett, Galveston, Tex. Some of the
best military flying seen here in several
years has been feature OF the three
day exposition.
The 3rd Attack Group Squadron,
composed of two flights of nine planes
each, led by Maj. John Jouett, COM
mander of the group, made its only
appearance yesterday afternoon, avlng
been delayed by persistent bad weather.
1t was the National Capitals first
opportunity to witness the combat tao
tics of attack aviation, specialized
type of aerial fighting which has been
originated since the close of the World
experts, constitutes one of the greatest
threats. to ground forces developed in
many decades.
Combat airplanes are not designed to
fight other planes; they concern them
selves entirely with enemy infantry
artillery, field trains and other ground
targets Their attack is of overWhclm-
ing intensity. and they operate ha-
bitually at low attitudes, usually around
100 feet.
Yesterday afternoon. during the
progress of the ground spectacle
Smashing Through the Argonne," a
re-enactment of the portion of the
World War battle in which Ser2t. Alvin
York covered himself with glory, the
attack planes demonstrated their
method of blotting out an enemy
strongpoint on the battle line.
Sweeping in over the battle line with
out warning, appearing first at a dis
tance OF only a few hundred yards
from behind a row of trees and build
1ngs. they delivered whirlwind attack
which was over in .ess than two
minutes.
Each of the 18 planes carried ma
chine guns and racks for 10 fragmenta-
ton bombs. During the brief period Of
their attack, Army experts have calcu-
ltaed, a squadron of attack planes has
the fire power of an infantry division
of 10000 men, with field artillery.
The whole of this murderous fire
may be concentrated on a small seq
ment on the enemy line and delivered
on an enemy stupef1ed by the sud-
dennesS of the attack and unable to
set up a defense.
In addition to the attack aviation,
which is entirely new here, the Army
Air Corps introduced new types of COM
bat maneuverS for the bombardment
planes. Seven big twin-motored LB-7
bombers, three of them participating
for the first time yesterday afternoon,
demonstrated their newest defensive
formations, and various bombardment
formations for different types of tar
gets.
They also flew the deadly "Lufberry"
circle, weaving snake dance" sort of
attack. in which all the heavy machine
gun fire of an entire bombardment
squadron may be brought to bear on
single target.
Pursuit aviation maneuvers were
demonstrated by flight of nine pursuit
planes from the First Pursuit Group,
Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens. Mich,
under command of Maj. Ralph Royce.
The latest developments in military
acrobatics. were revealed by three of the
Air Corps best pursuit pilots-Capt.
Frank O'D. c'Monk'') Hunter, Capt.
Ira c. Eaker and Lieut.. Elwood r.
Quesada.
Capt. Hunter gave the crowd thrill
by bursting small balloons carrying
tude over the stands. He burst some
of them with the propeller blades of
his plane at little more than 100 feet
above the stands.
Lieut.. George P. Tourtellot, Air
Corps, with a smoke bomb attached to
the wing of his plane, gave realistic
imitation of a flaming plane spinning
down out of control, after the pilot had
fallen victim to an enemy gunner.
At night the aerial demonstration
was given by three OH Douglass OBJ
servation planes outlined with electric
lights. Each ship was outlined with
three sets of lights, with red, white and
blue bulbs, controlled by the pilots ap-
proximately $50 bulbs being used on
each plane.