Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-09
AVIATION
BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON.

| Is 10 DOSS ILlS d1LPldAAC db CNCA
moment and not let it control
you. The pilot alone is response
BILE for whatever may happen to
his plane. No airplane falls into
a spin; it is Unanswered into the
spin by its pilot"
No airplane pilot need ever be
ashamed to confess that he has
been afraid, Lieut.. Williams said,
declaring that only the man who
has no brains is the man who
knows no fear" Through fear
! the pilot learns caution, and
| through caution he learns to fly
intelligently, with the result that
some day he may become real
pilot.
AcrObaticS Are Means of
Protection.
you learn acrobaticS to pro-
tect yourself" Lieut.. Williams
said. THE more maneuverS you
know and the better the mastery
you have of them, the better able
you are to protect yourself. Ma
neuverS, naturally, are absolutely
indispensable in military flying.
Dog fighting is what every mill
tary pilot must prepare to face.
There is a constant necessity for
developing new maneuverS.
do not look upon the man who
continuously practices acrobaticS
as wild man or a nut In
almost every case you will find
he is an earnest and sincere pilot
who is seeking to improve himself
and aviation"
In inverted flight, it has been
demonstrated, the wings of the
ordinary airplane are only about
SIS per cent efficient. That is, they
will support only half the load
they can support in normal flight.
This the pilot must keep in mind.
He also must remember that the
action of the controls is reversed.
Has Brush" With Army Man.
While flying from Philadelphia
to this city not long ago Lieut..
Williams had a brush" with an
Army pilot which demonstrated
the value of inverted flight for
military purposes. He was flying
his famous plane which has been
equipped to fly upside down in
definitely.
"I was tired after a hard day
at the Naval Aircraft Factory and
wanted nothing more than to get
home in a hurry" Lieut.. Williams
said. II was flying along when I
noticed an Army pursuit plane
some distance ahead. I immedi-
ately had feeling that he was
going to come over to play. You |
get those lunches in the air. He
made a snap roll and then sud- |
denly spotted me and, sure
he started over to pay me
a visit.
"He probably thought to him
self: There's a Navy ship; he's
cold meat. I'll show him some
thing about dog fighting
II kept on my course and did
about him. He began to
get in position behind and above
me and I pretended that was in
a funk and turned hesitatingly
from side to side to get out Of his
way" Williams continued. II
wanted to get rid of him just as
quickly as I could and yet do it
so deciSively he would not come
back for more.
II figured that he knew the
pursuit plane could fly
only about Is seconds on its back
before the motor began to miss
and also that he did not recognize
me and did not know my ship was
equipped for inverted flight.
Continues Role Of Uncertain
Pilot.
Continuing my role of the I'M |
certain pilot who did not know |
how to get out of trouble, I nosed |
down into a dive. This was a |
picnic for him. He came right |
down after me. Then I pulled |
back the stick and began a loop. |
This also was easy for him. He |
followed me in the first half of |
the loop. When I got to the top
of the loop, however, with the |
plane upside down, 1 pushed the |
stick forward and continued to
climb, upside down.
"The Army man followed to the |
top of the loop. He probably fig
ured that I would either continue !
the loop or would half roll out |
Of it. For either maneuver he
was prepared. He never dreamed |
I would continue on up. The
result was that he lost sight of me
and completed the loop.
Outwits Army Pilot.
"He looked all around, below
and on his own level, much mysti-
lied to find that had disappear
ed. He apparently didn't think it
possible I was above him and
didn't even bother to look up. I
was in perfect position above him
and he didn't even see me until
had almost completed nv dive
On his ship. That was plenty: I
turned my way and went on
home"
Turning from acrobatics to rae
ing, Lieut.. Williams declared that
the racing plane is just as much a
military development as any pur-
suit plane. A racing plane, able
TO run circles around any fighting
plane, if equipped with a machine
gun, could go out and shoot down
4 whole squadron, one plane at a
time, he said.
I'VE are not very far from the
400 mile-per-hour plane" he pre-
dicted. Inside Of 20 years we will
be flying 600 miles an hour and
thinking nothing of 1t. We
started to scratch the sur
face when it comes to speed.
Says Aviation Is Too Slow.