Evening star., 1937-09-12
ACES RISK LIVES
TO TEST PLANES
Military Craft Are Rushed to
CompIetion-Every Type
Put Through PAGES.
~ the Associated Press.

periorlty IN military nylng among tne
worlds powers.
They are the test pilots, who strap
on parachutes and open the throttles
on new type airplanes to find out
how they behave and why.
Some are civilians hired by COM
mercial fabricators, and some are
Army and Navy officers. Their jobs
are among the most hazardous in the
scheme of national defense. If a
wing pulls off in a power dive or a
control jams or mechanical ailment
develops in a device fresh from the
laboratory, man has to bail out
take to his chute.
Occasionally he hasn't the time.
II he keeps his head and carries a
rabbits foot he may be able to walk
away from crash.
In dozen factories where the din
of metal stamping machines and the
saccharine odors of fabric dope"
fills the air. military airplanes are
being pushed TO completion today in
the Nations rearmament program
Every new type of machine must be
tested. Every duplicate of it must
be taken aloft when mass production
gets under way.
More or Less Routine.
Here in Buffalo, at the municipal
airport, Lloyd Child pulls on his fly
ing suit and buckles his chute Sc
curely across his back and chest and
around his legs. This flight is more
sko al of
Curtiss dive bomber he is taking
aloft before delivery to the Navy is
in production. The first ship on
which it is patterned has been test
flown.
The electric inertia starter whines
and the motor takes hold. For
moment he let's it warm up. At his
nod mechanics pull the chocks from
in front of the wheels.
At the far end of the runway, head
ing into the wind, Child f1attens the
pitch of his three -bladed propeller for
maximum power and opens the throt-
tie. The ship, light metal auxiliary
gasoline tank bolted at the point be-
tween the wheels where l,000-p pound
bomb would be carried in wartime.
lifts off the ground and climbs swiftly.
Child swings around the field, gain
ing altitude. Outside the door of the
hangar, where fabrication of the ma
chine has just been completed, stands
little knot Of men. Included among
them are officials of the manufacture
ing company.
Plane Drops Earthward
A mile away, at height of 1000
feet, Chlld's silvered wings catch the
sunlight and flash like a burst of
ehrapnel. The silence has swallowed
the throb of his motor.
Hes peeling off," some one re-
marks.
Almost imperceptibly at first then
with the momentum of a plummet,
the tiny plane drops earthward. The
far-away voice of the motor can be
heard nov, at full power
The men ON the ground know what
Is happening in the cockpit. Child
has checked his instruments and
made sure that his chute is secure.
One hand is on the throttle, the other
on the control wheel At full power
he has pulled the machine up and
over IN the peel-off and pointed his
nose at the ground
Now he concentrates on the black
paneled instrument board. He drops
1000, 1000, 5000 feet. The sudden
change OF sir pressure between the
outer and inner ear deafens him to
the whine of the dive. He must keen
his eyes on the board for the pull-out.
He eases back on the wheel. The
plane responds, fattening the dive
until 1t becomes a long arc, its ter
minus parallel to the ground. If this
were wartime, Child would have felt
the ship culver and jump as the man
IN the forward cockpit released the
bomb just before the pull-out.
Feels No Discomfort.
He feels no discomfort as the shin
levels off, but the blood has drained
from his head due to the tremendous
graVltational pull and the instrument
board nlurs little. II his dive has
oeen hard enough, he has battled his
elodlness by gluing his eyes to his
altimeter
Now the ship streaks in over the
eoee OF the field its speed a combina-
tion OF gravity and the pull of the
motor AT 300 feet Child darts past
the hangar. The motor. still At full
power, clamors stridently. In a fash
he is 200 yards away in a slow climb
He circles to drift down o the
lzxr
way AS ne cuts his switch and
climbs from the cockpit he stops a
moment to waggle the ailerons and
nod.
"Okay," he remarks.
He is satisfied that the NAVY will
mo the machine perfect, that it will
accomplish its purpose-dive and
oornn at such speed that the pilot
can be on his way before guns can
be trained on him.
Only about six G's on that one :"
he explains.
AT terminal velocity, he means. the
straln on the plane in the pullout has
neen SIX times the power of gravity.
AS ne came over the hangar his speed
was 500 miles an hour. He will test
IL again, perhaps at seven Gs.
Child is civilian test pilot. His
ilk draws from $4,000 to $4,000 wear
Tor their stint in helping build up the
Natons air forces. graduate OF
the University of Pennsylvania and a
naval Reserve man, he looks like q
young swivel-chair executive. Five
Ano SIX times week he takes a shin
aioft to put it through its PAGES.
After he finishes with it the Nayv
VIII take 1t over for further testing