Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 185, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1916 — ARMY AVIATORS MUST STUDY LONG [ARTICLE]

ARMY AVIATORS MUST STUDY LONG

French Give Men Most Thorough Training Before License Is Issued TARGET PRACTICE IMPORTANT Science Is Now So Highly Specialized That a Series of Schools Is Necessary—Course Takes About Five Months. Paris.—There was a time when an aviator was expected to become an air fighter in much the same way as a boy is taught to swim by being thrown into deep water and expected to strike out to save himself from drowning. So the pilot had a quick firer placed on his aeroplane and was turned loose into the air with the expectation that he would get as near as he could to an enemy avion (an avion is a military aeroplane) and shoot him down before being shot down himself. The training that army pilots now undergo lasts some five months, and the many Americans who have taken it or are taking it will, if they survive the war, form a valuable asset to the American nation if “preparedness” is carried out to the extent of forming aviation corps, as, it needs hardly to be added, it evidently should be. Schools Becoming Specialized. It was soon found necessary to specialize aviation schools and devote each to some particular work. Four or five are solely for learners, where they begin, as on “penguins,” rollers which do not rise Into the air, on which they run in straight lines for half a mile. As soon as they can run with the tail of the machine In the air they pass to a three-cylinder Bleriot, which leaves the ground, rising about a couple of

yards. On this machine pupils learn to leave the ground, to control their motors, regulate the gas, etc., and then pass to a six-cylinder Bleriot, which can rise 12 to 20 yards, on which they practice landing. Landing is the most difficult part of the work, so that it is during this stage that most “wood is broken,’’ as French fliers say of smashing machines. A 45-horsepower Bleriot, which mounts to between 150 and 300 feet, then enables the learner to make “Mirages” (turns) to the right and left and trace out figure-eights and circles. He is then promoted to a 50-horse-power Bleriot (600 to 900 feet altitude), when he learns to shut off his motor at the highest point and descend to 400 feet and then to restart the motor. He also learns to make a quarter spiral, a half spiral and full spiral with his motor shut off. He is then ready for his official tests for his license. He has to make an official spiral with a barograph attached to his back to record his descent from 1,500 feet. The barograph will show a straight line for a perfect spiral, but an irregular one for a badly made descent. He then takes a voyage machine, 60 horsepower, on which he makes two trips, 60 miles and 90 miles. Then on an 80-horse-power voyage machine he makes a triangular flight of 150 miles, during which he has to land once to take on a new supply of gasoline. An 80-horse-power or parasol machine is used for two height tests above 6,000 feet, with a barograph to register the altitude. ■ Having successfully negotiated these tests, he is awarded his “brevet,” or pilot’s license, if he has put in at least 25 hours actual flying during his training. “Finishing Off” Schools Also. The newly licensed pilot is then sent to the finishing off school at Pau. He has now said good-by to slow machines and will start to perfect his skill in landing, probably on a three-cylinder Morune, as the Morane has the same kind of landing fitments as the Nieuport and it is much cheaper in case of “smashing wood.” He is promoted to six-cylinder and ten-cylinder Moranes until he has made ten perfect landings. He then mounts a 23-meter (75-foot spread) Nieuport as a passenger with a monitor, who shows him what a Nieuport can do. Then he tackles tills Nieuport alone and when he has made 20 perfect landings on It he Is allowed to mount a 60-foot Nieuport, a smaller but more powerful machine. On this he makes spirals and a test altitude flight of 6,000 feet. At this school at the present time are about eighty graduates, almost all officers, a few noncommissioned officers and a few Americans, who are treated by the army officials as if they were officers, whatever rank they may have, even if they are merely privates. The pilot who has sufficient aptitude then passes to the “ecole de combat,” or lighting school. Others are sent into bombarding work or signaling. But those fit to fly scout machines or “avions de chasse” (for hunting down the enemy) take the further course. Here on fast Nieuports pupils learn to maneuver in escadrilie formation. To becoiae a perfect Nieuport flier an aviator has to master many machines, chiefly to acquire the art of landtag at a speed of from 30 to 50 miles an hour. He will train with 25horsepower, 45-horsepower, 60-horse-power and 80 horsepower Bleriot monoplanes, then with Moranes and then with Nieuports of decreasing size until he reaches the celebrated “Baby Nieuport,” only 39 feet op read, with perhaps a 110-horsepower engine.