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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0410.PDF
PLIGHT] APRIL 18, 1914. LOOPING THE LOOP. A PILOT'S AND A PASSENGER'S IMPRESSIONS. IT was just a year ago that I gave my impressions in FLIGHT of Chevillard's chute de cote. I thought it a wonderful experience then and said I would not forget it until someone took me up and flew a couple of miles upside down. I little thought at the time that it would really be possible for such a thing to happen, but aviation has made very rapid strides since then. I have not yet flown that two miles upside down, although it is now a by no means impossible proposition, but I have experi enced the next thing to it—looping the loop, r^>d I think that I must admit tr at the chute de cote is put in the shade somewhat by this latest method of flying. Before I received my baptime de boucle le boucle I asked Louis Noel, who by the way, is the first pilot to loop the loop on both biplane and monoplane, to give me his impres sions of looping, and I cannot do better than record them here in his own words. Thus Louis Noel:— " In asking me for my impressions of looping the loop, I fear you have given me a difficult problem; however, I will try, but I really think there are no words in which to express the sensation. As it is, the ordinary flight is quite ex hilarating, but this new stunt quite ex ceeds everything in the world: in fact, in a word it is super human. When once you have done it you feel you must repeat it again and again; you are so intoxicated with the wonderful sensation. You start off, and rise to a height of between 600 ft. and 700 ft., and then you can begin the joke absolutely without danger. After executing a gentle vol pique you pull the lever back, and the 'bus leaps with tremendous speed upwards—which it loses at the zenith of the loop. At this moment you are completely isolated from the earth and you can see nothing but the planes. Then it is that an incomprehensible sensation runs through you at being absolutely alone, suspended by an invisible string amid air. I assure you it is a unique position; nothing to fear—only happiness. All this of course (unfortunately) is done and finished in a second or so, and, after diving agaift, you have the first glimpse of the earth under you and you can only regret that the looping is over. There is just one thing to consider, however ; I think that if I ' loop ' often I shall lose that wonderful feeling." This last statement of Mr. Noel's is, I think, rather interesting, for although, no doubt, there would always be a certain amount of exhilaration when looping, the first sensations are so strange, so unlike anything one previously imagined, yet not so very startling, and the whole proceedure is over so quickly, that once you have done it you feel that you have been doing it always, and the strangeness wears off. I asked Noel if he felt safe, and he said "absolutely," adding :— " Many people witnessing a looping exhibition think surely the pilot is risking his life ; nothing of the kind \ On a suitable machine it is quite safe, and a competent pilot will find that he will accomplish his first ' loop' far more easily than his first straight flight, and I agree with Hucks that every well-trained, good pilot can do it easily. " Again, people say that it serves no useful purpose, but I think otherwise ; it is well to know how to do every thing it is possible to do, and at the present stage of aviation I feel safer on a ' looping ' machine than on a machine on which it is dangerous to- do it." "Well," he said,. " those are my im pressions : but why not loop the loop yourself, and see if you agree with me?" And so, on Saturday last, I as cended with Noel on the rebuilt " G.-W." 80 h.p.. Le Rhone-Morane- Saulnier mono- plane, and " saw for myself." I might mention here that Noel took out the Morane-Saulnier for the first time in his life on Good Fri day, and succeeded' in executing two loops with a passenger. My own- impressions of looping are much the same as Noel's, but there is one point that has struck me particularly, and' that is the fact that I could not realise that I was upside down. I did not feel any tendency to fall out, and if I had shut my eyes I would not have known, for the greater part of the time, that we were not flying normally. Before I ascended I took the precaution of seeing that what little coin of the realm I had in my pocket would not fall out when in an inverted position, but, as I found later, quite unnecessarily, for, once in a way, my money remained quite securely in my pocket. As far as I can put it in words, my sensations from start to finish were as follows :—After climbing. to a height of about 600 ft., Noel turned and inquired if I was ready, and then we dived slightly, the feeling in this case being similar to that during a vol plane; the ground stretched out before us, then suddenly " rolled " out of sight as the nose of the machine was turned upwards, and there was nothing but the clouded sky all round. The rush of wind, which had been intense, then seemed to die out altogether for a second or so, and now An impression of looping the loop with Noel at Hendon.E 4IO
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