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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 1236.PDF
[/UGfiT] Gnome biplane and Mr. W. Roche-Kelly on 40 h.p. Wright biplane. Monday, Messrs. Virgilio (6), M. L. Gardner (6), C. Leeston-Smith (6), Anstey Chave (4), Cornish (5), G. Merton (7), G. Beard (9), Roche (7), B. de Meza (6), and Ormsby (6). Tuesday, Messrs. M. L. Gardner (10), Anstey Chave (10), G. Merton (ro), G. Beard (40), Donald (16), Perrot (16), Miller (15), and Ormsby (15). Wednesday, owing to bad weather no training possible. Thursday, Messrs. Virgilio (9), Leeston-Smith (10), Cornish (8), Roche (15), Miller (15), and G. Perrot (10). Friday, Messrs. Anstey Chave (10), Cornish (10), Donald (10), and Lieut. Bannatyne (6). Saturday, Messrs. Virgilio (10), M. L. Gardner (15), Newberry (10), G. Merton (10). Sunday, Messrs. Virgilio (10), M. L. Gardner (10), C. Leeston-Smith (10), Cornish (10), Merton (6). On Sunday Mr. M. L. Gardner flew for his certificate, which he obtained after making a series of very good flights; afterwards, Mr. G. Virgilio went up for his first two tests, which he passed in very good style, and after wards went up for his height test, during which he attained r,ioo ft., making fine vol plane from that height. Hall School.—Monday last week, W. J. M. Connochie DECEMBER 25, I9I4. six straights ; Waterson eight straights; test flight by J.-Rose, lasting ten minutes at 300 ft. Tuesday, windy; Lloyd Williams six good straight flights. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, gale and rain. Sunday, in spite of fog, Instructor Rose took out No. 3 tractor and made several circuits. Afterwards mist cleared sufficiently for pupil practice. W. J. M. ' Connochie doing eight straights and Lloyd Williams four short flights. Instructor of the week : J. Rose. London and Provincial Aviation Co.—Weather generally unfavourable' last week. Instructors : Messrs. Warren and Smiles. Monday, school out in the morning. Messrs. Laidler, Moore and Abel straights. Laidler pan caking from ten feet smashed the machine. School out again on Wednesday. Messrs. Moore and Abel straights. England Derwin and Laidler rolling. Friday, school out in morning. Messrs. Moore and Abel straights. Laidler and England Derwin rolling. Machines in use : L. and P. biplanes. Ruffy School.—Instructors during last week : Herbert James and Howard James. Pupils receiving instruction : Messrs. Aoyang, Graham, Donald, Marriott, Lacrouts. Machines : 60 h.p. Gnome-Caudron, dual control, and 45 h.p. Anzani, single-seater. One 50 h.p. machine is being erected at works, and will be ready in a few days. ® ® ® ® AIRCRAFT AND THE WAR. A Daily Mail correspondent at Venice reported on the 12 th :— " The Austrians, having learnt that a quantity of provisions and ammunition for the Serbs was due to arrive at Antivari, endeavoured to disturb the operations by an aerop'ane raid. This entirely failed. The aeroplanes made off towards Mount Lovcen, where the Montenegrins were able to bring down one of the raiding aeroplanes." The Vossische Zeitung on the 12th received the following, from its Bale correspondent:— "Almost daily French aviators are sighted flying in groups of two or three over the Sundgau district around Mulhouse in Alsace coming from the direction of Belfort. They are always flying so high that pursuit is unsuccessful. " A Reuter message from Petrograd on the 13th said :— " During the fighting in the Vistula region there was an exciting incident when two Russian aeroplanes gave chase to a German machine. The German had been encircling a portion of the Russian positions, and two captains of the Novogeorgievsk aviation detach. ment started after him. They succeeded in intercepting his return to the German lines, and the German mounted higher and higher, hoping to shake off his pursuers. The Russians followed one op each side. Suddenly the German dropped, but the Russians were after him. He mounted again to so great a height that the machine was covered with frost, the propeller was working irregularly, and the airman was half frozen. Realising the impossibility of escape the German made a volplane, still with the Russians in attendance, and landed in the Russian lines, where he was captured." In a despatch to the Daily Mailirom Western Flanders on the 14th, Mr. W. Beach Thomas said:— " Farther north, and a long way within the German lines, many daring expeditions have been made by airmen, and one of them has seen a German submarine, of which the engines were being tested in a bay of one of the Bruges canals, where there is just room for the vessel to turn. " The activity of tht airmen on both sides lias been remarkable lately. The increase in general skill is remarkable, but especially in this point — that they are just beginning to learn to shoot tolerably straight. The great pace and great height of the aeroplane must always make the calculation of the due allow ance immensely difficult. The bomb is launched at what I may call a muzzle velocity of anything from sixty to thirty miles an hour. How far forward will it travel in a still air from 3,000 ft. when dropped at a fixed rate of forward motion ? This is the sort of question—dear to mathematicians—that airmen begin to answer in stinctively. Some men have already earned great reputation as the Lord Ripons of this new marksmanship. Many of the latest bombs have only missed their mark by about thirty yards, which in these things is a narrow margin, and there have been some bull's eyes. However, there are many failure?. One of the bombs near Haze- brouck, for example, both missed its mark and failed to explode, but became an object of terror to the gardener in whose patch it lay. The military authorities on request applied an electric wire, now devised for such purpose, and gave an exhibition explosion. A few airmen tried to combine several sorts of fighting, and have come down to earth behind the enemy's lines for various nefarious pur poses. Recently a P'rench sentinel was wounded and seized by two German airmen who had so descended. But, luckily, it was the moment of changing guard, and the relief came at the critical moment, just as the sentinel was nearly throttled by his captors. His life was saved and both airmen shot as they tried to escape." In a message to the Daily Mail from West Flanders last week, Mr. W. Beach Thomas said :— " The aeroplanes, in spite of the fear of bombs, are a daily enter tainment to the people, and some of the Germans begin to appreciate their own value as entertainers. At any rate, one may be allowed to infer it from one of the ' Taubists ' who the other day dropped a shower of his own photographs over the British lines. They were eagerly seized as ' souvenirs,' a blessed word that is now in every- body's mouth. The dropping of literature of various sorts has recently become a regular practice with German airmen. " The Swiss correspondent of the Morning Post reported the following from Berne on December 15 th :— " A great deal of cannonading has been heard again on the Swiss shore of Lake Constance, proceeding from Friedrichshafen, where the searchlights were also very busy. It is supposed that another aeroplane attack on the Zeppelin sheds has taken place, but nothing certain can be ascertained." A special correspondent of the Daily Chronicle, writing from Northern France on December 15th, said :— " L'Abbe Lemire, of Hazebrouck, has recently adopted a novel method for giving news to the citzens of Lille. He has sent an aero plane over the town with a stock of newspapers, mainly ' Le Cri des Flandres.' These contain French and Allied news and a very useful list of people who have left Lille to take temporary refuge at Hazebrouck. In this way he has enabled many families to know how their friends and acquaintances are faring." In L'Auto of the 15th inst., the following details were given of an incident which occurred on October 7th between Metz and Verdun :— " The aviator Gaubert, with Captain Blaise as passenger, on sighting a hostile aeroplane, at once made for it. Gaubert hovered I236
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