FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0825.PDF
SEPTEMBER 21. I9l6. him. These French aviators are keenness itself. Most of them were engineers, architects, artists before the war. Since the war they have created entirely new methods, and have brought them to the pitch of perfection. ' What will you do after the war ? ' I asked. ' Oh, use the same methods for exploring and photographing Africa and Asia* or somet ning of that sort.' " In aviation ' les Boches n'existent plus,' everyone in this camp agrees. Since the Somme offensive no German aeroplane has ever dared to cross its own lines into French territory. The French have invented methods of air photo graphy the perfection of which is almost miraculous. ! toes not the enemy do the same ? ' 1 ask. ' No, he never comes to photograph us because we never let him. " ' In July 58 German aeroplanes were brought down by the French attacking squadron. One of the new French machines alone brought down seven Boches, and not one of these machines was lost. These are the new attacking machines of extraordinary speed. There are other new French aeroplanes of great power. Some of these have lost a gunner killed, but all have always come back.' '!_One of the French aviator-captains who showed me over the camp was the officer who had himself read the letter taken from a German aviator officer moaning over the incompetency- of German aviation. That German aviation has ceased to count on the Somme is no exaggeration at all. One morning I saw over twenty French sausages lolling in the air, where they cast a seeing eye upon the German positions. Not a single German sausage was anywhere to be seen—none has been seen for weeks. ' The moment a German sausage comes up one of my men rises and puts an inflammatory fuse into the thing, and it bursts up,' said the aviator captain. " It is the same with the aeroplanes—not one dares cross over the lines. The result is that the German artilleryman is blind. He fires over and over again at the same place upon which he had long ago trained his gun, but he can fire nowhere else with any knowledge. French mastery of the air on the Somme is an absolute fact. But in the air, on the Somme, the Boches are now powerless, and the French work their war machine absolutely peacefully. Their aviators have told them that they are safe from air attacks, and they know it is a fact. " There are three kinds of aviation services, each very different from the other. The attacking aeroplane squadrons are the dare-devils and adventurers of the air. The infantry aeroplanes are scouts who lead attacks and hover over the foot soldiers as they leave the trenches for the attack, and from minute to minute send down information. The aviation photographic service, the third department, is the real eye of the army, and it is this service which bv photographs keeps H H A Long-Distance Flight in America. ON August 25th, Pilot Victor Carlstrom made flights at Newport News, Va., which so far established the best records yet made to win the Marine Flying Trophy and the $1,000 cash prize given by Mr. Glenn Curtiss. Carrying a passenger the entire time Carlstrom flew a twin-motored JN hydro aeroplane 661 miles, using a total flying time of 8 hours 41 minutes. His course was between two points 2544 miles apart, and most of his flying had to be done with aid of compass, as a heavy fog had settled over the water. The contest opened April 15th, and will close October 31st. A Danish Trans-Atlantic Project. LIEUTENANT POLLNER, a young and well-known Danish military aviator, has planned to make a record by crossing the Atlantic, says the Daily Telegraph correspondent at Copenhagen. A Danish flying-machine expert states that he will be able to carry out the plan by means of a machine supplied with a motor of 350 h.p. The distance from the Faroe Islands to Newfoundland could, he states, be made in about 30 hours, and the whole trip to New York in 48 hours. The Cost of a Zepp. Raid. SOME interesting speculations as to the cost of the last Zeppelin raid were given by M. Louis Forest in the Matin last week. Basing his observations on the principle that Germany entered the war as a business proposition, M. Forest puts the following on the debit side of the balance-sheet:— £1,200 for petrol. /600 for oil. £1,000 for bombs. £'3,600 for refits and repairs. £250 for Wolff telegrams. [/UGHE the fighting line informed from hour t.. boor of the enemy** positions. " The fighting aviators are wild young chaps, who. in the intervals of risking thou lives heroically. UttW themselves furiously, Then is nothing to be done with them when they are oft* duty, and everyone then gives them their tethci Back to duty in their thing machines, they arc once in dare devils of the an There is s new mat lime, scleral tA which I saw flying oft and returning which can swoop down in a lew seconds verticalh upon 115 ' r»« machine is quite good,' said the aviator captain, ' but, unfortunately after a lew months ol driving it one is apt to get a touch ©1 heart disease.' " The infantry aviators, who watch an attack from the trenches and report step bv Step the advance, are steadiei chaps than the wild flyers ol the attacking a« squadron They fly quite low over the foot troops, as the latter a,Ivan.. and even go down i^ less than 100 yard* bom the gpnind. They are the infantry ,111 scouts, and the information they send down gives commanding officers an assurance and con fidence which could be equalled by no other means "The third air service is that which miraculously, as it would have seemed a few years ago. brings to Headquarters ill a few minutes absolutely faithful photograph* ol all the enemy's positions Think what this new service moans. An aeroplane Hies out over tin enemy's tranche*, and maps reproducing the exact plan of the enemy's trenches titan the photographs taken ate dropped into the I'iciuh licinhei. I In aviator can lal cameras. The photographs km developed, and the lines of trenches are reproduced 011 a map. The map is printed by hand to the requisite number of copie by a delightfully smart proces 1 the map n ai h c.u 1. commanding officer concerned The perfection which has been attained in the taking ol photographs, the reading ot them, the reproduction and the printing off by hand ol the maps, surpasses anything which could be imagined Then 1 nothing like this aviation camp m the world, and it ha* all been created since the very beginning of the w.u Hundred* of young officers work there with a seriousness and a keen ness which are admirable. It is one great, perfect machine and in all - in the daring flyers who dash over the enemy's lines, and in the men who develop, read and print tl photographs, upon which so much, indeed everything, depends—there is the same steadfast purpose and the same enthusiasm. " But they only count by results, these young Frenchmen, who have made a business of war, and w ho make 11 thoroughly. 'Don't the Germans take the same war photographs?' 1 ask. ' They would it they could, but, yOU wc, we don't let them. L'aviation Bock* n'txi&t* plus." a a £60,000 for the loss ol a Zeppelin, £\0,000 for pensions , and £10 for Iron Crosses, He credits to the other side of the account two Ihitish live* lost, and, assuming that he is Hindcnburg making out a report to the Kaiser, proceeds : - "Your Majesty will readily perceive that this expedition Rives us something substantial to go upon foi the solution of the problem before us, and which alone can gloriously terminate the war, namely, the destruction of England. The loss of two Englishmen having cost us close upon £80,000, a simple calculation suffices to show, taking the population of Great Britain in round figures at 46,000,000 of souls, that in order to kill off the lot wc shall not t>e obliged to spend more than £1,840,000.000,000. I venture to think that there will be no difficulty in obtaining this sum from the Minister ol Finances, especially when it us considered how reasonable it is compared with the results it will achieve. " The money part of the problem settled, them only remains one small point to be goi; over. The destruction of two Englishmen having cost us the lives of 20 Germans, a Is ficial mind might imagine that we ourselves shall all be wiped out before we have encompassed the leaffc of every inhabitant of Great Britain. Seeing, however, that the pi 1 inanent Committee-of German Professors established to deal with the problems of the war has always been able to demon strate that what must be done for the pursuance of German aims can always he accomplished, I do not doubt for a moment but what the same Committee will discover a formula proving that this particular point is only an apparent diffi culty, and not of a nature that need for a moment trouble or thwart our activity HISTDEMBURG." 821
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
