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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0766.PDF
ffUCHT WITHOUT doubt the " Raid-Warning " chaos will settle itself with time and experience, but in the meantime about the simplest—and to our mind the most sensible—" alarm '-' suggested so far is that of " Invalided Officer," who writes :-— " It seems to me very extraordinary that it has not occurred to some member of the Government the use to which the policeman's whistle can be put to warn us of impending raids. If every Bobby, Special, and secret service man were instructed to give a series of short, sharp blasts on their whistle for a period of five minutes or less, within a couple of minutes every man, woman and child in London would be aware of what to expect. The method of blowing this alarm has, as you see, been suggested to me from the military ' Alarm,' and is quite distinctive from the piercing and annoying taxi call or Bobby's ' Stop thief! ' and the volume of sound would be greater. " This method seems simple, effective, without cost, and does not make you imagine that a raid is in progress as Londoners thought yesterday morning when those naval rockets went off ; nor does it give you a crick in the neck star-gazing. If still thought necessary, the Bobby on the bicycle can also blow as he goes along, to call attention to the porous plaster on his chest. The ' All clear ' could be sounded by longer blasts with a slight pause between each ; this would effectively clear all ' funk-holes.' How can people in ' funk-holes ' at present see the perambulating porous plaster with its second label ? " A SAFE weighing three-hundredweight has been stolen from a branch post-office in the Gray's Inn Road. It is believed that in the excitement-caused by an air-raid alarm, it was snatched up by a customer who mistook it for his hat. —Charivari. - ,; No LONDON RAID OLD gentleman, en deshabille, leans out of his bedroom window, and proceeds to search the sky with a .pair of field- glasses. Old lady, also in undress uniform, appears at another Window, and calls out : " Hallo ! Father, what are you a-lookin' for—submarines ? " . . THERE was great fun in one small side street in the West End. People were leaning out of every window, and there were many outside the houses, discussing the raid, when— fifteen or twenty minutes AFTER the affair was over—a solitary policeman appeared on a bicycle, wearing a very self-conscious air and a pair of placards tied on with much string, Warning the populace to take cover. He Was greeted, as the Parliamentary reports would say, with Loud and Prolonged Laughter on all sides. Swarms of Children ran after him cheering with delight, and dogs snapped excitedly at his heels. Presumably, he was on his way homeward, but no dog on Derby Day, and no dust-cart preceding a Royal Procession, ever had a more embarrassing reception, and he hastily followed his own advice and " took cover." In that district he was certainly looked on as quite the best part of the raid. IT Was quite tantalising to mount a roof in the middle of the West End, as one of our correspondents did, and hear the guns firing in many places, but to be totally unable to see a single machine up, owing to the atmospheric conditions. There were many complaints, also, at the unseemly hour of the raid from those Who like to take their only chance of an extra hour or so in bed on a Sunday morning. JULY 26, 1917. TEN YEARS AGO. Excerpts from the " Auto." (" FLIGHT'S " precursor and sister Journal) of July, 1907. " FLIGHT " was founded in 1908. KITE AND GLIDER EXPERIMENTS ON CHOBHAM COMMON. Quite a large gathering assembled on the Sunningdale Golf Links, Chobham Common, last week, to witness the experiments which were being conducted there under the auspices of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain, this being tH6 concluding meeting of their forty-second session. Fortunately the weather was fine, but unfortunately for the display of scientific kite-flying the atmospheric conditions were thundery, and the air currents extremely uncertain. Three distinct types of apparatus were experimented with, for in addition to the kites of Mr. W. H. Dines, Mr. C. J. P. Cave, Mr. S. H. R. Salmon and Mr. R. M. Balston, Mr. Jose Weiss was present with some of his model gliders, and Mr. Cave sent up some small hydrogen-filled rubber balloons, both as pilots and tQ carry special recording instruments. Some of Mr. Weiss' gliders behaved well, performing very bird-like evolutions, but others were too heavy for the prevailing wind currents, and the largest of all refused to glide at all. Some were started with the aid of kites, and were thus dropped from a considerable height, while others were thrown off from the higher ground on the common and circled around for a short distance before falling. The whole proceedings lasted for about a couple of hours. Much that took place was extremely amusing, and for those who are making a study of this intensely interesting problem there was a certain amount that was really instructive. THE WRIGHT BROTHERS AND GERMANY. . - According to Laffan's Agency, the attempt of the brothers Wright to dispose of their flying machine in Germany has met with no success, one official in the ballooning department even going so far as to say that their device was more suitable for an acrobat than a soldier, on the ground that it only carries one man, who is far too busy looking after it to attend to matters of war. " LA PATRIE." Further flights during the past week have demonstrated the satisfactory capabilities of the French military airship, " La Patrie." On the morning of the 12th inst. another ascent was made at Meudon, and for 1 hour 50 mins. the air- ship made a circuit over Suresnes, Sartrouville, Saint- Germain, Louveciennes, Vaucresson and Velizy, thence returning to the point at which the ascent Was made, after having made a circular trip of about 40 miles. A second ascent was made in the afternoon, and met with equal success, and other flights are being carried out in order that the military may become accustomed to the Working of airships. It is reported that five of the new airships to be built upon the lines of " La Patrie " will be delivered to the French Government by March next. - • THE KORWIN AEROPLANE. Capt. von Korwin, who is the Chief of the Aeronautical Section of the Austrian Army, is reported to be engaged on the construction of an aeroplane of his own design, from which he expects great results. With a machine already constructed a weight of 200 lbs. has been lifted, we are informed, and the confidence which the inventor places in his new model now being made is charming in its naivete, for he is reported to have said that so soon as his machine has stayed in the air for a quarter of an hour he will destroy it with dynamite, in order to prevent others copying it " AIRCRAFT RAIDS. IN view of the decision of the Government not to allow details of places visited by enemy aircraft to be published, we are, as before, giving to each one an index number. Eventually, when details are available, we shall give the respective information under these index numbers, which will facilitate easy reference to each particular raid. . . "X 67" Raid (July 22nd). THE following communiques were issued by the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief, Home Forces, on July 22nd :—- "11 a.m. " Asquadron of enemy aeroplanes, variously reported at from fifteen to twenty-one in number, approached Felixstowe and Harwich at 8 o'clock this morning. Some bombs were dropped, but the heavy fire from the anti-aircraft defences caused the enemy formation to split up, part returning over- seas and part proceeding south down the Essex coast. The latter party were heavily engaged by gunfire all down the Essex coast, and finally proceeded homeward without drop- ping any more bombs. The raiders were pursued out to sea, and heavily engaged by our own aeroplanes, but visibility was low and difficulties of observation very great. Reports of casualties from Felixstowe and Harwich so far reported are as follows : Killed, 8 ; injured, 25." .- . "6.10 p.m. " Since the issue of this morning's communiqui three more deaths and one further case of injury have been reported. The total casualties thus amount to : Killed, 11 ; injured, 26. " Only insignificant damage to property was caused. A patrol of the R.F.C. encountered some of the hostile machines returning to Belgium, and succeeded in bringing down one of the raiding aeroplanes, which fell into the sea not far from the coast." "July 24th. " Since the issue of the last communique' two more deaths are reported to have taken place. The total numb&r of casual- ties is now: 13 killed and 26 injured." 766
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