FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1918
1918 - 0210.PDF
FEBRUARY 21, 1918 SIR WILLIAM WEIR, whilst retaining his position on the Air Council, has been appointed a member of the Munitions Council in charge of aircraft production. MARCH 12 TH is the date upon which reprisals in respect of the sentence of penal imprisonment upon the British flying officers, Capt. Scholz and Lieut. Wookey, is due to take place, without in the meantime the German Government cancels this scandalous decision. Formal notice to this effect was handed in at Berlin on Feb. 12th by the Dutch Minister on behalf of the British Government. QUITE an interesting little exhibition by one of the British airships was made on Feb. 15th over the centre of London, the dirigible at one time being at such a low altitude, when it was circling for the third time round the roof of " FLIGHT " offices, that for the moment we wondered whether we were in for the honour of a call from the commander. But with a graceful curve she sheered ofi and displayed her stream- lined beauty to other denizens of the metropolis. Country Life last week had, from a correspondent, quite a suggestive little story upon the joining up of an aeroplane in a fox hunt. " On Jan. 29th," it read, " while running we saw an aeroplane following us overhead about 100 ft. up. The airman waved us the direction in which our fox had gone, and when we checked we heard several holloas from aloft and were put right by our friend above, the hounds The marriage of Wing-Commander Frank K. McClean,R.N.A.S., to Miss Aileen Wale on February 16th. The couple leaving St. Paul's, Knightsbridge, after theceremony. Wing-Commander McClean is one of the earliest pioneers of aviation, and amongst other veryhelpful work it was through his practical assistance that the first naval air pilots were initiated into theart of flying. verifying his information. A little later he landed in a field, told the master where he had seen the fox, then rose and circled above us. But the fox beat us." COMMENTING upon the incident, a contemporary suggests that it is probably the first instance of the sort. This is, however, not so. There have been one or two records of similar character in the early days, a Henry Farman taking part in France in la chasse, and again in July, 1915, a case was recorded from America which at the time was described as follows : " Hunting wild game from an aeroplane is a sport which appears to be in a fair way to become popular with our cousins on the other side. The hilly country near Rosco, California, has been the scene recently of several hunting parties of this description, the sharpshooter being Fred Mills, and the man at the wheel the well-known Californian pilot, Glenn Martin. The plane used was one of the Martin tractor biplanes. Circling round over the surrounding country in wide circles, at a height of 3,000 ft., Mills studied the ground below through his field glasses, and soon discovered a prowling coyote and his mate stalking a covey of quail. Shutting off the engine, the party glided down to within a hundred yards of the unsuspecting coyote, the machine was brought to an even keel, and Mills, leaning out of his cockpit and steadying himself against one of the inner plane struts, struck the animal down with a well directed shot. A similar fate overtook the other coyote. While the aviators were walking about picking up the dead animals a third unwisely approached within range and was promptly added to the bag. It appears that so noiseless had been the approach of the hunting party, coming down in a glide with the engine cut off, that the animals in the nearest vicinity of the landing place had heard nothing, and before starting for home the hunters were able to shoot a couple of bobcats, which were loaded on board with the rest of the game." In America when they are out for sport they are out some. . OUR supply of aeroplanes, according to so high an authority as Mr. Bonar Law, was multiplied two and a-half times in 1917 as compared with 1916. NOTE that Major T. Orde Lees, R.M.L.I., attached R.F.C., is included in the list which the King has approved for the grant of the Polar Medal with Clasp, inscribed " Antarctic, 1914-16," of the Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans- Antarctic Expedition. Major Orde Lees, who receives the "Endurance" Party Silver Medal, Was the experimenter from the Tower Bridge some short time back with the " Guardian Angel" Parachute. IF only half- the " eggs " which will be provided by the 55 million pounds being sanctioned for aeroplane bombs, in the Deficiency Appropriation Bill of the United States War Budget, are well and truly laid in the year's operations—well there ought to be some fairly big flights observed from Rhineland and other picturesque spots, if our Allies see that too many of them are not addled. A HINT to " young bloods " : "I wish we had three dozen more like him. He is not like the bumptious young bloods who hold red cards, and come in when they like, demand what they like, and ' mike ' half their time," an aeroplane parts maker told the Surbiton Tribunal last week concerning an exempted man who had to find work of national importance." WITH the reprisal bombing season coming on, the Germans are for about the first time really up against our past problems of how to dodge the gifts from above. Without much doubt they are benefiting from our experience, as apparently most of their past hysterical anathema is being neglected in favour of the promotion of practical schemes for protection. Accord- ing to the Frankfurter Zeitung the Frankfurt authorities have now decided that no alarms should be given in the event of air raids at night; it seems that the present rule is^that there shall be no alarm between 11.30 p.m. and 5 a.m. It was argued at a conference between the military and municipal authorities that alarms, if they are given at all, must be given as soon as an enemy airman comes within about 60 miles of the town, even if it is not known what direc- tion he is going to take. It was said that this would lead to constant uneasiness, which would involve many* dangers, especially the danger of lights being lit near uncovered 2O6
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
