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Aviation History
1918
1918 - 1358.PDF
NOVEMBER 28, 1918 attacking a German strong point SW. of Bourloii Wood, And this was only a decade ago, while now the man in the in the effort to help out a company of the Royal Irish Rifles, street feels no- more than a pallid interest in the fact that when other help had failed, and so reduce the number of regular aerial communication is soon to be established between unknown heroes by one. London and Paris ! NOTICE that in discussing American naval policy and the future of the German warships last week, i^the Senate Committee on Naval Affairs, it was suggested rnat the Ger- man Navy prizes might be distributed to the Allies according to the size of their navies, a suggestion, however, not meeting with very pronounced approval, on the ground that it was not necessarily fair to give most to those who already had most. Surely very little consideration would suggest that, if the British Admiralty thinks well of it, there should be at least firstly, vessel for vessel apportioned to England for all her warships, &c, lost during her holding of the seas for the first four years of the War, with proper compensation in kind for all the crews as well. It's a bit rough to have to think that after Britain having maintained, all on its own, the real freedom of the seas against the most savage murderer of civilisation the world has ever known, for four solid years, it should now have to even think about distributing the spoils which she compelled to keep, behind secret minefields or suffer annihilation. We fancy somehow the finish, when it comes, of this " freedom of the seas " business, will be a little bit surprising to a good many people. THE aerial surveyor has been mooted, and now we learn that the flying fireman has arrived ! Recently there was a very bad explosion at the Gillespie shell loading plants at Morgan, N.J., U.S.A., and by means of aerial observations from an Army flying machine it was found possible to direct the fight against the flames and prevent a great deal of loss of life and material that would otherwise have ensued. Not least of the salvage effected was that of a matter of 8,000,000 lbs. of T.N.T., which was in imminent danger of exploding. The aeroplane was manned by an American pilot, and carried a British observer, Major H. L. Armstrong, the latter giving instructions to the firemen. Before the machine came to the assistance of the firemen several in- effectual attempts had been made from the ground to learn the extent and progress of the fire, and where it would be safe to send relief parties. The aeroplane kept at a height of about 100 ft. for 20 minutes, thus enabling the observer to make out openings in the walls through which the explosives could be taken out. AT a dinner recently given by the Society of Automotive Engineers in America to Orville Wright an interesting souvenir was presented to the guests, in which was included an account written by the pioneer himself of his earliest flight :— " In order to show the way in which the machine operates, let us fancy ourselves ready for the start. The machine is placed upon a single-track rail facing the wind, and is securely fastened with a cable. The engine is put in motion, and the propellers in the rear whirr. You take your seat in the centre of the machine beside the operator. He slips the cable, and you shoot forward. An assistant who has been holding the machine in balance on the rail starts forward with you, but before you have gone 50 ft. the speed is too great for him, and he lets go. Before reaching the end of the track the operator moves the front rudder, and the machine lifts from the rail like a kite supported by the pressure of the air underneath it. The ground under you is at first a perfect blur, but as you rise the objects become clearer. At a height of loo ft. you feel hardly any motion at all, except for the wind which strikes your face. If you did not take the precaution to fasten your hat before starting you have probably lost it by this time. The operator moves a lever : the right wing rises, and the machine swings about to the left. You make a very short turn, yet you do not feel the sensation of being" thrown from your seat, so often experienced in automobile and railway travel. You find yourself facing toward the point from which you started. The objects on the ground now seen to be ^moving at much higher speed, though you perceive no change in the pressure of the wind on your face. You know then that yon are travelling with the wind. When you near the starting point the operator stops the motor while still high in the air. The machine coasts down at an oblique angle to the ground, and after sliding 50 or 100 ft., comes to rest. Although the machine often lands when travelling at a speed, of a mile a minute, yon feel no shock whatever, and cannot in fact tell the exact moment at which it first touched the ground. The motor close beside you kept up an almost deafening roar during the whole flight, yet in your excitment you did not notice it till it stopped." IT seems very^ hard lines that, after enlisting at 18 years of age in the Spahis, and running a thousand windy hazards throughout the course of the war, the great French ace, Capt. Pinsard, should have succumbed, when all the guns were stilled, to the influenza demon. An officer of the Legion of Honour, he had brought down 30 or more German machines, and he was the first man to fly the Hispano-Suiza engined Spad. As a boy, Pinsard served three 3'ears in Morocco, where he received his first decoration. He did a great deal of military steeple-chasing, but this soon palled on him, and in 1911 he took to the air. In 1912 he took his ticket. When the war broke out he was appointed marechale des logis, and,was attached to the historic escadrille M.S. 23, to which Roland Garros, Marc Pourpe, Eugene Gilbert, and Lacrouze belonged. Attached to General Castelnau's army, he soon achieved a reputation as a pilot of the greatest dash. Once he was brought down in enemy territory on a Morane parasol. He set to work blandly to diagnose the fault, smoking endless cigarettes, and humming the airs of his native Montrnartre. He was just able to leap off the ground when the enemy patrol came in sight, and escaped with nothing worse than a singeing. Pinsard was raised to the rank of second-lieutenant for his valour in bombing the Grand > Headquarters of William II, but early in 1915 he was taken prisoner. He and a fellow prisoner, Lieut. Menard, succeeded, after several fruitless attempts, in getting away. It took them three weeks to reach the frontier. They arrived delirious and more than" half starved. Within a montfc Pinsard was back over the lines ; at his own request, be it noted, for escaped prisoners are excused duty at the front, on the ground that they would be shot if recaptured. In company with Guynemer, Heurtaux and Deullin he instituted the new sport of contour-flying, with disastrous effects on the morale of the Boche troops. It was for this that he received the Legion of Honour. Frequently he undertook journeys of as much as 400 kilometres into enemy territory, avowing that he would never be taken prisoner again, and carrying a revolver to that end. He narrowly escaped death as a consequence of terrible in- juries received while trick flying at a review, only to die at last in his bed, like any sober citizen. TEN YEARS AGO Excerpts from " FLIGHT " of November, 1908 MAURICE FARMAN ENTERS THE FLIGHT ARENA Impelled, no doubt, by the remarkable success of his brother Henry, Maurice Farman has for some little time been at work getting ready an aeroplane of his own upon the biplane principle and on the lines of the Wright machine. Mr.Farman has located himself at Buc, where already Esnault- Pelterie and Henry Kapferer are installed with their aero- planes. The motor which Maurice Farman will use will either be a very light R.E.P. or possibly a 35 h.p. Renault, probably the former. PROGRESS OF WILBUR WRIGHT During the past week, Wilbur Wright has continued steadily with his pupils, Capt. Lucas Girardville and Count Lambert, whilst on Friday of last week he irrade two note- worthy performances. First a flight at a height of 50 metres, thereby winning the Sarthe Aero Club's prize for high flight, and secondly, by making a flight without using his usual derrick launching apparatus. The latter performance goes to show that this is not an absolutely necessary part of the equipment, but is only used for convenience in starting. COUNT LAMBERT FLIES UNAIDED Wilbur Wright must have been a proud man on Tuesday last, for then he was able to demonstrate that the power of manipulating his machine is not his own special gift. Then, for the first time, the aeroplane successfully progressed through space with a new pilot at the helm. Count Lambert, although accompanied by Wright, took complete control of the aero- plane, and made two flights of about 15 minutes each. This performance is the climax of Wilbur Wright's conquest of the air. v . "ANTOINETTE IV" • •• •:'[. On Wednesday of last week, M. Welferinge had tlie mono- plane " Antoinette IV " out at Issy, and made several short flights of between 200 and 300 metres in length. On Monday last, the monoplane was given another trial and flew for between 600 and 7.00 metres at a height of about 5 metres. *359
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