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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0708.PDF
we scarcely care to think that such a course would be taken by the Allies under all the circumstances of the present position. This in spite of " discussions " upon this subject which are reported to have taken place between British air officers and the chiefs of the American Air Service. The Huns might then have cause for appealing to humanity in the matter, with the chance of having a sympathetic hearing, in spite of all the beastliness of which they have been guilty. SOME funny facts appear now to be emerging in regard to the actual state of American equipment of their troops in France, even up to the time of the Armistice. Many short comings are being criticised pretty freely by men who know, and one of the latest comes from Capt. Archie Roosevelt, son of the late Ex-President, and from Capt. Edward Rickenbacker, America's " Ace of Aces," with 26 air victories to his score. After some scathing comments upon U.S. staff-work, the uniforms, the artillery, which largely were anything but American, Capt. Roosevelt states that the aeroplanes were generally condemned French machines. He is supported by Capt. Rickenbacker, who declares in his book, " Fighting the Flying Circus," that the few American aviators of the willing thousands who finally got to the front flew in unfit machines, because there were no others. Because the French had discarded the Nieuport flyer for the stronger Spad, the American Government was able to buy a few out-of-date machines for the American pilots, or go without. Consequently the American pilots were obliged to venture out in the Nieuports against far more experienced pilots in modern machines. " None of us in France," Capt. Rickenbacker continues, " could understand what prevented our great country from furnishing machines equal to the best in the world. Many a gallant life was lost to American aviation during the early months of 1918, the responsibility for which must lie heavily on some guilty conscience." He then refers to " the clumsy Libertylmachines, which, with their criminally-constructed fuel tanks, offered so easy a target to the incendiary bullets of the enemy that their unfortunate pilots called this boasted achievement of our Aviation Department their 'flaming coffins.' " AFTER all our Air Ministry did a bit better than that, and didn't boast about it either . . . over-much. lTo what end—except as an acrobatic performance—is Lieut.' O. Locklear perpetrating at Atlantic City the fantastic AT HOUNSLOW AERODROME Master Baker, books his own guinea flight. A "Civilian," stunts with which he is credited, before thousands of visitors to the Pan-American Aeronautical Convention ? This very intrepid ex-U.S. Army Air Service officer, it is stated, demon strated the possibility of passing from one aeroplane to another while in flight by catching a ladder dangling from the plane passing overhead. Both planes were at an altitude of 2,500 ft. Lieut. Locklear claims previously to have dropped from a higher to a lower plane while in flight, but this is the first time he has mounted to a higher plane. It seems possible, if he persists in this somewhat superfluous BELFAST TO FOLKESTONE NON-STOP FLIGHT.—The Rolls-Royce engined Handley Page which made the trip, at Folkestone, with the pilot, Mr. Clifford P. Prodger (left), and one of the passengers, Mr. Bernard Isaac ?o8
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