FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0388.PDF
JUNE 10, 1926 AIR DRILL By Major F. A. de V. Robertson, V.D. THE Army has been drilling hard for centuries, and about every five or six years it issues a new and reformed drill book. In the space of time required to earn a Volunteer Officer's Decoration, the present writer has worked under at least four drill manuals, which illustrates the difficulty of arriving, even after vast experience, at an ultimate best. The Royal Air Force is now setting to work to evolve an air drill manual. Its authorities are displaying great prud- ence, and have evidently realised the proverbial folly of rushing in. As a matter of fact, various thoughtful squadron leaders, notably Squadron Leader A. H. Peck, of No. 25 Fighter Squadron, are engaged in working out by experiment the best methods of carrying out the details. The Air Ministry has got as far as issuing a provisional manual of Air Drill, which describes various formations and gives the R/T orders which will produce the desired result. Very prudently, it does not describe the course which each aero- plane will follow in changing to its new position—still less the motions of rudder and joystick which will urge it upon that course. Air drill is necessarily more complicated than ground flight consists of three or five aeroplanes the normal arrange- ment is the V, called Vic. Where there are four, a star is formed, with the fourth machine to the rear of the leader. Either the Vic or the Star is called " Flight Formation." Other arrangements may be ordered, such as " Flight in line abreast," " Flight inline astern " (of the leader"), " Flight in echelon to port (or starboard)." A flight may also be stepped up or down from the leader. The formation may also be opened out to distances or intervals of the required number of spans. Squadron drill is more complicated. Each complete flight may be a unit of the squadron and the squadron leader can vary not only the disposition of the flights in the squadron but also the disposition of the aeroplanes in the flights. The normal " Squadron Formation " is a V, each point consisting of a " Flight Formation." (Fig. 1.) The squadron, however, can remain in " Squadron Formation," while each flight is in Line Astern " or " line Abreast," or some other forma- tion. When this is ordered, the first word refers to the dis- position of the aeroplanes in each flight, and following on this is given the disposition of the flights in the squadron. drill, for the simple reason that the third dimension enters into the matter. The principles of drill, however, are as eternal as the principles of tactics. Any man who has a taste for drill, or at least a head for drill, only needs to master the system upon which any given drill book works, and he can then improvise for himself new formations and new orders in accordance with that system, which will be quite orthodox even though they do not appear in the drill book. For instance, the proximity of one aeroplane or one sub- formation to another is described by three terms—(1) Interval. (2) Distance. (3) Space. The first two are taken from infantry drill, and the third has had to be improvised for the air. " Interval " means the number of spans between the nearest wing tips of adjacent aeroplanes (or sub-formations), measured horizontally and at right angles to the line of flight. In other words, the measurement is taken from left to right of a line, an echelon, a V, or similar formation. Distance is a measurement from front to rear. It means the number of spans between the rearmost part of one aero- plane and the foremost part of the next behind it, measured horizontally and parallel to the line of flight. Space is a vertical measurement, namely, the number of spans between the highest part of one aeroplane and the lowest part of the next above it. The minimum interval and distance at present allowed is two spans of the type of aircraft engaged. Flight drill is first dealt with in the manual. When the A typical order given in the manual is " astern, flights abreast, 1 repeat, astern, flights abreast, Go." The executive word is always " Go." This order would produce the formation shown in Fig. 2. The circle indicates the squadron leader. The flight formations may, however, be broken up ; where- upon the squadron consists, not of three units (each being a flight), but of nine units, each being an aeroplane. In these conditions the leader can order " Squadron Vic " (one simple V.), " Squadron Line Abreast," " Squadron Line Astern," all of which explain themselves. The manual does not lay down which aeroplane moves into which place. In wheeling, to use an infantry phrase, a number of points to starboard or port is given, each point representing 10 degrees. Thus, " 18 points starboard " wheels the whole formation round to the right and brings it back in the direction from which it had come. It is, however, a cumbrous maniieuvre and takes time. Turning about is much quicker and neater, and squadrons are still working out the best methods of turning in each formation. On June 3 No. 25 Fighter Squadron gave a practice demon- stration at Kenley before Air Vice-Marshal Brooke Popham, commanding the Fighting Area. Sqdn.-Ldr. A. H. Peck explained that it was only their fifth practice, and they hoped to get much closer and more accurate in their mana'uvres before the display. They gave demonstrations of turning about in five different formations. 334
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
