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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0122.PDF
5$ FLIGHT. JANUARY 16, iq^ "LOW-DOWN TACTIC S •W Flight photogra The Principal Machine Requirements for " Ground Strafing " : What Other Countries Are Doing By H. F. KING I T has been estimated that twelve million rounds of ammunition were fired at ground targets during the war by British pilots. Even considering that they came from speeded-up machine guns, the fact remains that twelve million rounds is a lot of ammunition and serves to indicate the importance of " ground strafing " in modern military operations. Trenches, transports, troops, dumps, lanks:—a score of marks for the aerial gunner come readily to mind. Special aeroplanes were developed during the war for use against troops, although the brunt of the shooting-up was borne by fighters. Germany went even further than the Allies in this development, for whereas the normal armament of Allied types consisted of machine guns and light fragmentation bombs, the enemy mounted canons in addition. Armour plating was a feature common to both sides. To secure the utmost effectiveness in ground strafing—• variously known as contour fighting, attack or assault—it is necessary to employ aeroplanes designed specifically for the job. The Royal Air Force has no such type, depend ing mainly on its fighters and other light, fast types to perform any necessary " shootings-up." The U.S. Army Air Corps, however, recognises the attack machine as being in a class of its own. Italy likewise is showing interest, as witness the construction of her new assault machines, and France, although her military air service possesses no specialised ground strafers, has by no means over looked the potentialities of the fast, heavily armed, low- flying machine. At the moment there is considerable disagreement about the form the attack machine is likely to take within the next few years. Whatever its layout, how ever, it must possess very high speed at low altitudes, heavy armament, and, needless to say, highly responsive controls. A liquid-cocled Curtiss Conqueror engine powered the experimental Detroit (or Lockheed) A.9. A very high performance was obtained. The Northrop being issued to certain attack units of the U.S. Army Air Corps is structurally similar to the bomber version, an example of which was purchased by the British Air Ministry. The Wright Cyclone engine is specified and the maximum speed is about 220 m.p.h. In the U.S.A., where a technique of "attack" flying and suitable machines have received more consideration than elsewhere, the standard attack aeroplane for a number of years (the type has only recently disappeared from the service) was an adaptation of the Curtiss Falcon obser vation biplane and known as the type A.3- The pilot in this machine was provided with four Browning 0.30 calibre machine guns—two synchronised to fire from the fuselage through the airscrew arc, and the remaining pair installed in the lower niais1 planes, in which several hundred rounds i
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