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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1234.PDF
MAY 14, 1936. FLIGHT. A pole target for camera-gun practice. (Flight photograph.) .45 Webley revolver and the Colt automatic pistol of similar calibre are standard equipment; the American Colts, which are issued to officers, were purchased as an emergency war-time measure. Short Lee-Enfield Mk. Ill rifles of standard Army pattern are, of course, provided for ground service. Incidentally, these are not issued to each man on his entry into the Service and retained by him during all his travels," as is the Army procedure, but are handed out when necessary. Facilities for using pistols, rifles, and machine guns are not scarce at Eastchurch. The Lewis type is often mounted on a Scarff ring to simulate aerial firing conditions, and the Vickers is fitted to a rocking fuselage to train pilots in its use. There are targets off the coast for practice from the air with live ammunition. In one hangar is an array of bombs, a number of them being sectioned for instructional purposes. Towering above all is a gigantic projectile weighing 3,000 lb. This, and certain others of its family, were to have dropped in at the Krupp factory at Essen in 1918. The Armistice pre vented their visit. H.E. Bombs Sectioned bombs show the proportion of space occu pied by explosive and the position of fuses. It is not generally realised that a typical 500 lb. bomb carries as much explosive as a 1,600 lb. naval armour-piercing shell. The thick case of the latter precludes a very large bursting charge. Firing and bombing from the air is normally done from Hawker Harts (525 h.p. Rolls-Royce Kestrel), but there are a few Bulldogs and Wapitis in addition to these machines. The bombing is of the dive and horizontal, or "precision," varieties, and is done with small smoke- producing practice bombs against a target moored out to sea off Leysdown. At 8,000 ft. in the prone position on the floor of a Hart flying at the apex of a tight three-machine "V" (with one's face over the open bomb-sighting door in the bottom of the fuselage, with the pilot's feet on the rudder bar just overhead, with a bomb sight, altimeter, and A.S.I. over the open panel, and with the undercarriage just below), one can lie in comparative comfort and watch a salvo of white practice bombs from the time they leave their rack till, streaking down toward the cold, murky sea, they throw up their plumes of smoke. It makes a picture not easily forgotten. To provide a target for camera guns, a Hart or Bulldog dives and zooms over the emplacements—wooden frame work with Scarff rings. This is likely to be one of the 'terns to be seen on Empire Air Day. ^ay 23 at Eastchurch should prove entertaining and profitable for many a visitor. H. F. K. :'./: i !:•..'?;:. ••:: Top to bottom : Precision bombing by Harts over the Leysdown target (note the bombs near the bottom centre of the picture); stripping pilots' machine guns ; a Hart testing its Vickers gun at the stop-butts : and fusing live bombs in a roped-off enclosure out on the aerodrome. (Flight photo graphs.)
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