Viewing page 49 of 105

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[2 images]]
[[captions]]
RIDING A TIGHT ROPE IN AN AEROPLANE
CAPTAIN BECK [[captions]]

May maps be drawn from an aeroplane and may reliable pictures be so taken? May shots be fired from these fast-moving machines with any degree of accuracy?  May they in turn be hit by marksmen on the ground?  How would a battle between opposing fleets of airships be fought?

These are but a few of the important questions that are at present being worked up on by the aeronautical schools of the military branches of the government.  At College Park, in Maryland, just outside of Washington, the seven trained aviators of the army are industriously working on those of the problems that apply to this branch of the service.  Thirty miles away, at Annapolis, the navy has established its school and there its three crack airman are working on the questions that refer particularly to the usability of the aeroplane as a part of battle fleet equipment.

DEVELOPMENT EXPERTS.

The primary object of these schools is to develop a corps of expert operators of flying machines.  The first work of these experts will be to teach other of their fellows a like expertness.  It was but a short time ago that the army had but two men who could operate flying machines.  Now it has seven.  This larger number of operators gives more teachers and consequently larger possibility of increasing the graduates of this most novel school at a much faster rate than previously.  So, it is hoped, that the army may soon have scattered throughout its organization, men who might jump in an aeroplane and hasten away on a vital mission as readily as they might mount a horse and attempt a dash through the lines of the enemy.  Likewise it is expected that the time will soon come when there will be kept at every post an aeroplane or a number of aeroplanes, and that these steeds of the air will be regularly taken out for their exercises as are the cavalry horses.

Then, whenever a great emergency arises in any part of our territory, the steeds of the air will go careering down to that point of concentration.  No part of a fighting force will be so easily brought into action.  And if the air craft of the future are to bear the brunt of the fighting, there will be these man eagles ready trained for the emergency.  So is the training of the men the first object of the army school.

Likewise is the Navy primarily interested in the training of its officers to fly.  The Navy school is still an infant, having been in existence but a scant three months.  Previous to that the Navy had done no direct aeronautical work.  Now it has developed three flyers, all young lieutenants of the Navy.  These are Lieuts. John Rogers, F. G. Ellison and J. H. Towers.  The Navy has three machines, two Curtiss and one Wright.  The makers of the machines trained the navy men in their use.  They are now working for greater experience, after which additional officers will be similarly trained.

AEROPLANING A TIGHT WIRE.

But the Navy aeronautical school is already considering a great number of other problems that promise to have strong bearings upon the use or non-use of flying machines in that branch of the military service.  The primary objection to the use of these machines on battleships has been the matter of space required for their launching.  The flights that Ely and Curtiss made from aboard ship some months back required the laying of running boards from which to make a start, and this necessarily required much space.  But one of the first problems solved by navy flyers has done away with this necessity and made a long stride toward the use of the airplane aboard ship.

The Navy Flyers have succeeded in getting an aeroplane underway was a tight wire as a running board, and so removed the original difficulty at a single pass.  The matter of the solution was most spectacular.  Aviator Curtiss and Lieut. Ellison did the work a few weeks ago at Hammondsport N. Y.  They had conceived the idea that I wire might be strong from one of the [[?tur]] [[incomplete]]

aviators expected that almost anything might happen.  But, as they had figured might be the case, the machine took to the wire like a trained performer, maintained its own balance and soon rose into the air like a bird.  The experiment was an immediate and unqualified success, and showed that the former argument against the aeroplane in the navy was entirely removed.

AEROPLANE A WATER BIRD.

Following in the wake of Glen Curtiss and Eugene Ely, the navy aviators have succeeded in demonstrating the ability of the aeroplane to take to water as readily as it rests upon the land.   At Annapolis they fly freely about from land to water and from water to land, alighting upon and starting from one are readily as from the other.  When the machine is to alight upon the land it runs down it, wheels much as a duck puts its out its feet under the same conditions.  But when it is to alight upon the water the wheels are pulled up into the body of the machine that they may not retard it as it attempts to get under way.  The boat upon which the machine rests when on water, and which it carries with it when it rises into the air, drags considerably in the water while the speed is being worked up, and a correspondingly greater engine power is required to rise from the water than from the land.

So is it shown that the flying machine has nothing to fear from the water, and so is it shown that it may be used on board ship without taking up more room than is its due.  These are two long steps in advance in its use in the navy.  But the experimental work has but just begun.  With more and more of the bright young men of the navy learning to fly as time passes, it is expected that one or more officers on each of the important ships of the navy will know the fine art of operating an aeroplane.  Then will probably begin the process of equipping the important ships with these machines.  It is held that the aeroplane will be used for scout work before it is materially employed for destruction.

It is therefore expected that it will first find a place on the scout ships and will from that point of vantage be gradually placed upon the others as it creates a demand for itself.  There seems little doubt, however, that within the next three years the ships of the American navy will be so equipped with flying machines that as they go nosing about the world they may at any time send aloft an airman who may, all unknown, spy out whatever he will with relation to the fleets and forts of a possible enemy.

DROPPING WEIGHTS.

The army corps of aeronautical students is larger that that of the navy and had been working for a greater length of time.  There are to-day seven accomplished graduate airmen in the army.  They are Capt. C. de F. Chandler, Capt. Paul W. Beck, Lieut. Roy D. Kirtland, Lieut. B. D. Foulois, Lieut. H. H. Arnold, Lieut. T. De W. Milling and Lieut. Kennedy.  Most of these young officers spend all their time at the College Park school.  When conditions are right most of them go for a flight among the clouds every day.   This has been going on for months and no accident has as yet happened to any one of these experimenters.  There is no haste in their work.  There is no applauding multitude.  They make no flights when their machines are not right and they remain in the hangars when weather conditions make flying dangerous.  So have they developed a great deal of skill while suffering no disaster.  It is doubtful if the nation has previously developed a more efficient and dependable body of airmen.

Their experiments are many and varied.  Just now they are particularly interested in one especially important experiment — that of determining whether or not a weight may be dropped from an aeroplane without upsetting the machine.

With the buoyancy of the machine regulated to the carrying of a given weight, what would be the effect of lessening that weight by suddenly dropping 100 or 200 pounds?  The experiments along these lines are brand new.  No birdman has previously tried them. It is known that under these conditions a baloon will immediately shoot to a higher level.  But an aeroplane must maintain its balance, and what it will do when lightened is unknown.

The question is an important one, for the ability to drop bombs depends upon its solution.  A bomb to be effective on a battleship or upon a fort of any importance must be of considerable weight.  The bombs that the men of the army would like to drop weigh 200 pounds.  Can the airmen drop these bombs without upsetting their craft and dashing themselves to pieces?  The men at the College Park school are out for the answer.

NEW SPYING POSSIBILITIES.

Taking it that such weights may be dropped, there is a most fascinating proposition that is getting hold of the imaginations of the men of the army.  They are supposing that there was a war. 
 They are supposing that the aeroplane was being used for scout work.  But this craft high in air is unsuccessful in getting the detailed information which the army needs.  May not one of the secret service men, one of the spies of the service, one of those daring adventurers who will assume almost any risk to accomplish his end, may he not be dropped from an aeroplane 2000 feet in the air?  May he not depend upon a parachute to support him and break his fall?  The parachute is very dependable and the danger is not great in its use.  May he not drop with in the enemy's lines and find out their secrets?  Does not this solve the greatest difficulty that faces the spy?  Might the spy not carry with him in his perilous undertaking a cage of carrier pigeons, and thus might he not send news of his findings back from where he came?  All these possibilities are in the minds of the men of the army and all depend upon whether or not a weight may be dropped from a flying machine.

The army birdmen have been experimenting with the camera and the possibilities of taking photographs while traveling at the rate of forty miles an hour.  It was feared that the ordinary fast lens would not be quick enough to get an outline picture of the landscape as the machine passed over.  These fears were, however, proven ungrounded, and good pictures may be taken without any special equipment.  Lieut. Kirtland is the first aeronautical sketch artist on record. He has of late been drawing maps of the country round about Washington from the vantage point of a seat on an aeroplane a thousand feet in the air.  Some of these sketches have been made while he was alone in the [[?air]] [[?]] it is thus shown that in a smooth-running machine the hands may be taken off the levers for considerable lengths of time.  While this seems hazardous, the army birdmen are showing that many things may be accomplished by one man in a machine.

SHOOTING FROM AND AT AEROPLANES.

Another of the new stunts that the men of the army flying school are putting on is that of rifle practice from an aeroplane.  The question of the possibility of hitting a given target from an aeroplane is a much mooted one.  It is not yet definitely known, just what effect the motion of the machine will have upon the trueness of the aim.  As most such shooting would be at long range, it is estimated that the inertia of the bullet gained from the speed of the car would affect the correctness of the shot.  The airplane however is a very smooth-gliding machine, and it is figured that when the knack of allowing for its motion is acquired comparatively accurate shooting may be done.

Shooting from an aeroplane is a much simpler matter than shooting at one.  The Navy argues that it has a gun that will bring down the birdmen, but this is far from demonstrated.  The army argues that there is no gun that can accomplish this feat.  A scouting aeroplane would be at best, even in daylight be 2000 feet up, and traveling at the rate of forty miles an hour.  There are no guns trained to shoot directly up.  The problems of hitting a mark would be different.  Aside from this there are no target aeroplanes, and it seems impossible to rig one.  No aeronaut is going into the air and allow himself to be used as a target.  An anchored kite is an entirely different proposition, and an ability to hit such a kite does not prove an ability to hit a rapidly moving airplane.  This latter could not be hit without a vast amount of practice, and the practice is not to be had.  The Navy to be sure, is attempting to devise an automatic aeroplane that will fly by itself, and if this is accomplished a proper target may be at hand.

BATTLES IN MIDAIR.

Were there great probability of an aeroplane being hit by marksmen on the ground, there would be merely the necessity of doing the scouting by night.  The lights on the ground would easily show the air scout the location of an enemy, while the man in the air could hardly be seen a hundred feet away.  At College Park the airmen often stay up until after dark, and on such occasions a bonfire is built to guide them home.  From this the man in the air is well acquainted with the location of the aviation field, but those waiting on the ground do not see the aviator until he bursts suddenly out of the darkness and alights among them.

So it seems that the air scout need have little fear of being picked off by marksmen.  The darkness is his protection, even though he were otherwise in danger.  All he need fear is other birdmen.  Even these he may, under ordinary circumstances avoid.  One aeroplane could without difficulty detect the presence of another in the dark, for there is such a variety of elevation at which either may fly.  It would be questionable, for instance, if a hundred aeroplanes could so patrol Manhattan Island as to prevent a single one of their kind from flying over the city at night and dropping bombs or Greek fire into the midst of the skyscrapers.

But an actual encounter between two rival airships is a thing that is figured as among the possibilities by the men of the expert corps.  Taking it that an aeroplane from a hostile battleship should attempt to fly over New York harbor for the purpose of scouting or dropping bombs, and that an American aeroplane should attempt to repel it, there would be a new sort of battle in the air.  Each airplane would probably carry two men and one of these would be provided with a rifle.  The first phase of the battle would be an attempt on the part of each to pick off the other.  This would be difficult shooting, for its success would depend upon a right allowance of speed of both machines.  Were they running side by side the aims should be the same as though both machines were stationary.  Were they going in opposite directions the aim should discount the motion of both machines.  Were they crossing paths there would be the right-angle pull of two forces upon the bullets.

THE WINTER'S WORK.

If rifles failed one machine might climb above the other and drop missiles upon it.  There might be races for altitude.  Were the worst to come to the worst, the two drivers might jockey each to disable the other.  Finally there might be a terrible crash that would result in both machines being hurled among the skyscrapers.

Such are the problems that are being worked upon at the two aeronautical schools of the government.  They are novel.  The world has never known these problems before.  Their solution promises to have its effect on world history.  Wars of the future will be fought this way or that in accordance with the working out of these problems.

Just now the army aviators [[?]] the eve of departing for the [[?]]
the work of the winter.  Their chief headquarters will be at San Antonio Tex., where there has been one machine all along, and where Lieut. Foulois has been making flights for the past year.  The climate of San Antonio is warm and balmy and throughout the winter the work may be carried on.  Aside from this principle station there will be a rendezvous somewhere along the South Atlantic coast, and some of the work will be done from that point.

The Navy will continue its work at Annapolis until well into the winter.  Aviator Curtiss, who is particularly interested in aviation as it applies to the navy, and who has sold the navy two machines, is, for the winter, at San Diego, Cal., and some of the student officers may go out there and participate in new experimental work with him.

W. ATHERTON DU PUY.

(Copyright, 1911, by W. A. Du Puy.)

Transcription Notes:
Continuation of scan 48. https://www.navytimes.com/news/your-navy/2018/01/18/how-do-you-land-a-plane-on-a-navy-ship-in-1911-carefully/ 2. Edited to remove formatting, descriptions etc. as per new transcription guidelines.