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MILLING, T. DEWITT, BRIG. GEN. USAF. - BIOG. FILE - FOLDER NO. 2 ITEM NO. 5A

SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION
NATIONAL AIR MUSEUM

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It was the nearest example of the old saying, "trying to lift yourself by your boot straps," I have ever experienced. By taking advantage of up--trend of air created by having wind blow against trees and buildings, we were able to maneuver a plane to gain more altitude than would normally be obtained. By using every "trick of the trade" I was able to get the plane to a height of [[strikethrough]500[[/strikethrough]] 500 feet. We put Scott in the plane  by removing the back of the right seat and he stretched out [[strikethrough]]prone[[/strikethrough]] in a prone position with his head and shoulder projecting over the lower part of the plane so he could manipulate and use his sight [[strikethrough]] and look down through the sight which[[/strikethrough]] which was [[strikethrough]] maintained [[/strikethrough]] mounted between the front edge of the plane and the [[strikethrough]] footboard [[strikethrough]] foot bar. The results of the test were unusually good 
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(ARNOLD - Villaquebla Airdrome) 15 pound bombs from heights of 656 feet - he hit a 60 ft square 10 times out of 15 - then at an altitude of 2,624, a target 375x124 feet, 8 times out of 15. His demonstration won recognition and praise and a prize of $5000 and arroused [[strikethrough of second "r"]] the interest of the French and German staffs.

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The next year, in the summer of 1912, France which at that time was the leading nation in aviation, both private and military, had a large aviation meet in which Michelin [[handwritten check]] donated a large sum of money as a prize for the best bombsight produced - the second prize for the most accurate bombsight and a certain target. It is interesting to note that all three were won by Riley Scott and that no other sight was produced [[handwritten strikethrough]]worthy of the name. [[handwritten strikethrough]] that could even compared with it. I merely mention this to show that in the early days of aviation in this country we were always first in the military uses of the plane, but except for a short series of tests, we were never able to continue them due to lack of support and money. This will be [[strikethrough]] quoted [[/strikethrough]] noted later in the description of the Lewis

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