CHAPTER X
KINDS OF FLYING
NIGHT FLYING—FORMATION FLYING—STUNTING—IMMELMAN TURN—NOSE DIVING—TAIL SPINNING—BARREL—FALLING LEAF, ETC.
Owing to the fact that skilful landing is the most difficult thing for a flier to acquire, and because more accidents occur to the novice when he brings his machine to the ground than at any other time except, perhaps, when stunting too near the ground, night flying is especially hazardous. With properly lighted landing-fields in peace-times much of the peril of landing after dark can be eliminated, provided the night is clear and no fog or mist has settled over the aerodrome since the aviators set out. If a mist has settled over the landing-place the flier must take his chances and come down by guesswork, unless his machine is equipped with wireless telephone, for the compass and other instruments cannot tell him exactly where he is with regard to hangars or take-off on an aviation-field. Indeed, if the telephone operator on the ground cannot exactly locate the flier, it is exceedingly difficult to direct the airman to the exact corner of the field in which he should come down.
On a clear night, however, with flambeaux, search-light flares, etc., a pilot has little trouble in landing, for the straightaway can be as illuminated as it is in broad daylight. Nevertheless, when the aircraft is high in the sky, owing to the vast distances of infinite space, the speed at which an aeroplane moves, and the drift out of its regular course, due to the wind, it is often difficult for the flier to keep his bearings. For that reason aviators try at night to locate the lights on a railroad-track, the reflection of light on a river or stream, and follow them to their destination. The Germans in their raids on London usually tried to locate the Thames River, which they then followed until they reached the metropolis, which they usually succeeded in doing on moonlight nights despite the British long-rayed search-lights, swift-climbing Sopwith Camels, and the barrages formed by the thousands of anti-aircraft guns. As a matter of fact, no adequate means of preventing aeroplane raids was developed by any of the countries involved in the Great War, for the simple reason that there is no way of screening off a metropolis so that those modern dragon-flies cannot fly around, over, or through the screen. That is another reason why a huge commercial aerial fleet will always be a tremendous danger and perpetual threat to any contiguous country or neighboring city, because these aerial freighters can be loaded with inextinguishable incendiary bombs as easily as with passengers, and 10,000 such aeroplanes could drop on a city within a hundred miles of its border enough chemical explosives to raze it by fire.
Considering all the chances taken by the Hun and the Allied fliers during the Great War, and the kinds of machines they flew, and the circumstances under which they flew, it is amazing how successful they both were in their night-raids on one another’s territory, and the amount of damage they wrought. Every night, rain or shine, the British and French and Americans dumped from forty to fifty tons of high explosives on German objectives, and it is truly amazing how few machines were lost.
Night flying for commercial purposes, though, might easily be developed into a comparatively safe means of aerial transportation. The machines, however, ought to be constructed like the Sopwith Camel, with a very fast climbing and a very low landing speed, in order to get clear of obstacles quickly and to come to a stop as soon as it reached the earth. The wing-tips should be equipped with lights, and small red and green lights, called navigation lights, should be installed on port and starboard struts. Under the fuselage a signalling light could be used, and Very lights, rockets, parachute flares, or Borse flares could be employed, as in war, to illuminate the fields, give the pilot a clew to his whereabouts, and at the same time reveal to the wireless-telephone operator on the ground the position of the ship in the air. This would also prevent collisions. Care should be exercised so as not to blind the pilot when he makes his landing. An electrically lighted “T” with observation-towers would also aid in the safe landing of an airship at night.
With the growth of flying, lighthouses and captive balloons poised high above the fog or clouds will undoubtedly be established all over the land, equipped with different lights so as to indicate to the flier just where he is located. The French have already developed such a system.
Of course a forced landing at night is very dangerous, and this may happen at any moment. It was reported that a pilot was killed every night patrolling over the cities of Paris and London looking for Boches. It was also reported that every Hun plane brought down during a raid on Paris cost the French Government $3,000,000 in ammunition, aircraft, etc.
With the establishment of municipal aerodromes at regular intervals, equipped with proper lights, signalling devices, wireless telephones, night flying can be made as safe as night sailing along the coasts, and with the increase in the size and number of aircraft, night flying will become as commonplace as day flying.
STUNTING
There is no gainsaying that stunt flying, or aerial acrobatics, was absolutely essential to the flying of scout and combat machines in the Great War, for in order to survive in the war in the air it was necessary for the pilot to be able to manœuvre and dodge about in the sky as easily as a fish in the water; otherwise, the flier would be shot down by a more agile machine or clever aviator. Clouds offered such excellent cover for aeroplanes to ambush unsuspecting novices, and decoys were often placed to induce some adventurous combat machine to dive down on the decoy, only to find that a formation of five or more aeroplanes were diving down on him. To escape from such a predicament required knowledge of all the manœuvres an aeroplane could possibly make.
[Illustration: Diagram showing the stages of a “tail slide.”
1. Normal flying position. 2. Preparing to “stall.” 3, 4, 5. The machine falling by the head after being “stalled.” 6. Straightening up. (Alternatively it could have continued its dive.)
The evolution of a “spinning dive.”
1. Stalling the machine. 2. The machine falling by the head. 3. Gyrations of a “spinning dive.”
Diagram showing how an “aerial skid” is effected.]
Moreover, every pilot ought to know how to perform these stunts even in peace-time flying, so that, if his engine stalls and he falls into a spinning nose dive, he will know just what to do in order to get out of it. The same is true of banking, side-slipping, etc.
Finally, since an aeroplane moves through the air as a submarine passes through water, it should be designed so as to be able to take stresses from every quarter, so that if the machine loops or flies upside down a vital part will not break because the pressure is reversed.
Stunting should never be performed less than 2,000 feet above the ground. It has been done by reckless pilots in exhibition flights countless times with impunity; nevertheless, many of the most daring and clever pilots have lost their lives just by taking such foolhardy chances. Altitude is absolutely essential to recover equipoise necessary to a safe landing, especially when a forced landing must be made. Eventually a law will be passed preventing, on pain of forfeiting of a license, looping, spinning, etc., below a certain altitude. The result will be a decrease in the number of flying casualties and a proportionate increase in the confidence of the public in the aeroplane as a safe and sane medium of aerial transportation.
A VERTICAL BANK
This term is applied to all turns or banks made at 45 degrees or over. With proper speed there is no particular danger in this manœuvre, and is performed by putting the rudder and control lever farther over than in an ordinary turn. To come out of a vertical bank is to give opposite rudder and to pull the control lever central again and slightly forward. When the machine continues around the circle it becomes a spiral.
SPIRAL
A spiral descent is made with the engine cut off, and the pilot should always keep his eyes on the centre of the circle. When the angle becomes too steep, he flattens her out a little so that he does not side-slip or skid, and if the descent is too rapid, he pulls the control lever back slightly. When the bank is too pronounced, the rudder and elevator change functions, and the pilot must bring them back to their proper positions at once.
ZOOMING
Zooming is really making an aeroplane suddenly jump several hundred feet into the air after flying near the ground. This is essential sometimes in order to clear a hangar or telegraph-pole near the ground. Fliers in the Great War did it when attacking aerodromes. No zoom, however, can be made unless the machine has got up full speed, for it is only this momentum that permits the aeroplane to climb so steeply and suddenly. The stunt is done by jerking the control lever back suddenly, which causes the nose to climb steeply. The control is then pushed forward equally as suddenly, just as the machine has reached the stalling-point and is about to fall over on its side. To avoid that, the control lever must be pushed forward, forcing the nose down, and allowing the machine to gain its velocity, otherwise it will lose its flying speed and crash.
[Illustration: The so-called “Immelman turn.”
The lower machine is turning on its back, while travelling forward, preparatory to diving.]
LOOPING
This stunt is nothing more or less than continuing the zoom until the machine flies upside down and completes a complete circle perpendicular to the ground. It is a very simple manœuvre, and was very necessary in aerial duels. Some machines were built so that they could loop easily. To loop, a machine must always get momentum enough in its descent to complete the circle. To start the loop, the control lever must be pulled far back, so that the nose rears vertically upward and over, and remains in an upside-down position for a few seconds. In this position he must cut off his engine, ease up the stick, slowly centring the control. The engine can be switched on again as soon as the steepness of the circle has decreased.
Before looping, a machine should be carefully inspected because of the reversing of stresses, which may cause the breaking of a vital part. Another danger in looping is the stalling or stopping of the engine anywhere before the first half of the loop has been made, thus causing the aeroplane to fall over on its side and into a tail spin or spinning nose dive.
NOSE DIVES
Owing to the fact that a pilot must have altitude in order to get out of a nose dive, it is well not to try them near the ground. The pilot should be well strapped in so as not to be thrown forward on the controls. It is made by pulling the nose straight down. The engine should be shut off to minimize the strain on the machine. Many nose dives end in a zoom, and they were very common performances in air duels. A machine whose wings are not sufficiently strong may fold up like a book when levelled out at the end of a dive and crash.
IMMELMAN TURN
This stunt consists of completing the first half of a loop, then turning the machine completely about and facing the other direction. This manœuvre was named after the famous German ace. The engine can be cut out when the machine turns about and dives.
The cart-wheel, boot-lacing, falling leaf, the roll and the barrel are all parts of this same stunt, and are often mistaken for one another. The cart-wheel is done by diving or getting up speed, then making the machine zoom. When the aeroplane is almost standing on its tail, but before it has lost flying speed and controllability, the rudder forces the ship into a bank in the same direction, forming a complete cart-wheel, coming out and facing the opposite direction.
[Illustration: Diagram illustrating the reversal of position effected by a “loop.”]
[Illustration: Diagram illustrating the execution of the so-called “Immelman turn.”
1. First position of the machines. 2. The forward machine preparing to turn over. 3. Partially over. 4. The forward machine upside down but still travelling forward. 5. Beginning the dive. 6. Completing the dive and straightening up.]
The falling leaf is done by a modification of this manœuvre, causing the machine to fall over on one wing-tip, and then bringing it into control again, thus causing the machine to turn over like a leaf in the air. This is a hazardous manœuvre, and requires pulling the rudder violently from side to side.
Upside-down flying and tail spinning is difficult except to certain types of machines; of course it cannot be done for any length, and usually terminates in a tail spin, when the machine descends like the threads of a screw.
Naturally, there are air disturbances about a machine when performing these stunts, and bumps are frequent owing to that phenomena. They ought never to be tried by a novice close to the ground. They are, however, very spectacular, and for that reason often seen at aerodromes or flying exhibitions. Indeed, Lieutenant B. C. Maynard has a record of 318 consecutive loops.
FORMATION FLYING
Flying like ducks in the form of a spear-head and in groups of from 3 to 300 or more was inaugurated by the German ace of aces, the Baron Von Richthofen, who was credited with shooting down eighty Allied planes in the Great War. Before this, however, it was discovered that flying in pairs was more safe than flying alone. With the development of the wireless telephone the numbers in the formation were increased until, in October, 1918, the Americans made a raid on Waville with 350 machines in formations.
These formations were called circuses, first because of the gaudy camouflage which covered the red baron and his German machines; often they placed decoys beneath clouds, and when an unsuspecting scout descended on the decoy, the circus dived on the scout. This was done by both sides, so that it became very unsafe to fly alone, or even in pairs, on the West Front.
The flight commander’s machine was usually marked with a trailing colored streamer, and he usually flew at the apex of the spear-head. The second in command usually had his machine also specially marked, so that if anything happened to the leader he could take command. The commander often signalled by firing Very pistols. These same formations were also used for bombing and reconnaissance. Formation flying was also very useful for strafing the enemy on the ground during the last four drives of the Germans in 1918. Groups of six machines were used for this manœuvre with great effect. Whether or not formation flying will become popular in peace-times remains to be seen. In case of a crash of one machine the others could bring aid quickly, or carry the occupants to their original destination.
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