"MOSQUITOS" AT PLAY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16147, 27 February 1918, Page 5

"MOSQUITOS" AT PLAY.

-<* RETURN OF A BRITISH FLYING PATROL. Mr Will Irwin, tho well-known American war correspondent, gives a vivid pen-picture of tho arrival of a British Flying Patrol. Ho writes: —. . . Long before tho first plane of the returning patrol was signalled as a dot above the horizon, a crowd of women, children, boys, and old men was hanging over the fenco that surrounds the flying field. The dot grew bigger, more dots appeared, and presently the fleet of little fighting pianos was buzzing and darting close overhead. A doublc-scatcr reconnaisanee plane, about to fly an officer over ] to headquarters, took tho air at this moment. It soared where tho others darted; it seemed like a dove in a flock of swallows. Yet these vicious little lighting machines, evolved to perfection only within the last year, reminded mc more of insects than "of any bird that flies— insects with a bite and a sting. They seem all body, so great and powerful are their engines in proportion to tho rest of their structure. The fuselage, that elongated part of an aeroplano that runs between the pilot's seat and the tail, has a saucy upward curve, sucli as you see in the body of a mosquito. In fact, they-resembled mosquitos more than anything else that flies ; _ gigantic niosquitos, short-winged mosquitos, fast mosquitos—incredibly fast. For most of them, at this moment, were in their forward rushes, at least two miles a minute. "PUPPIES AT PtAY." "There —he's goincr to .loop!" said tho (light commander, as the leading plane came overhead. The nose flipped —lie was riding upside down—he was level again—he was darting off at another angle. Tho second plane in -line j began to loop tho loop sidewise, rolling i over, aivl without seeming loss of speed.! as a horse rolls over when turned out to pasture. In tho far sky two machines were playing with each other like puppies, one making rapid viragos, tho other following, clinging to the course in a series of whirls with its own wing tip as a pilot. It was like watching a three-ring circus. No sooner i was your eyn attracted bv an extraordinary manoeuvre than a quick, English ""Would you look at that!" from the general or his aide turned your attention to another quarter of the heavens.

The star airman, whom I have called. McPherson, had not yet appeared, as I learned from the conversation all

about me. I could trace, also a little note of anxioty.

In these days of increasing war in the air a squadron seldom goes overtho German lines without having a brush of some kind. Onco the major re- ! marked, with an appearance of nonchalance, "I don't see McPherson yet!" and the captain added in his carefully controlled voice: "No, ho does seem to be a littlo late; but he's doing a special job." In the meantime they spoke of 7 iim and his technique as the coaches of a football team might have spoken of a popula/ star half-back. Just past twenty-one, ho was. "And, by Jove, do you know I missed liis birthday last week —we should have given him a dinner!" said the captain. He had been flying nearly two yeajs now, and lie would rather do stunts with that machine than anything else in the world. "There he is!" said the captain, as a speck cut the low horizon mists. Wicli his special trained senses he had recognised McPherson flying before any of us untrained earth men could make out anything except an aeroplane. THE KING OF THE FLEET. The show above us went on. A Hock of little birds flopped and darted past us. What pikers they seemed! And now McPherson had joined the rest. It took no expert eye to see that he was king of this fleet. He looped, he rolled, ho did viragel, he rose; and suddenly the nose of his plane turned straight toward tho earth. Down he fell, a thousand feet, like Lucifer from heaven, his piano revolving as lazily as an autumn leaf revolves on a light wind. It righted itself not two hundred feet above th© ground, darted at incredible speed, shot upwards. It was circliug now abovo our heads; suddenly its nose turned straight down again—lie was diving, and on to us, "We stood, watching the bulk of his machine grow greater. Nearer and nearer it shot, until the whirring tractor -piopellor blew wind in our faces. We know it was a stunt; and yet to stand there and watch a steel engine falling upon you from the skies, .took the same kind of nerve that it takes to hold your hand against a pane of plate glass while a snake strikes from tho other side. H'o was on .us, fairly on us, when his plane flattened its courso with a quick snap; I felt that by 'jumping in the air I could have touched his fuselage as it passed overhead, lie roso a little, dipped again, and a moment later he had dropped his wheels to a perfect landing, and. was taxi-ing along the ground.