AVIATION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 883, 1 August 1910, Page 7

AVIATION.

MOUNTAINEERINQ UP TO DATE. By Telegraph—Press Association-Copyright. Rome, July 29. Two Lombards bi-planed to'the mountain peak, del Tro Siguori (7868 feet), in the Alps of Bergamo, about twenty miles east of Lake Como. The world's record for height up to date is 438U feet by W. Brookins in a Wright biplane at Indianapolis on June 12. As a fresh record is.not claimed it is,to be .presumed that the top of the peak was -not reached by the Lombards. FRENCH MANOEUVRES. ." Paris, July 29. . , Eight aeroplanes and one dirigible balloon will participate. jn the French Army manoeuvres. • A,COMING REALITY. GERMANS PRACTISE BOMBDROPPING A. correspondent of' The Times" Wrote recently that he had: received from a trustworthy source, in Str-asburg somo interesting particulars of a secret night attack imadV' hi- Alsace, tlie purpose of which, was to test the aeroplane as a weapon of attack. : The method of attack was made as. follows:—. "A bivouacking party, consisting of a squadron of dragoons: representing a brigade, encamped in a lonely spot, after an assumed.hard day's fighting. Each separate squadron lighted' its bw'n camp, fire and prepared for a night's rest. As soon as they had settled down an aeroplane set out from Mulho'usn ■to seel; and attack the enemy. . The bivouac was distant some ~SQ kilometres from the starting' point of the 'aeroplane.. By the, aid of the camp fires the .airman, quickly discovered, the enemy's camp. In . order, however, to keep his movements secret, he made a detour of the camp and then iswooped down suddenly upon the enemy. As soon as ;he approached within easy distance he dropped five, bombs into the camp, Jo.ur. of which' he succeeded in dropping, with great, precision into the 'heart-of the fires, round which the soldiers were sleeping. His success was complete. "Half an'hour later a second-aeroplane left'the headquarters of the attacking jparty,- the spot,this time being indicated "by the.neighing of the frightened horses .tethered around the camp. This attack also. achieved, an 'admirable success." Nothing was-seeu of ,the approaching aeroplane.until it was in the heart of the enemy's- camp, and the." men were still too.sleepy to hear the whirr of the. motor until it,was.right in their midst and the; projectiles had dropped with unerring'aim. ' The bombs, it should bo 'mentioned; were contained in an apparatus beneath the pilot's seat, fixed between his feet, thus enabling him to launch them from. their . place by touching, attached to a tube at a. second's notice." ' . ' : The; airman'.whojacted as "gunner" on this • occasion ;was not,a soldier, but a well-known ■ .ex-professional cyclist named Thaddeus Robl, ■ who had been secretly practising the art of bomb-throwing' for somo time .past. under the direct supervision of the Government. . ■ The large number of leading'military officers who witnessed., the display were unanimous in their expressions' of. approval as to. the value: of the trials from a military standpoint,-as by such an attack.on a worn-out, body' of men. they cculd divert. the efforts of the-, main body of the enemy and would cripple a brigade' by placing a considerable number hors-de. combat. ..■'.'.,