AIR CLIMBING

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3196, 21 September 1917, Page 5

AIR CLIMBING

HOW SAFETY" HAS BEEN ACHIEVED. S (By "A War Pilot.") There is no satisfaction like flying a machine that can climb, and climb high and fast. To be at 30,000 ft- up with a powerful engine and a well-ngged machine is to -feel a sense of power tnat nothing else can give. From the very ground up a quick climber is a joy . • • a little run, and then a clean sweep away. Regardless of all tho precepts ot experience, you can turi sharp as you climb, and .turn and 6limb again. That could never be done in & machine which could not climb that way. Engine and build make play of what else would be a certain "crash." The reason is very simple. No machine can fly without' flying speed"—a certain minimum speed through the air peculiar to its own type. Climbing on a turn near tho ground where currents are uncertain and there is no elbow room, you may lose this minimum speed. Then the whole thing will slip out. of your control. There will bo a side slip, a nose dive, and a vnud, through which you hear the splintering of wood. It may sometimes tako two hours to get the pilot's body out of tliar medley of engine and wood and wires ... the machine may oven capsizo as it crashes. But what a difference in a machine that is built 'for climb! The engine can pull you out of anything and | the machine will respond. In the early days, when even long-dis-tance reconnaissance was done in machines that are now considered just about good enough for school wol'k, til© battle with insufficient height was an awful strain oil tho nerves. It is bad at any time to be too near tho ground, but for those who had to stagger over th> lines at 4000 ft. to 5000 ft., hugging '.and jealously guarding the little height in i hand, it was no joke at all; and yet even those machines \tere marvels of development, considering how little the world -knew about aviation. Again, in fighting, climbing-power is ;half the battle. Height means speed; you can put your nose down and dive, and seo the "air speed indicator" rise to dizzy figures. Height means control; you can Bee the other man better than lie can seo you—especially a single-seater. The bird of prey attacks from above. Height may mean tho power to drive the other machine down—even by bluff. Even bomb dropping, reconnaissance, and photography need height and climb, and need it nioro and more. In a good olimber you can get your lioight and loso it, and got it again _as you choose; but in a slow one you can ndver daro "loso height," without a very good reason. It is sacrificing power. In the machines of tho early days the limitations of time were a terrible handicap. "Climb"—the power to climb fast and high—is one of tho secrets of aerial success, as it is also one of tho most difficult problems to solve. In gaining climb-ing-power other things may be lost which are essential for tho machino's particular work. War demands many types of ueroplanes. But with all the improvements that may be made nothing can over replace tho human element. With a machine that is capable of sailing up 1000 ft. a minute, a steady hand is yet needed to make it do its best. There must also be a sensitive touch. More than all, there must be just that instinctive knowledge of how to make the particular machine give its best which only a firstrate pilot possesses—"Daily Mail."