WONDERFUL FLYING SCHOOLS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 120, 7 February 1918, Page 6

WONDERFUL FLYING SCHOOLS

» AMERICA'S WAY. \ Wo have been hearing a great' deal about the amazing production of aeroplanes in the United States; but it has remained for Mr. .Burton J. Hendrick to tell us in the "World's Work" for November of the wonderful flying schools being erected all over the country/ for training , the aviators. Those great establishments have sprung up- almost overnight; and are thorough to the last degree.

Probably the most interesting work is that performed iii the miniature range. This gives the student that prelirainaijy instruction in artillery spotting which is perhaps tha most useful. service rendered by the aeroplane. On a huge table in one of the science halls is an immense picture map of a section of Belgium.- It shows the city of Ypres and all the surrounding country, including every farmhouse, barn, country road, open field, river, and pond. In a gallery, about 10ft. abovo this' map, sit several of our future aviators. They are supposed to be in aeroplanes, COOtift. in the air.

The scale of the map is so graduated that, as they gaze down upon it, the terrain appears precisely as it would look were these men actually, flying in the air at that height. Their business is to discern exploding: shells, and inform their own batteries by wireless message as to the accuracies or inaccuracies of the aim. And shells are actually exploding' all the time on this miniature ■Sketch of Belgian territory below them, not real shells, but representations that convey a complete illusion. Under the map, which is of paper-.and therefore transparent to light, are hundreds of little electric light bulbs, The professor, by touching the appropriate button, can light his selected bulb,' the little flash appearing on the map giving a complete representation of an exnloding shell.

The apprentice airman in the gallery selects the German battery which his nwn men are attemnting to destroy. The professor touches off his imitation shells in close proximity to this battery—these are supposed to represent American attempts to reach the mark. As soon as each shell explodes, :i lapping is heard up in the little gallery; the student is "wirelessing" to his friends, telling them linw far they have come from hitting the object. The wireless message may take such/ cryptic form as telling the American battery that it is "ten o'clock and three hundred yards." This may puzzle most people, but it tells precisely the spot where the shell has fallen. For purposes of signalling Hie German battery is taken as 'the centre of a clock with twelve o'clock painted perhaps due north. When the airman signals "ten o'clock" this means.that the shell lias exploded on an imaginary line which would represent the clock pointer in ' this direction. The "three hundred yards" gives the distance between the exploding shell and the German battery. The business of the student is to discern these, exnloding shells almost instantaneously. Unless lie gains great proficiency in a short time, he has no future in the American air service. In no department of the service can mistakes become so costly and cause the loss of so many lives. The fate ol battles may easily depend upon the reliability of the information sent back by these aerial scouts.