JOY-RIDES IN THE AIR

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 223, 8 June 1918, Page 2

JOY-RIDES IN THE AIR

LOOPING THE LOOP

THE WOULD UP-SIDE-DOWN

,'liy Arohneoptervx," in (he "Daily Mail.") Our machines are superior to tho German. machines—thatis ono comfort. Secondly, our airmen, man for man, nro much better—that's a still greater comiort. Thirdly, our machines are moro numerous ami are improving m efficiency at a greater rate than the German machines. This should be matterr of-fact medicine for any pessimist. Type tor typo, our machines 11 y faster, climb better, manoeuvre moro quickly, carry greater loads of 'bombs, are stronger and uioro durable. Our engineers and inventors aro continually designing and building better and more perfect machines. Wo shall go uu inventing and building until the Gjrmitn is utterly outclassed. English, American, French, and Italian brains and ingenuity are superior to tho Gorman. 11l addition, our manufacturing power is so much greater that it is only a matter of time before tho Huns will be swamped in, the air. It is quite a mistake to imagino the Huns ore great inventors. I know them well—they are not. 1 have worked beside them, been with them on expeditions into tho wildest parts of tho earth, have travelled throughout . tho length and breadth of their land. The Huns aro good imfotors and excellent cribbers, and play the role of the sneak at school. Versed as they aro in tho art of producing inferior things cheaply, they know littlo of individuality or original research. Their reputation as scientists bus beon obtained by the activities 'of their propaganda bureau reiterating with jtarrot-like persistency statements which bear littlo resemblanco to truth. Every engineer and scientist knows quite well what poor inventors tho Germans really are, and now they aro boing cut off from access to knowledge of our own inventions they are rapidly' falling behind. It, is truo the sausage balloon which drops bombs on women and children is a Hun invention, but even this, I am told, was invented by a Gormau professor 0110 morning at breakfast. Tho following anccdote illustrates tho Hun character. On ono occasion, it is reported, two Germans were stranded in the desert owing to engino failure. They landed without injuring their machine, and tried to locate the trouble. This made them thirsty, and the heat of th" desert only served to augment their thirst. It is usual for our aviators under these circumstances to drink the water from thq radiator. This | water is rusty and unpalatable, but is quite wholesome. The Germans, did not think of this. They looked around, and one of them saw the liquid in tho compass; They broke it open and together drank the contents. This liquid consists of a pint of essence of whisky, and is used to dump the oscillations of tho compass needle. It is not surprising that tho Huns became as merry as the lighthearted fairy Heigh-o, and finally so helplessly drunk that they abandoned all efforts to start tho engino and became an easy capture. When tlicy awoke they found themselves where all good Huns should be.

The superiority of our machines is shown by tho extraordinary way in which they can manoeuvre around a German. They nose-dive, spin, roll, side-, slip, and loop in a perfectly extraordin-' nry fashion; all these manoeuvres may bo indulged in on a joy-ride. The most popular evolution, though by no means the most difficult or alarming, is looping tho loop. Let us suppose we are going to loop together. We climbed into out machine and strap ourselves in. The engine is started, and' the machine rushes forward and climbs rapidly into the air. Wo circle around the aerodrome, gathering height. The earth.suon looks like a great disc under a dome of sky and clouds. The sun is high in tho heavens. We push the joy-stick forwards; the nose of the machine goes 4uwn, and the horizon in front appears to travel upwards. We look along tho body of 'ho machine right down into the earth, with its silver streams, scattered towns and villages, varied-coloured waters, and its network of roads and hedges. The macnine gathers speed. The wind ohreks and whistles to the thunder of tho engine. Now we are going to loop! We pull the joy-stick backwards. The horizon iin front rolls downwards under Itio | machine, pulling the sky with it. We [ begin to feel very heavy; it is difficult to lift one's arms and one's legs. One's head wants to flap over on one side. The sky continues to roll downwards in front of tho machine. We begin to feel very light; one's arms and one's legs weigh nothing at all. AVo could jump over the moon! Wo look over tho side of the machine, and there, deep down, thousands of feet underneath, we see tm. clouds and tho 6un. Wo are sitting on the sun! We look above and-see tho earth where the sky ought to be. Wo are in n world whero the sky is the ground and tho earth is the sky. All the people 'and the motors and trams are running about on tho ceiling down and arc not falling off. The loop continues. Tho oarth travels downwards in front of the machine and becomes a vertical wall behind the machine. We begin to feel ffisry heavy again. Tho earth rolls quickly underneath, tho horizon comes back to, its original position, and the loop is finished. It has been my privilege in the early days to loop over silent plains and great cities, over lovely cathedrals and huge works, over battleships, and even over Stonehenge just for tho very joy ,of life. One notices such trivial tilings when looping. There is a little dog running in front of that tram, and just behind is a motor-car coining swiftly along. If that dog doesn t look out ho is going to be run over. We complete our loop. The .motor is across the road. 'Die tram has stopped. Tho dog is limping, and the language is obviously painful. One chuckles and flies on. Onco when flying over a lino of lorries we sounded our Claxton horn. Every lorry automatically drew •in to one side of the road, and wo flow over the top. . The "Spin." Spinuing is cjuito a different sonsa- [ tion from looping. It is well to say how we do it, because the Huns might like to know. There are two kinds of spin, a flat spin and a spinning nosedive. In a spinning nose-dive tho bowels point to the earth while the machine rotates rapijjy about a point on one wing. The airmen aro flung violently to one sido of the machine, and centrifugal force acts with great power. The earth appeals to spin and becomes a great conical mountain, around which your machine runs in closing circles. All tho chimneys,'spires, and hotises lose tbeir perpendicular and point at light angles to tho side of the mountain. It is interesting to fix ono eye upon n certain object, such as a tali chimney, ami sco it swivel or precess around its base, tho top describing a circle. Evory perpendicular on the earth preccsses in tho same way. Spinning is not exactly a pleasant sensation, but it is an essential mauoouvro in breaking ofl', an engagement so as lo climb to a new vantage point, and must therefore be practised by our machines.

Tho airman's element is the shoreless sen, with all its whirls mid eddies and currents, i(6 clouds and mists and fogs, and its snow and hail. Thoso who go up into the air learn a great deal about its peculiarities; certain facts stand out clearly, although wo may not know their reason. One can often tell one's position by the bumps ono receives. Sometimes a gust strikes your machine a thundering blow, which makes it quiver from 6tem to stern liko a heavy wave striking tho bows of a vessel. Onco I flew over a blast furnace,(and got an awful bump. One receives a similar bump whon over Farnborough. The worst bump is experienced at Basingstoke. Tliese phenomena are so well known that I have heard an aviator at Hendon about to fly to Salisbury say: "This way for th</ Farnborough flop and tho Basingstoke bump." Formerly one heard a great deal about wind poeket6 and similar aerial disturbances, People spoke glibly about vacuums and vacuous spaces. One never hears about theso tilings nowadays, for the simple reason that air pockets do not exist. They are merely bumps due to varying currents 1 of air. One sometimes meets them when approaching the coast or the mountains

and when flying under tho edges of the clouds. Sometimes a machine is rocked and tossed violently from side to side, like a boat skimming rapidly over a choppy sea. Sometimes spirals of air 'V.® niot; with, and, when tho miichiiiQ liie? through them they .give a heavy hump, just liko shooting across tho centre of a whirlpool in a. boat. The existence of theso spirals has been proved in many ways. Their presence is to bo detected by lying (lugs to the rope of a captivo balloon and noticing the direction in which the flags nro pointing nfc -various parts of the rope. Their presence is also shown by the shape of the clouds uud mist. Sometimes when flying you seo a great hole in the clouds, like a swallow's hole in the North, Downs. One look# deep down through the hole 011 to the earth, although it is otherwise completely cut off. Sometimes ono gets these holes in a ground mist. On ono occasion, on crossing from France to England, a low mist about 209 feet high crept over the sea soon after leaving, and entirely blotted out all objects. It seemed impossible to loeato one's position. Fortunately, just the point of Dover Castle projected abovo the mist, and this, tho only spot of England visible, was sufficient to set the coursa by. A few miles along a clear holo through the mist showed a enfo landing place, but it was not desired to land there. The course was agaiu 6et, and the objective made was about tfcirty miles distant. Again a hole appeared in tho mist exactly indicating the landing spot, but before tho machine could fly there it had travelled on to an impossible country. The machine hovered around in the hope that the hole would come to a suitable landing-place, but as it refused to do so, and travelled out to sea, a return was made to the original hole, which was still over the samo spot. On mildly suggesting that these sen-mists were probably quite local nnd that it might be clear inland, one received the crushing rejoinder: "If you know of a better '010, Bert, you'd better go' to it." This settled the argument, so the machine was spiralled down the well of clear air and landed safely.