PICTORIAL AND TECHNICAL USES
Aside from their element of novelty, aerial photographs have undoubted
qualities of beauty and utility. The “bird's-eye view” has always been a
favorite for revealing to the best advantage the entire form and
location of buildings and of other large objects. Heretofore such views
have usually had to be drawn by an imaginative artist.
[Illustration:
FIG. 188.—Rheims Cathedral.]
Aerial oblique views possess the virtues both of pictures and of plans.
They are destined to be extensively used in the study of architecture
(Fig. 188). Cathedrals, castles, town halls, particularly those still in
their cramped medieval surroundings where they can never be seen in
their entirety from the ground, come forth in all their beautiful or
quaint proportions from the airman's point of vantage. Stereoscopic
aerial views are destined to occupy a valuable position also. Stereo
prints of the famous buildings of Europe, taken from the air, will give
to the prospective traveler or the arm-chair tourist a many fold more
accurate idea of their construction than will any number of mere surface
views.
[Illustration:
FIG. 189.—A portion of Vienna seen from the air, during a “propaganda
raid.”
Italian official photograph.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 190.—The Rialto bridge, Venice.
Italian Air Service photograph.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 191.—A partly developed suburb.]
A vertical aerial photograph is most closely akin to a map, but has
advantages over any ordinary surveyor's product. As a guide it is
infinitely superior to the best draftsman's diagram, for it provides a
wealth of detail whereby the traveller may definitely locate himself. At
a single glance he notes the objects of interest within his radius of
easy travel. The guide-book of the future will therefore be incomplete
without numerous aerial views, both vertical and oblique. As an
illustration of the peculiar merit of the view from the air, consider
the photograph of Vienna made during d'Annunzio's “propaganda”
bombardment. Or the picture of the Rialto bridge (Fig. 190). No ordinary
photograph from land or water suggests the central roadway and no map
shows the beauty of its elevation. Both are shown here, as well as an
intimate view of the arched and pillared courtyard of the Fondaco de'
Tedeschi to the right.
[Illustration:
FIG. 192.—A sea-side resort.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 193.—A bathing beach seen from the air.]
Airplane photographs will undoubtedly be widely used in certain fields
of advertising. Architects and real estate agents may be expected to
display their wares by the aid of aerial views. A well-planned country
estate or golf course, or a suburban development (Fig. 191), can be
shown with a completeness, both as to environment and stage of progress
which no other form of representation can approach. A sea-side resort
can now show the extent and grouping of its natural and artificial
amusement features in a single picture (Fig. 192). Even the extent of
its bathing beach under water is revealed to the aerial photographer
(Fig. 193). Real estate agents can utilize aerial photographic maps of
cities to great advantage. On these their properties can be pointed out,
with the nature of their surroundings shown at a glance, together with
their relation to transportation, schools, churches, shopping districts,
parks, or factories. The future purchaser of lots in a distant boom town
will no longer be satisfied with a map outlining the streets with
high-sounding names. He will demand an authentic aerial photograph,
showing the actual number of houses under construction, the streets,
gutters and sidewalks already laid, the size and planting of trees.
[Illustration:
FIG. 194.—Mt. Vernon from the air.]
[Illustration:
FIG. 195.—A contrast in roofs. The Capitol retains its individuality,
while the White House loses all character when seen from above.]
The study of landscape gardening is another field for which the aerial
photograph is peculiarly fitted. A collection of oblique pictures of the
châteaux and palaces of Europe showing their approaches and grounds, or
of the historic estates of our own South, (Fig. 194), will be worth more
to the prospective designer of a country estate than maps and ground
pictures can ever be. Closely allied to landscape gardening is city
planning, for which the aerial map will be quite indispensable. The
appearance of a city from the air may indeed become a matter of pride to
its inhabitants, and not only the arrangement of streets and parks, but
even the character of the roofs of the buildings, be the subject of
study (Fig. 195).
[Illustration:
FIG. 196.—An aviation field under construction; early stage.]
Engineers and constructors will depend more and more on preliminary
photographic surveys as a basis for locating their operations. At the
later stages of their work they will use aerial photographs for
recording progress. Periodic photographs of buildings in process of
construction, such as are now made from the ground, are much more
illustrative when made from the air. Only from above is it possible to
obtain in a single picture the progress of the complete project, such as
the construction of an aviation field (Figs. 196 and 197) or of a
shipyard. The building of large structures—bridges, hotels, ships on the
stocks—particularly demands aerial views if the foreground is not to
eclipse the center of real interest.
[Illustration:
FIG. 197.—An aviation field under construction; later stage.]
News events will soon call for an aerial photographic service. Already
we are seeing newspapers and magazines featuring aerial photographs of
the entry into conquered cities and the parades of returning fleets.
Accidents, fires, floods and wrecks, of either local or national
interest, can best be represented by this newest form of photography.
[Illustration:
FIG. 198.—The crater of Vesuvius.
Photograph by Royal Italian Air Service.]
The photographing of wrecks, fires and floods suggests the importance of
aerial views to insurance underwriters, who require the most minute
information on the characteristics of buildings in every neighborhood,
and on the extent and nature of damage done. Marine insurance companies
might with profit use the airplane camera to help estimate the chances
of salvage of a stranded ship or a vessel foundered in shallow waters
(Fig. 181).
[Illustration:
FIG. 199.—Waves set up by a ship—of interest to the naval architect.]
Numerous scientific uses for aerial views seem likely. Prominent among
these is their use in geology, for the study of the various forms of
earth sculpture. Pictures from the air of extinct volcanoes will give
information as to their configuration that would otherwise require
months of painstaking survey to obtain. Aerial photographs of active
volcanoes (Fig. 198), showing the results of a succession of
outbursts—one obliterating the other—would prove of the greatest value,
especially when studied in conjunction with other scientific data, the
whole making a record unobtainable by any other means.
In earthquake regions—notably Southern Italy and Japan—the changing
coast lines, shallows and safe harbors, could be promptly ascertained
after the subsidence of each fresh shock, with a consequent keeping open
of trade routes and often the saving of life. River courses, glacier
formations, cañons, and all the larger natural formations which man
usually sees only in minute sections, and which he must build up in his
mind's eye or by models, are today quickly and accurately recorded by
the camera in the air. Such formations as coral reefs, whose
configurations can now be accurately learned only by laborious surveys
of a limited number, could be studied in quantity and with heretofore
unknown satisfaction as the result of a single expedition with a
ship-carrying seaplane and aerial camera.
Another scientific field—probably one of many similar ones—lies in the
study of the waves set up by ships (Fig. 199). These are of extreme
importance in the realm of naval architecture, but before the day of the
airplane could never be easily studied in full scale.