KINDS OF FLYING
NIGHT FLYING—FORMATION FLYING—STUNTING—IMMELMAN TURN—NOSE
DIVING—TAIL SPINNING—BARREL—FALLING LEAF, ETC.
Owing to the fact that skilful landing is the most difficult thing for
a flier to acquire, and because more accidents occur to the novice when
he brings his machine to the ground than at any other time except,
perhaps, when stunting too near the ground, night flying is especially
hazardous. With properly lighted landing-fields in peace-times much of
the peril of landing after dark can be eliminated, provided the night
is clear and no fog or mist has settled over the aerodrome since the
aviators set out. If a mist has settled over the landing-place the
flier must take his chances and come down by guesswork, unless his
machine is equipped with wireless telephone, for the compass and other
instruments cannot tell him exactly where he is with regard to hangars
or take-off on an aviation-field. Indeed, if the telephone operator on
the ground cannot exactly locate the flier, it is exceedingly difficult
to direct the airman to the exact corner of the field in which he
should come down.
On a clear night, however, with flambeaux, search-light flares, etc.,
a pilot has little trouble in landing, for the straightaway can be
as illuminated as it is in broad daylight. Nevertheless, when the
aircraft is high in the sky, owing to the vast distances of infinite
space, the speed at which an aeroplane moves, and the drift out of its
regular course, due to the wind, it is often difficult for the flier
to keep his bearings. For that reason aviators try at night to locate
the lights on a railroad-track, the reflection of light on a river or
stream, and follow them to their destination. The Germans in their
raids on London usually tried to locate the Thames River, which they
then followed until they reached the metropolis, which they usually
succeeded in doing on moonlight nights despite the British long-rayed
search-lights, swift-climbing Sopwith Camels, and the barrages formed
by the thousands of anti-aircraft guns. As a matter of fact, no
adequate means of preventing aeroplane raids was developed by any of
the countries involved in the Great War, for the simple reason that
there is no way of screening off a metropolis so that those modern
dragon-flies cannot fly around, over, or through the screen. That is
another reason why a huge commercial aerial fleet will always be a
tremendous danger and perpetual threat to any contiguous country or
neighboring city, because these aerial freighters can be loaded with
inextinguishable incendiary bombs as easily as with passengers, and
10,000 such aeroplanes could drop on a city within a hundred miles of
its border enough chemical explosives to raze it by fire.
Considering all the chances taken by the Hun and the Allied fliers
during the Great War, and the kinds of machines they flew, and the
circumstances under which they flew, it is amazing how successful
they both were in their night-raids on one another’s territory, and
the amount of damage they wrought. Every night, rain or shine, the
British and French and Americans dumped from forty to fifty tons of
high explosives on German objectives, and it is truly amazing how few
machines were lost.
Night flying for commercial purposes, though, might easily be developed
into a comparatively safe means of aerial transportation. The machines,
however, ought to be constructed like the Sopwith Camel, with a very
fast climbing and a very low landing speed, in order to get clear of
obstacles quickly and to come to a stop as soon as it reached the
earth. The wing-tips should be equipped with lights, and small red and
green lights, called navigation lights, should be installed on port and
starboard struts. Under the fuselage a signalling light could be used,
and Very lights, rockets, parachute flares, or Borse flares could be
employed, as in war, to illuminate the fields, give the pilot a clew to
his whereabouts, and at the same time reveal to the wireless-telephone
operator on the ground the position of the ship in the air. This would
also prevent collisions. Care should be exercised so as not to blind
the pilot when he makes his landing. An electrically lighted “T” with
observation-towers would also aid in the safe landing of an airship at
night.
With the growth of flying, lighthouses and captive balloons poised
high above the fog or clouds will undoubtedly be established all over
the land, equipped with different lights so as to indicate to the flier
just where he is located. The French have already developed such a
system.
Of course a forced landing at night is very dangerous, and this may
happen at any moment. It was reported that a pilot was killed every
night patrolling over the cities of Paris and London looking for
Boches. It was also reported that every Hun plane brought down during
a raid on Paris cost the French Government $3,000,000 in ammunition,
aircraft, etc.
With the establishment of municipal aerodromes at regular intervals,
equipped with proper lights, signalling devices, wireless telephones,
night flying can be made as safe as night sailing along the coasts, and
with the increase in the size and number of aircraft, night flying will
become as commonplace as day flying.
STUNTING
There is no gainsaying that stunt flying, or aerial acrobatics, was
absolutely essential to the flying of scout and combat machines in
the Great War, for in order to survive in the war in the air it was
necessary for the pilot to be able to manœuvre and dodge about in the
sky as easily as a fish in the water; otherwise, the flier would be
shot down by a more agile machine or clever aviator. Clouds offered
such excellent cover for aeroplanes to ambush unsuspecting novices, and
decoys were often placed to induce some adventurous combat machine to
dive down on the decoy, only to find that a formation of five or more
aeroplanes were diving down on him. To escape from such a predicament
required knowledge of all the manœuvres an aeroplane could possibly
make.
[Illustration: Diagram showing the stages of a “tail slide.”
1. Normal flying position. 2. Preparing to “stall.” 3, 4, 5. The
machine falling by the head after being “stalled.” 6. Straightening
up. (Alternatively it could have continued its dive.)
The evolution of a “spinning dive.”
1. Stalling the machine. 2. The machine falling by the head. 3.
Gyrations of a “spinning dive.”
Diagram showing how an “aerial skid” is effected.]
Moreover, every pilot ought to know how to perform these stunts even in
peace-time flying, so that, if his engine stalls and he falls into a
spinning nose dive, he will know just what to do in order to get out of
it. The same is true of banking, side-slipping, etc.
Finally, since an aeroplane moves through the air as a submarine passes
through water, it should be designed so as to be able to take stresses
from every quarter, so that if the machine loops or flies upside down a
vital part will not break because the pressure is reversed.
Stunting should never be performed less than 2,000 feet above the
ground. It has been done by reckless pilots in exhibition flights
countless times with impunity; nevertheless, many of the most daring
and clever pilots have lost their lives just by taking such foolhardy
chances. Altitude is absolutely essential to recover equipoise
necessary to a safe landing, especially when a forced landing must be
made. Eventually a law will be passed preventing, on pain of forfeiting
of a license, looping, spinning, etc., below a certain altitude. The
result will be a decrease in the number of flying casualties and a
proportionate increase in the confidence of the public in the aeroplane
as a safe and sane medium of aerial transportation.
A VERTICAL BANK
This term is applied to all turns or banks made at 45 degrees or over.
With proper speed there is no particular danger in this manœuvre, and
is performed by putting the rudder and control lever farther over than
in an ordinary turn. To come out of a vertical bank is to give opposite
rudder and to pull the control lever central again and slightly
forward. When the machine continues around the circle it becomes a
spiral.
SPIRAL
A spiral descent is made with the engine cut off, and the pilot
should always keep his eyes on the centre of the circle. When the
angle becomes too steep, he flattens her out a little so that he does
not side-slip or skid, and if the descent is too rapid, he pulls the
control lever back slightly. When the bank is too pronounced, the
rudder and elevator change functions, and the pilot must bring them
back to their proper positions at once.
ZOOMING
Zooming is really making an aeroplane suddenly jump several hundred
feet into the air after flying near the ground. This is essential
sometimes in order to clear a hangar or telegraph-pole near the ground.
Fliers in the Great War did it when attacking aerodromes. No zoom,
however, can be made unless the machine has got up full speed, for it
is only this momentum that permits the aeroplane to climb so steeply
and suddenly. The stunt is done by jerking the control lever back
suddenly, which causes the nose to climb steeply. The control is then
pushed forward equally as suddenly, just as the machine has reached the
stalling-point and is about to fall over on its side. To avoid that,
the control lever must be pushed forward, forcing the nose down, and
allowing the machine to gain its velocity, otherwise it will lose its
flying speed and crash.
[Illustration: The so-called “Immelman turn.”
The lower machine is turning on its back, while travelling forward,
preparatory to diving.]
LOOPING
This stunt is nothing more or less than continuing the zoom until the
machine flies upside down and completes a complete circle perpendicular
to the ground. It is a very simple manœuvre, and was very necessary in
aerial duels. Some machines were built so that they could loop easily.
To loop, a machine must always get momentum enough in its descent to
complete the circle. To start the loop, the control lever must be
pulled far back, so that the nose rears vertically upward and over, and
remains in an upside-down position for a few seconds. In this position
he must cut off his engine, ease up the stick, slowly centring the
control. The engine can be switched on again as soon as the steepness
of the circle has decreased.
Before looping, a machine should be carefully inspected because of the
reversing of stresses, which may cause the breaking of a vital part.
Another danger in looping is the stalling or stopping of the engine
anywhere before the first half of the loop has been made, thus causing
the aeroplane to fall over on its side and into a tail spin or spinning
nose dive.
NOSE DIVES
Owing to the fact that a pilot must have altitude in order to get
out of a nose dive, it is well not to try them near the ground. The
pilot should be well strapped in so as not to be thrown forward on the
controls. It is made by pulling the nose straight down. The engine
should be shut off to minimize the strain on the machine. Many nose
dives end in a zoom, and they were very common performances in air
duels. A machine whose wings are not sufficiently strong may fold up
like a book when levelled out at the end of a dive and crash.
IMMELMAN TURN
This stunt consists of completing the first half of a loop, then
turning the machine completely about and facing the other direction.
This manœuvre was named after the famous German ace. The engine can be
cut out when the machine turns about and dives.
The cart-wheel, boot-lacing, falling leaf, the roll and the barrel are
all parts of this same stunt, and are often mistaken for one another.
The cart-wheel is done by diving or getting up speed, then making the
machine zoom. When the aeroplane is almost standing on its tail, but
before it has lost flying speed and controllability, the rudder forces
the ship into a bank in the same direction, forming a complete cart-wheel,
coming out and facing the opposite direction.
[Illustration: Diagram illustrating the reversal of position effected
by a “loop.”]
[Illustration: Diagram illustrating the execution of the so-called
“Immelman turn.”
1. First position of the machines. 2. The forward machine preparing
to turn over. 3. Partially over. 4. The forward machine upside down
but still travelling forward. 5. Beginning the dive. 6. Completing the
dive and straightening up.]
The falling leaf is done by a modification of this manœuvre, causing
the machine to fall over on one wing-tip, and then bringing it into
control again, thus causing the machine to turn over like a leaf in
the air. This is a hazardous manœuvre, and requires pulling the rudder
violently from side to side.
Upside-down flying and tail spinning is difficult except to certain
types of machines; of course it cannot be done for any length, and
usually terminates in a tail spin, when the machine descends like the
threads of a screw.
Naturally, there are air disturbances about a machine when performing
these stunts, and bumps are frequent owing to that phenomena. They
ought never to be tried by a novice close to the ground. They are,
however, very spectacular, and for that reason often seen at aerodromes
or flying exhibitions. Indeed, Lieutenant B. C. Maynard has a record of
318 consecutive loops.
FORMATION FLYING
Flying like ducks in the form of a spear-head and in groups of from 3
to 300 or more was inaugurated by the German ace of aces, the Baron
Von Richthofen, who was credited with shooting down eighty Allied
planes in the Great War. Before this, however, it was discovered that
flying in pairs was more safe than flying alone. With the development
of the wireless telephone the numbers in the formation were increased
until, in October, 1918, the Americans made a raid on Waville with 350
machines in formations.
These formations were called circuses, first because of the gaudy
camouflage which covered the red baron and his German machines; often
they placed decoys beneath clouds, and when an unsuspecting scout
descended on the decoy, the circus dived on the scout. This was done
by both sides, so that it became very unsafe to fly alone, or even in
pairs, on the West Front.
The flight commander’s machine was usually marked with a trailing
colored streamer, and he usually flew at the apex of the spear-head.
The second in command usually had his machine also specially marked,
so that if anything happened to the leader he could take command. The
commander often signalled by firing Very pistols. These same formations
were also used for bombing and reconnaissance. Formation flying was
also very useful for strafing the enemy on the ground during the last
four drives of the Germans in 1918. Groups of six machines were used
for this manœuvre with great effect. Whether or not formation flying
will become popular in peace-times remains to be seen. In case of a
crash of one machine the others could bring aid quickly, or carry the
occupants to their original destination.