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previous: Part II This webpage reproduces one of the Parts of The United States in the Air by Mason M. Patrick Doubleday, Doran and Company, Inc. Garden City, New York, 1928 The text is in the public domain. This page has been carefully proofread and I believe it to be free of errors. If you find a mistake though, please let me know!

 p111  Part III
The Air Service in Development

Learning to Fly

I have never known any men who so persistently, insistently, "talk shop" as do air pilots, and they have a language of their own which none but the initiated can understand. This had been borne in upon me during my service in France and impressed me anew when I took charge of the Air Service in the United States. At that time the Air Service was filled with cliques and it was necessary to gain the confidence of this personnel. None but a flying man could hope to succeed in such a task. First of all I decided to do most of my travelling by air in order to show my own confidence in the planes in use and in their pilots. Most of my air travel was done with Major Herbert A. Dargue as my pilot, one of the best fliers in the Air Service. We covered thousands of miles, and  p112 the mere fact that the visits to different posts were in an airplane made it possible to talk somewhat on terms of equality with others who flew.

This, however, was not enough. Encouraged by my pilot, who was indefatigable in his efforts to teach me, I very soon tried to handle the plane myself and gradually learned something of flying. After a number of months' practising in the air, the stage was finally reached when the test given to those desiring a junior airplane pilot rating could be attempted.

On June 27, 1923, a board of air officers watched while this test was in progress and upon its completion decided that I had duly qualified and was entitled to this rating of junior airplane pilot. Thereafter I did even more flying, although yielding to the urging of the men by whom I was surrounded, I always had with me another pilot. While realizing that I might never become very skilful, there was a feeling of confidence in the ability to handle an airplane, to "take off," to land, and to operate it safely in the air.

Nothing did more than this continual flying to win the confidence of the men, much younger, with whom I was in contact, trying to direct and  p113 guide them in an effort to make of the Air Service a united body of men all working toward one end. It was a joy to talk flying with them, to learn first hand their own ideas about planes and motors, the trouble they experienced from time to time with the planes provided, the improvements they thought necessary, and their suggestions for the betterment of the Air Service which they now made to me most freely.

Notable Flights

During these years the Air Service was becoming more sure of itself and a number of remarkable flights were undertaken.

Believing it to be highly important to ascertain whether it was possible to fly from a point in the Eastern portion of the United States to far-distant Nome, in Alaska, in 1920 four DH‑4B planes started from Mitchell Field and, flying over country which had never been looked down upon by an air pilot, over rugged mountains and trackless wilderness, this expedition, led by Captain St. Clair Streett, one of the best airplane pilots, winged its way straight to Nome and returned to its starting point. This without accident  p114 to any of the planes themselves nor to any of the pilots.

In the fall of 1922 the air races were held at Selfridge Field, near Detroit, Mich. Just as the makers of automobiles had proved that their product could be greatly improved by the experience gained in gruelling speed tests, so it was felt that the designs and manufacture of aircraft would likewise gain from similar tests, and this expectation was more than fulfilled. At this meet the Army, competing with the Navy, established a new airplane speed record around a closed course of 205 miles an hour, which bettered the previous record by nearly thirty miles. Next year the Navy fliers increased this to a bit more than 242 miles an hour, and on a straightaway course to more than 266 miles an hour. The present record of land planes is 278 miles an hour, made by a Frenchman, but there is every probability that this mark will soon be set at not less than 300 miles per hour, or five miles per minute.

The question is frequently asked whether there is any limit to the speed at which a man can fly, but this cannot yet be answered. It must  p115 be remembered that each horse­power of an airplane motor can lift into the air and transport a weight of only •about twenty-five pounds. In so far as the combined weight of plane and motor is less than twenty-five pounds per horse­power, the remaining power can be used to increase the speed of flight. The planes used to make speed records weigh, with their pilot, fuel, and oil, about •about five pounds per horse­power, this of course including the weight of the motor itself. The surplus, therefore, of about twenty pounds per horse­power can be used to carry them through the air at very tremendous speeds. The strain upon the pilot in a straightaway flying is not particularly great. Even at these terrific speeds gentle turns can be made without inconvenience, but there is the possibility that if sharp turns are attempted the pilot may suffer accordingly and may be incapable of handling his plane under such conditions. Nothing but experience can, however, determine the fact. In the last Schneider Cup race at Venice, Italy, quite sharp turns were made while travelling at a speed of about 281 miles an hour.

In 1921 Lieutenant James Doolittle made the  p116 first flight with but a single stop from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. This he accomplished in 22 hours and 35 minutes.

In 1923 Lieutenants Macready and Kelley made a non-stop flight from New York to San Diego, Cal., in 26 hours, 50 minutes, and 38 seconds.

The same year the Porto Rican flight was success­fully completed. Six of the DH planes started from Florida, crossed to Cuba, over Haiti and Santo Domingo, to San Juan, and returned to their home station without accident and with but little delay.

In 1924 Lieutenant Maughn made the "dawn-to‑dusk" flight from New York to San Francisco, covering the distance in 21 hours, 48 minutes, and 30 seconds.

For a long time a flight of airplanes around the world had been projected and finally this was undertaken by the Air Service in 1924. It was readily realized that such a flight would demand most careful preparation and proper equipment. The so‑called Douglas planes, named after their designer, were given thorough tests and believed to be equal to the strain which would be put upon  p117 them. These planes were so built that when floats were used they could land on the water, and these floats could be replaced by wheels when it was intended to land on the ground. Four of these planes, each carrying two men, left Seattle, Wash., on April 5, 1924, and flew north to cross the Pacific Ocean along the Aleutian Islands to Asia and Japan. One of the four planes unfortunately crashed against a mountain in the fog on one of the Aleutian Islands, but without injuring the two men in it. For about ten days, however, no word came from them and it was feared that they had been lost. They finally made their way on foot from the scene of the accident to a settlement on the shore of the Bering Sea, whence they returned by boat. The remaining three planes continued their flight through India and across Asia and Europe to the northern point of Scotland. In attempting the flight from this place to Iceland, the motor of one of the three planes failed and it fell into the sea, but again without injury to its occupants. The two remaining planes completed the flight and reached Seattle, their starting point, on September 28, 1924.

Official Photograph, U. S. Army Air Corps General Patrick presenting Lieutenant Eric Nelson, member of Round-the‑World Flight, to Secretary of War Weeks at Bolling Field, D. C.

Official Photograph, U. S. Army Air Corps President Coolidge, Secretary of War Weeks, and Round-the‑World Flyers at Bolling Field, D. C., November 9, 1924

 p118  On December 21, 1926, five amphibian planes, each carrying two officers of the Air Corps, left San Antonio, Tex., on a flight to all of the countries of Central and South America. They were to follow uncharted air routes, to determine the suitability of this type of plane for such long journeys, and make landings on land and on water, under trying climatic conditions, through the tropic zone and over the Andes. They were to test the feasibility of air transportation between the United States and these neighbours to the south, and likewise to give to these peoples an opportunity to examine these products of the American designers and builders of aircraft.

This flight thus visited twenty-eight different countries; everywhere they were well received and it is certain that a great deal of good was accomplished. Unfortunately, two of the planes collided in the air while manœuvring near Buenos Aires; two of the officers were killed, while two others saved their lives by leaving their plane and coming down with their parachutes. The four remaining planes and the eight men with them completed the flight, and on their return landed at Washington on May 2, 1927.

 p119  As early as 1921 Lieutenant Lester J. Maitland had asked to be allowed to attempt to fly across the Pacific from California to Hawaii. It was not until 1927 that it was thought feasible to undertake this flight, the longest one over water which up to that time had been attempted. Again it was necessary to spend much time and effort in preparing for this air journey, giving the plane its thorough tests and practising air navigation, determining the reliability of the navigating instruments and getting everything in readiness. Lieutenant Albert F. Hegenberger, who had made a thorough study of air navigation, was selected to accompany Lieutenant Maitland, who had been told that he would finally be permitted to realize his ambition to be the first airman to cross the Pacific to Hawaii.

These two men, in a Fokker three-motored plane, left the Oakland airport in California early on the morning of June 28, 1927, and 25 hours and 50 minutes thereafter made a success­ful landing on Wheeler Field in Hawaii. In some ways this was as remarkable a flight as any made by Army airmen. The Hawaiian Islands in the middle of the Pacific, a destination more than  p120 2,400 miles away, were a small mark at which to aim. To reach them demonstrated expert navigating, for a variation of but a few degrees off the proper course would have missed them entirely and there was no other land within many hundreds of miles. These two men went straight to their mark and great credit is due them for their accomplishment.

Lieutenants L. J. Maitland and A. F. Hegenberger receiving certificate for Distinguished Flying Cross from Assistant Secretary Davison

This brings up the whole subject of transoceanic flying. It will be remembered that just prior to this flight by Lieutenants Maitland and Hegenberger, Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh had flown alone from New York to Paris, an achievement which focussed the attention of the entire world. Thereafter Art Goebel and Smith flew to Hawaii; Chamberlain and Levine from New York to Germany; Brock and Schlee from New York across the Atlantic, over Europe and Asia, to Japan; and Byrd, with his three companions, from New York to France. But there were others, a number of them, who attempted both the Pacific and Atlantic flights who were never heard from after they had started on their way. These two oceans took a heavy toll of human life. Beginning with May, 1919, when three  p121 United States Navy seaplanes attempted the trans-Atlantic flight via the Azores,​a there have been, all told, 35 planes which started to fly across the Atlantic, 14 which commerced the flight across the Pacific, and 1 which left the United States on a flight to South America, or a total of 50 planes which took part in these trans-oceanic air journeys.

All told, 89 men and 6 women were carried in the planes which tried to fly across the Atlantic, and 37 men and 1 woman in those which started the Pacific flight, 16 of the planes made the Atlantic crossing and 8 the Pacific flight; 58 men​1 and one woman success­fully completed their flights; 22 men and 4 women were never heard from after they started on their way.

There are listed above only those attempts which resulted in flights over water. Attempted flights when the planes were wrecked on the take-off are not listed. When one expedition made several trials before the final start, it is counted as one flight. In the summary of personnel involved, only the total number are included, regardless  p122 of the number of flights which they attempted.

Progress in transportation has always been accompanied by great loss of life, and this no matter whether on land, the sea, or in the air. Pioneering is at best a risky business, but these pioneers deserve much honour for their willingness to blaze the way, even at the cost of their own lives, for those who in coming years will follow where they have led.

Theoretical flying across long distances will accomplish little or nothing. It is the actual flying which tells the tale. From this we will learn much. In no other way can this knowledge be obtained. I am thoroughly satisfied that such flights should not be prohibited by law or by regulations. The difficulties to be encountered, the risks to be taken, should be well understood by those who attempt them and their preparation should be made accordingly. Government agencies should be charged to see that every reasonable safety precaution is taken, that the equipment used is fit to make the flight, and that the personnel is sufficiently skilled in operating it and in navigating over long distances where landmarks are  p123 non-existent. Where and when these conditions do not prevail the personnel should be discouraged from making such flights and should be warned of the probable consequences.

Personally, I believe that all the necessary information concerning such trans-oceanic flights with the aircraft now available has already been acquired. The efforts of designers should now be directed toward the construction of airplanes sufficiently rugged and properly equipped to enable them, in an emergency, to land on the water and to float for a considerable period of time without undue danger of being broken up by the waves which may be encountered. Furthermore, there is the possibility that landing stages can be anchored at intervals in the ocean, a plan which has already been patented and which is not so chimerical as it may seem at first.

I firmly believe the day will come when air traffic across the ocean will be established and that the risk will be no greater than that taken by present travellers on ocean vessels. This refers to flying in airplanes, heavier-than‑air machines.

The use of what are known as dirigibles, lighter-than‑air craft, for such long distance flights  p124 is another matter. These gas-sustained vehicles have already crossed the Atlantic three times, the R‑34 making the round trip from England to the United States and return in 1919, carrying 30 persons westward and 29 on the eastward voyage. In October, 1924, the ZR‑3 (now the Los Angeles) made a non-stop flight from Germany to the United States, carrying 32 persons.

Dirigibles are now being built large enough to carry a hundred passengers and their baggage, with sleeping accommodations and provisions for supplying food during the voyage. These airships will probably be the first aircraft which will make regular trips between this country and those across the seas. It is confidently expected that within a few years such air vessels will be in use and that they will reduce the time for the Atlantic crossing to about one third of the fastest passage now possible on ocean liners.

Commercial Air Transportation

Although most of my own work has been along the lines of military aircraft, the military uses of aircraft, at the same time there has been a constant endeavour to promote, in every way  p125 possible, the commercial use of these new vehicles. And this has been for two major reasons. In the first place, the United States will never maintain a large army or a large air component of its army. If unfortunately we are again compelled to take part in a great war, it is as certain as anything can be that our forces, both land and air, in the Regular Army will not be adequate. As has always been the case in former wars, we will have to draw upon the civilian population to eke out the comparatively small force which we maintain in time of peace. Our air force must be augmented in just this way. There must be a reservoir of aircraft, of trained airmen, and an airplane industry capable of turning out aircraft in large numbers. These conditions can be brought about in no other way than by the development of air transportation for commercial purposes, carrying in airplanes mail, express matter, and passengers.

On the other hand, so great are the economic advantages which will follow the increased use of aircraft that our people, the most progressive in the world, should not deny themselves the gain which will flow from the use of airplanes  p126 for both business and pleasure. Looking ahead, the Army, therefore, was the first to carry mail by air, the first to establish an airway over which airplanes were operated on a fixed schedule. This airway extended first from Washington, D. C. to Dayton, O., and ultimately from New York to San Antonio, Tex. During the years in which it was in operation planes flew on schedule a total distance of •1,201,370 miles, and on these regular trips there was but one fatality.

The saving of time is, of course, the predominant reason for shipping by air and travelling by air. Ever since man came on earth he has been endeavouring to save time. Someone has said that "time is the most precious thing in the world. God deals it out second by second, and no two seconds occur simultaneously." Lord Bacon said that "more than three fourths of all man's inventive genius has been devoted to just this one purpose of saving time, particularly in the transportation of himself and his possessions from place to place." More than a hundred years ago Lord Cayley called the air that "uninterrupted ocean which comes to every man's door," predicting the coming of the  p127 time when it would be used as the medium through which man would travel. Someone else has said that "transportation is the ladder upon which man has mounted, rung by rung, from barbarism to the degree of civilization which we know to‑day."

It is the readier means of communication which brings the people of one country or the peoples of different countries into closer contact with each other, enables them to know each other, and thus makes for agreement in place of misunderstandings and of discord which might otherwise lead to conflicts, personal or national. Every betterment of the means or methods of transportation or of communication makes for the peace of the world. While the millennium has not yet come, though armies and navies must still be maintained, there is in the minds of all of us, whether soldiers or civilians, the hope that some day the era of universal peace may dawn, and nothing will bring it closer more rapidly than the improvement of the ways in which different peoples may more readily meet and know each other.

It is especially over long distances that aircraft  p128  will be employed most advantageously. For example, there is no particular benefit derived from an air-mail line when the distance to be covered is no greater than can be traversed by a railroad train in a single night. All that the business man wants is to know that his letters, mailed at the close of a business day, will be delivered early the next morning to his correspondent. When, however, his correspondent is more than a night's railroad journey away, the air mail will greatly quicken delivery, speed up business, and be worth while.

Similar reasoning will show when travel by air will pay. This really depends somewhat on how much an individual's time is worth. Add to this an estimate of the value of face-to‑face contact in doing business and the average man can decide for himself just how much time he can afford to give to his journeying to and fro. Assuming that it is possible — and the time may not be far distant — to breakfast in New York, travel comfortably to Chicago in time for lunch, with an hour or two there, and then return to New York in time for dinner, it can be readily  p129 understood how such a means of transportation would be used.

Already attempts have been made to speed up the delivery of trans-oceanic mail by flying airplanes off the decks of mail-carrying vessels when they are still many miles from port. As a plane can cover in one hour a distance which the ship will need about six hours to traverse, this saving of time is quite appreciable. There is no reason why planes may not be used to carry passengers from steamer to shore over part of the route.

Several years ago I suggested that landing places for planes might easily be constructed on or over the tops of steamship piers and large railroad terminals. From such platforms the planes might be dispatched by using catapults similar to those on naval vessels.

With properly lighted airways and landing fields, there is no more difficulty in flying by night than by day. It is reasonably probable that such air night travel over increasingly longer distances will some day be as common as night rail journeys.

Returning travellers frequently tell of the  p130 great development of air transportation on the other side of the Atlantic. There practically each capital of a European country is linked with every other one, the planes fly on regular schedule, and the distances are accomplished in short spaces of time. There are several reasons why there is more such air travel in Europe to‑day than in the United States. In the first place, this method of transporting passengers and goods is still costly, but realizing the importance of its development and faced with the fact that charges sufficient to cover the cost would be paid by the people to make the lines success­ful, foreign governments have boldly subsidized them. Both military and economic reasons have influenced them to encourage the increase of air travel in this way.

In this country we always balk at the word "subsidy." And yet we have subsidized, directly or indirectly, every method of transportation which we employ on land or water. Our trans-continental railroad systems were made possible by Government subsidy, which took the forms of large land grants. The Government is constantly engaged in improving rivers and  p131 harbours to provide better facilities for water-going commerce. The Federal and State governments have poured out money by the hundreds of millions of dollars to construct roads for automobiles. All of these are subsidies in one form or another to the methods of transportation they were meant to encourage.

In 1926 Congress recognized the possibilities of air transportation and created the Bureau of Aëronautics in the Department of Commerce. This organization has been most wisely directed and is vigorously engaged in laying out and lighting airways. At the same time it has drawn up and established regulations covering the inspection of aircraft and the licensing of air pilots, all these things with the object of making air transportation safer. The airway work being done, the marking and lighting of the routes over which airplanes will fly, providing emergency landing fields and encouraging the creation of air terminals, is quite comparable to the United States river and harbour work, and is thus a much-needed indirect subsidy to air transportation lines.

The development which is following this work  p132 of the Department of Commerce is rapid and encouraging. It is estimated that at the end of June, 1928, there were nearly 12,000 miles of air routes regularly flown and that the planes traversing them flew, on the average, about 25,000 miles per day.

As an indication of the progress which is being made, in the year 1927 there were built in the United States, in round numbers, about 1,000 airplanes. In 1928 there is one manufacturer who expects the demand for his product to average 100 planes a month, and the probabilities are that this year will see built more than two and a half to three times as many planes as in 1927.

All told, there were in February, 1928, in the United States in the hands of private owners, that is, without counting those owned by the Army and Navy, not less than 4,500 airplanes, and total amount of flying done in 1927 is estimated at not less than 12,000,000 miles. If we add to this the 17,000,000 milies of flying done in the same year by the Army and Navy it means that aircraft covered in the United States a total distance which could not be traversed  p133 by an express train travelling at the average rate of •forty miles an hour in less than a hundred years.

The Army Air Service has also pioneered in other directions. In about 1921 a beauti­ful grove of trees was being destroyed by insects which fed upon the leaves. It was known that there were chemicals which, if they could be applied, would poison these pests, but the question was just how to distribute the poison over the trees. The bright idea occurred to someone that if this poison could be ejected from an airplane flying over them the problem might be solved. The experiment was promptly made and with excellent results. The calcium arsenate, the powder, was ejected from a hopper attached to airplane flying just above the grove. It settled on the trees and saved them from further damage. The Department of Agriculture noted this experiment and at once foresaw the application of similar methods for the abatement of the insects which preyed upon certain growing crop plants. Further experiments showed plainly that this method could be employed to combat the boll weevil, and very soon the low-flying airplanes  p134 were dusting cotton fields and thereby making possible a much larger yield.

Commercial concerns undertook this work success­fully and greatly improved the crude apparatus used in the first attempts. The news of what was being done in this way in the United States spread rapidly. American planes and personnel have been employed to do similar work in Peru. Airplanes in the Philippines have been used to combat the plagues of locusts, and in the Hawaiian Islands in reforesting by scattering seed from the planes over areas which it was hard to cover in any other way; and, of course, much more quickly than could have been done by any other method.

The Air Service of the Army was likewise instrumental in developing greatly the methods and the results of air photography. While such air photographs were first taken for military purposes, their usefulness in other ways was quickly demonstrated. Air photographs are now a great aid in making surveys of large areas; they decrease the time necessary and result in a marked saving over the usual practice. Such air pictures are likewise being found of great  p135 assistance in city planning, in the selection of sites for reservoirs, or for dams for water-power purposes.

Flood scene, Lake Village, Ark.

The forest fire patrol was also inaugurated by the Army Air Service over the forested areas of California and the Northwest. Practically every year great damage was done by fires, some started by the carelessness of campers, others not infrequently by lightning. Such a forest fire if detected promptly can generally be extinguished before it has done much harm. Unless thus discovered soon after it starts, it may sweep over immense areas, causing great loss. Although this forest flying is particularly dangerous, due to the few places in which aircraft can land, the Air Service undertook it, and in the opinion of the Secretary of Agriculture and of many others who observed the work, the promptness with which the observers could report incipient fires saved to the United States and to private owners many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Safety

There is at present a manifest reluctance on the part of the average individual in this  p136 country to travel by air. The history of every improvement in the means of transportation discloses a similar attitude of mind on the part of the public. It is necessary to hark back only about twenty years to recall the ridicule heaped upon those who believed that automobiles would play a prominent part in our economic life and the fear of accidents which deterred people from riding in them, and then to notice the rather rapid change of sentiment and how popular this vehicle has become. There were those who clung to the then established methods of transportation and insisted that horse-drawn vehicles, good enough for their fathers, were good enough for them. In those days horses themselves shied at automobiles, but now, as someone has said, a horse only shies when he meets another horse.

The same thing was true of railroads a hundred years ago. Aircraft are now just passing through this stage. It is a notable fact also that this disinclination to fly is most noticeable in grown people. Ask the first dozen men and women you meet whether they want to fly and only a small percentage will say Yes. On the other hand, ask the first dozen youngsters you encounter and  p137 they will be practically unanimous in their willingness to get into the air. This means that the rising generation is becoming more air-minded, that to them aircraft are matters of course, and indicates that when they reach maturity there will be largely destroyed the dread of travel in air vehicles.

As a further matter of fact, such travel is continually being made safer. Accidents do happen to aircraft, but other means of transportation are not yet entirely free from them. Vessels at sea are still sometimes in collision or wrecked, and trains on railroads still come together head on or occasionally leave the track.

There have been collisions of aircraft in the air. At first it seems somewhat strange that in this "unlimited navigable ocean" such accidents should be possible. It must be remembered, however, that when on the ground one's attention is generally first attracted to an aircraft overhead by the sound of the motor. In the air the pilot's own motor makes so much noise that that of a near-by plane cannot be detected. Again, as we look up at a plane it is seen in its largest dimension. In the air, at the same elevation a pilot will  p138 see another plane edge on, presenting much less surface to eye. It is, therefore, quite possible for two planes to come together without either pilot having knowledge that the other is in his neighbourhood. The danger of such collisions in commercial flying will, of course, be practically obviated by designating lanes for air travel just as there are lanes for ocean steamships. Planes flying in one direction will follow one of these lanes and planes flying at different speeds will travel at different levels. It is even possible that ultimately there must be air police, air "traffic cops," just as there are on the ground, in order to enforce the air rules.

The time will probably never come when passengers in any vehicle are absolutely free from the danger of accident, but, as in the case of ships and trains, it is reasonable to suppose that the probability of accidents to aircraft will continue to diminish. Airplane motors are becoming more and more reliable and the airplanes themselves are being more strongly built. Furthermore, as properly marked airways are established with landing fields at frequent intervals, the danger of air travel will be greatly lessened.

 p139  A very recent study of accidents in the military services has shown that but an extremely small percentage of them are due to any structural failure of the aircraft and not many caused by failures of the motive power, the aircraft engines. The greatest number are due to the human equation, some error committed by the pilot. Airways and experience will markedly cut down the chances of the pilots' mistakes.

So far as commercial air traffic is concerned, carefully compiled statistics show that already travel by air is practically as safe as was railroad travel in this country ten or twelve years ago.

In the military Air Services each pilot and passenger is required to wear a parachute. In case of an emergency they can leave the plane, open the parachute, and descend to the earth in safety, with the single proviso that it must be possible for the parachute to open not less than •about two hundred feet above the ground. This is quite a broad statement, but is justified by literally thousands of parachute jumps made by Army and Navy men, some of them for practice, some of them in an emergency when it was necessary to  p140 leave the plane, and in not a single case where the above condition was fulfilled has there been a life lost.

Parachutes were used long before airplanes came into being. During the World War they saved the lives of many of the observers in the baskets of the "sausages," captive balloons, which were destroyed by the enemy. These parachutes were rather bulky and difficult to carry in planes. It was the work of several years to improve them, to make sure that they would function, and to adapt them for carriage in the limited space available in the pilot or passenger cockpit.

Being satisfied, after a time, that they had been sufficiently developed, orders were issued that every Army man who flew or travelled by air must wear one. This order did not, at first, meet with favour. It was said that any man who took one with him did so because he was afraid. Nevertheless, the order was enforced, and it was not long before an actual test showed its wisdom, the life of a pilot being saved by his parachute when he left his disabled plane in the  p141 air while flying over rough country where it would have been impossible to land.

One of the earliest such parachute jumps was made by Lieutenant Macready while on a night flight near Dayton, O. His motor failed. He knew that the ground beneath him was unfit for landing even in daylight, and so in the darkness he climbed out of the cockpit and trusted to his parachute, which brought him to earth safely. He called out loud several times while coming down and rather startled some people below him who heard his voice in the air but could not see him nor tell just what was meant by his shouts to "look out below."

One good result of these near accidents was their convincing proof of the real value of this life-saving device, and the disinclination to wear parachutes entirely disappeared. In fact, it was not long before each pilot insisted on having his own individual "chute" and would not go into the air without it. These parachutes are attached to the wearer by a "harness" made of strong webbing; they are opened by pulling on a cord, to the end of which is attached a metal  p142 ring easily grasped by the hand. When leaving a plane, care must be exercised not to pull the ring too quickly, lest the released chute be caught and fouled by the plane or some part of it. The general rule is to jump, count three slowly, and then pull.

It was a common belief that one falling from a considerable height soon lost consciousness. To test this theory, Air Corps volunteers have allowed themselves to fall for much more than •a thousand feet before opening their "chutes." In all cases they testified that they were fully conscious every moment of the time. This makes it certain that there is no danger in waiting long enough to be sure that the parachute, as it opens, will not be entangled in the plane, and it was to determine this fact that the tests were undertaken.

Of course, it may be necessary to accustom the passengers to the thought of trusting themselves to these silken life savers. There was one passenger who declined to do so and who thus nearly lost his own life and nearly caused the death of the pilot with whom he was flying. Lieutenant Sweely was carrying a passenger in California  p143 over a densely wooded area where there were no landing fields when suddenly trouble developed in his motor and it was impossible to continue his flight. Both of these men were, of course, wearing parachutes. The pilot motioned to his passenger to jump, but the man sat stolidly and refused to leave the plane. The Lieutenant did everything in his power, even tried to force the man out of the cockpit, but without success. He simply would not move. Of course before beginning the flight he had been told just how to use his parachute, what he should do in case of such an emergency. Nevertheless, he would not take this method of saving his life. Lieutenant Sweely himself could have left the plane in perfect safety, but had he done so he would have doomed his passenger to practically certain death. Instead, he determined to stick by his plane and take his chances. This he did and managed to bring his plane down on the tree tops, which broke the fall sufficiently and enabled him and his passenger to reach the ground without being killed, although the pilot himself was badly injured. This was really a fortunate outcome of what, due to the passenger's folly,  p144 to use no stronger word, might have resulted in the death of both men.

There is no reason why, on passenger planes, parachutes could not be carried for use in an emergency just as life preservers are carried for passengers on ocean liners. It is even probable that parachutes will not have to be used any more than are the life preservers. Efforts are already being made, and with gratifying success, to design and build parachutes which can be carried on the airplanes and which will be large enough to permit the whole plane, or that part of it occupied by pilots and passengers, to be landed safely in the event of anything happening in the air which makes this necessary.

Frequent and accurate weather reports and forecasts must be furnished airmen. These must be available and must be studied before taking off, and means will have to be provided for communicating them to the pilot while in flight. This may readily be done by installing radio-receiving sets on the planes, and on the larger planes there will no doubt be sending sets as well, and an operator to handle incoming and outgoing messages. On established airways, visual  p145 signals, easily interpreted, may be displayed on the ground, which will operate very much as do the block-system signals on railways.

Fog is at present the flier's greatest danger. It is a fact that flying in a fog is most confusing. Practically all sense of direction is lost. Without the aid of instruments it is impossible to tell whether a plane is flying level, is following a straight course, or is even right side up. It is told that a pilot once when flying in a fog first grasped the fact that he was upside down by having his watch drop out of his pocket and hit him in the face. Fortunately, there are instruments which cannot be fooled by the fog and which will continue to indicate correctly just what the plane is doing under such adverse weather conditions.

The radio beacon, so called, will prove of inestimable value in fog and also in night flying. These radio signals can be received in ear phones, or better yet, can be made to actuate a hand moving over a dial or to flash different coloured lights in front of the pilot's eyes which will indicate to him whether he is on or off his course. Such signals may not only guide a pilot to his  p146 destination but may also inform him just where to effect a landing.

Many accidents have happened in foggy weather because, as yet, there is no way by which the height of the plane above the ground can be determined. This is particularly important when flying over rough, rugged, hilly, or mountainous country. The "altimeter," a height-indicating instrument, gives quite accurately the height above sea level or any other chosen datum, but it cannot show the distance to the ground when the area being flown over is itself above this datum. Furthermore, the altimeter "lags" somewhat, that is, it cannot show changes of elevation instantly. Some means or methods must be devised to furnish to the pilot this essential information, the distance to the ground beneath him. A number of ways to accomplish this have been suggested, but none of them have as yet proved feasible or reliable. This is a problem to be solved by research and by experiment. It is by no means impossible of solution. Investigation is already in progress and success will no doubt crown these efforts some day in the not distant future.

 p147  Improvements in the construction of the airplanes themselves are constantly being perfected which likewise make for the safety of air travel. Such improved airplanes can land in smaller areas so that in case of trouble there will be more readily available places where the plane may be brought safely to rest on the ground. Already substantial rewards have been offered for improved designs of airplanes which will promote safety, and many aëronautical engineers are now working on this problem. I look forward confidently to the day, not so far distant, when travel by air will be as comfortable, as safe, and much speedier than any other method in use for transporting passengers and freight.

Pilot Training

There is no doubt that aircraft will be used more and more for business and for pleasure. The day is certainly coming when regular air lines will link all of our larger cities and will be extended more and more over the entire area of the United States, and that beyond our borders they will reach out to the countries south of us and ultimately across the oceans east and  p148 west. There will be an increasing demand for trained men who can fly such craft, for engineers who can design them, and for skilled workmen who can build them. These lines offer many opportunities for young men. The most fascinating is, of course, the flying, and in this field there will be room for a large number of competent pilots.

Just how can one become a skilful pilot? and can anyone who so desires qualify as such? These are questions often asked and there should be answers to them. Can anybody learn to fly? The answer is both Yes and No. Anyone with average intelligence and not physically disqualified can learn to fly, just as any such person can learn to drive a motor car, but there are many who to‑day drive motor cars and think they know how, who are not safe drivers and who, in an emergency, would undoubtedly show that they lacked the proper degree of skill. When all things go well there is no more difficulty in handling an airplane than in operating an automobile. But things happen quickly in the air. There is no time to debate, to find out what to do. The thing to do must be done instantly.  p149 The skilful pilot flies almost instinctively. Such an expert pilot may be compared to the driver of a racing automobile rather than to one who drives a Ford car or a truck. All men cannot drive racing cars and it is equally true that all men cannot become expert pilots of aircraft.

The experience gained in the last few years seems to indicate that some men are born with this flying ability and some lack it, just as some possess musical ability in a greater or lesser degree, and there are some who are tone deaf, who know nothing whatever of music. Or just as some have mathematical ability, or what is called a talent for languages, so there are those who have what may be called an inherent ability to fly and others who possess it in a lesser degree or even not at all.

It is not difficult for the trained musician to discover readily the possession or lack of musical ability in a pupil. The Army has endeavoured to devise tests which would indicate whether or not a candidate for flying training can wifely as an expert pilot. It goes without saying that the pilots of military aircraft must be of the "racing" type. They are called upon to fight in the air.  p150 This will demand all of their attention. Their flying ability, developed by their training, must be such that they can actually operate their planes without giving much thought to it and therefore be able to concentrate all of their attention upon their enemies.

These young men who apply to the Army for this training are first tested in what, for want of a better name, is called the "orientator." Part of this apparatus is shaped like the cockpit of an airplane and it is pivoted on supports so that it can move freely. In it there are the "controls" just as in a real plane. These consist of the "stick," sometimes called the "joy stick," by the movements of which the airplane is manœuvred. By pushing the stick forward, the position of the elevator near the tail of the plane is changed and the nose of the plane is inclined downward; pulling the stick back causes the nose of the plane to rise or the plane itself to take a climbing position; moving the stick to the right or left causes the plane to "bank," turns it more or less on its side preparatory to a change of direction. The rudder near the tail of the plane, operated by pilot with a rudder bar in  p151 the cockpit, acts somewhat like an ordinary boat rudder. The way in which these controls are manipulated is explained to the candidate and then he uses them just as he would have to do when attempting to pilot an airplane.

This apparatus is electrically operated and the instructor can cause it to "manœuvre" like an airplane in flight. In it the candidate can bank and turn, can dive or climb, can "loop the loop," and can execute practically all of the various manœuvres through which an airplane can be put. The instructor notes carefully the way in which the candidate handles his "plane," how he reacts when the instructor is manipulating it, and then marks him according to the degree of skill which he has shown and according to the way in which he has behaved while undergoing this test. From the results of these trials, there are several of them of course, it may be found possible to predict with reasonable success whether or not the candidate possesses flying ability.

It has already been said that things happen quickly in the air. The candidate's reaction time is therefore tested. It is of course known that it takes a certain amount of time for any impression  p152 to be conveyed to the brain or to the mind. For example, if a hand be laid upon your arm, you do not know it instantly, you are not conscious of it until through your nerves the fact has been conveyed to your mind. Some persons "react" more quickly than others. The candidate's reaction time is tested with care. If it is found that one is very slow to react, the probabilities are that he cannot become a skilful pilot.

In addition, each one who applies for this training is given the "personal" test. In a room alone with the examiner, usually a medical man, and with the assurance that nothing which is disclosed will ever be repeated, the candidate is asked a number of intimate questions concerning his past and his habits. In other words, an effort is made to find out just what sort of a young person he is. For the purpose of conducting this inquiry it is, of course, essential that the investigator himself should be highly trained and capable of drawing correct conclusions from the information he elicits.

Experience has demonstrated in a fairly conclusive manner that if a candidate fails to pass  p153 success­fully all three of these tests there is very little probability that he can ever become a military pilot. Failure in any one of them casts doubt upon his ability, but we have not yet gone far enough to say that it will totally disqualify him.

Assuming that an applicant has not been finally disqualified by these tests, he then enters upon his flying training proper. At the same time he is given what is called the "ground" course, that is, instruction in airplane motors; he is taught how they are built, how they operate, the care that is to be taken of them, and, as far as possible, what is to be done in case anything goes wrong with them while in the air. It is evident that this knowledge is essential. The motor is the heart of the airplane, and unless it functions properly there is danger of accident. The pilot in the air trusts to his ear to tell him just how his motor is performing. He notes, subconsciously, the slightest change in its "tone" and should be skilful enough to detect whether or not it is running properly, and he knows what to do to correct if possible anything which goes  p154 wrong, or when the time comes, to make a landing because the motor can no longer sustain him in the air.

These pupils are also taught air navigation, the functioning of the instruments in the cockpit used to determine the direction of the plane, and how to find their way in the air from their point of departure to their destination. The direction of flight is indicated by the compass and there are two kinds of compasses: one the magnetic, which is the ordinary kind such as is used on land or sea, the needle pointing toward the magnetic pole; and the so‑called earth inductor compass, which can be "set" before departure or at any time during the flight. A part of this compass is a little hand or pointer in front of the pilot, pivoted, and which can move over a graduated arc. So long as this hand is at zero the plane is following the desired course. If the hand moves from zero toward the right or left this indicates that the plane is correspondingly off its course and the pilot must bring it back.

Airplanes in flight are affected by the wind. If flying directly with or against the wind, their speed is increased or decreased according to the  p155 wind's strength. If flying across the wind, the airplane drifts, and although the compass may indicate that it is on its course, it will be gradually carried to one side or the other of it. Means are provided by which the pilot can determine the amount of the drift while in flight and he can then compensate for it. When it is expected that weather conditions, the wind direction, and velocity will be fairly constant during the flight, the pilot will set his course accordingly beforehand. That is, if relying upon the magnetic compass, he will fly in such a direction, as indicated by this compass, which will allow for the drift and bring him to his selected landing place. With the earth inductor compass, he will set it so as to make a similar allowance for drift.

The pilot, except when flying over a course which he knows thoroughly, will always have with him an airplane map, especially prepared so that he may readily identify the localities and the natural features on the ground over which he is flying. The candidate must, therefore, be given instruction in map reading as well as in navigation.

For the first few hours of his actual flying  p156 training the candidate is given "dual" instruction — that is, he is taken up in the airplane by his flying instructor. Before his first lesson, he has been shown on the ground how the controls operate. In the air the instructor puts the plane through its paces, manœuvres it, gradually increasing the character and the speed of these revolutions as the candidate gains in knowledge and experience.

Of course, the first thing of all is to get the plane in the air. It must run for a time on the ground until it acquires flying speed. The plane always takes off "into" the wind. It thus acquires flying speed more quickly, for its speed relative to the air is made up of two parts, the actual speed of the airplane over the ground plus the velocity of the air or wind moving in the opposite direction. The ordinary training plane will leave the ground when its air speed is •about forty-five miles per hour. Just as soon as the wheels are off the ground the instructor puts it in level flight until it acquires additional speed before attempting to climb or to execute any manœuvres. This is a safety measure and one which should never be omitted. It takes more  p157 power to climb than to maintain level flight. Or, to put it in other words, the speed diminishes while the plane is climbing. If, therefore, immediately upon taking off the plane is put in a climbing position, the speed will diminish and if this becomes less than normal flying speed the plane will crash.

The candidate has little sensation of motion while in level flight. Normally, our impression or sensation of motion is dependent upon our observation of objects which we are passing. In the air there is no such opportunity to note our relations to other objects. This feeling of being in rapid motion is noticeable when the plane takes off or lands, when near objects on the earth, but it disappears almost as soon as the plane leaves the ground. While flying the air blast against the face or any exposed part of the body indicates no more than would be indicated if one were standing or moving on the ground against a high wind.

Very soon the instructor directs his pupil to take the controls and tells him just what manœuvres to execute, indicates to him by signals, usually, the mistakes that are made or, of course,  p158 in an emergency, takes back the controls and handles the plane himself. As soon as possible the pupil is taught how to take off and land the plane. The landing, like the take-off, must be made into the wind.

His instruction progresses until, with the instructor, he has done practically everything which can be done with a plane in the air. As soon as it is thought the candidate has learned enough to be trusted, then he is "soloed," that is, allowed to take a plane up in the air by himself. He is carefully observed all of the time and if it is evident that his flying is dangerous he is given more dual instruction. Ultimately, if he is capable of finishing the course, practically all of his flying is done by himself.

The Army flying training is given in two schools. First, the primary school, where the rudiments of flying are acquired, where the candidate learns to handle first the primary training plane and then the other so‑called service types, observation, pursuit, and bombing planes. From this he goes to the advanced flying school, where he is given specialized training on one or more of these service types. In order to qualify  p159 as a trained military pilot a candidate must have flown not less than 200 hours, of which not less than 75 hours must have been alone. To do this amount of flying requires, under ordinary conditions, about ten to eleven months. The graduates of these Army flying schools are certainly most thoroughly trained and are probably the equals of any pilots in the world.

From what has just been said it is apparent that the Army flying course is a long one, an intensive one, and one which is most thorough.

There are a number of civilian flying schools in the United States and the probabilities are that more of them will be put into operation. Their object, of course, is the training of commercial fliers or those who wish to fly for pleasure. The courses in none of them are so long or so thorough as at the Army schools, but the fact that Army pilots must be especially qualified has already been indicated. All automobiles are not racers, and there are plenty of automobile drivers of the other kind who are capable of operating them safely. It may, therefore, be true that a lesser amount of training than that given at the Army schools may properly qualify  p160  pilots of other than Army type planes. This is said, however, with the qualification that the instruction in such schools, as far as it goes, should be exceedingly thorough and given by instructors who are competent to impart the necessary knowledge to those whom they endeavour to teach to fly.

It is repeated that flying is one of the easiest things in the world when everything goes well. Without the knowledge of what to do when something goes wrong, it may mean — it probably will mean — death or serious injury to the inappropriately trained pilot. As will be pointed out a little later, it is practice which counts in flying as in almost everything else. That is, all things being equal, the more the pilot flies the better flier he becomes. This is meant to be a warning against what may be called "learn-to‑fly-quickly" training schools. It may not be possible to lay down any hard-and‑fast rule, but it is believed that no flying school would pronounce its pupils fit to fly unless they have had at least fifty hours in the air, not less than half of which should be alone.

It would be exceedingly well if all flying schools  p161 gave to their prospective students tests similar to those given at the Army schools, and if the ones who fail in these tests should be discouraged from attempting to learn to fly. The standards possibly need not be quite so high as in the case of prospective Army pilots, but they may be proportioned to the character of the flying which the student would expect or intend to do after he has finished his training.

There have been cases known where men thought themselves competent to fly, were even boastful of their ability, but who should not have been trusted in an airplane alone or to take others up for flights. One notable example was a certain public official who a year or so ago was constantly vaunting his ability to fly, his skill as a pilot. One day at an Army flying field he was thus boasting when one of his colleagues ventured to doubt the correctness of his statements. This self-styled pilot said to one of the Army airmen:

"Did you hear what that man said? He said I couldn't fly. He practically called me a liar. Where I come from that is something we won't stand. I have got to call him down."

 p162  The Army pilot expected, of course, that there would be a fight or some equivalent of pistols and coffee for two. Instead the boaster said" "Now this is what I am going to do. Of course, I will have to fly around a little bit to get my hand in, then I want you to bring this man over to the field and ask him if he does not want to take a flight. You bring him up to my plane. I will be in it with my helmet and goggles on and he won't know me. I'll take him up and when we get to •about 5,000 feet I will have a written message I will hand him and this is what it will say: 'When we were on the ground you said I couldn't fly. We are now a mile high, and if I can't fly you are in a hell of a fix.' "

This revenge for the doubt cast upon his veracity was never carried out and shortly thereafter this spectacular flying (?) official left public life.

While travel by air is not at present popular, as evidence of what may happen not future there is already a record of one stowaway on an airplane. Some time ago, when Major C. C. Mosely was taking off from near Salt Lake City  p163 for a flight of •about 400 miles to Los Angeles, Cal., he noticed that as soon as he got in the air the left wing of his plane seemed unduly heavy. The plane wanted to bank to the left and it took considerable force to put and hold it level. The pilot could not understand this, feared that something was the matter, and at first thought it would be best for him to land and investigate. As his motor was running perfectly and as he could hold the plane level, he decided that he would go ahead. After he had reached a height of about two or three thousand feet he looked out to the left and saw a man's face just appearing over the leading edge of his lower wing near its outer end. He could scarcely believe his eyes, but nevertheless the man's body began to appear and he gradually crawled and clawed his way from underneath the wing until he was on top of it, where he held himself by clinging to one of the struts. The pilot motioned to him to come in closer to the fuselage of the plane and this he did slowly until he was sitting on the lower wing alongside the fuselage and holding to one of the inner struts.

 p164  It was an intensely hot day and this passenger had on no coat. The plane was travelling something more than a hundred miles an hour. In a little while his shirt was blown away and there he sat, naked from the waist up, in the broiling sun and wind. But he still clung to the strut and grew redder and redder until after about four hours the plane landed at its destination. The pilot got out and rather indignantly approached the stowaway who was still sitting on the lower wing and asked him, in no gentle tones, what in the ––––––– he was trying to do. The lobster-looking individual did not seem to be in the least perturbed and answered, "Vell, ain't this Los Angeles?"

Trying to steal a ride, he had hooked himself to the skid underneath the lower wing of the plane before it started and had then climbed on top of it without apparently any idea that he was risking his life and that he would have been in the gravest danger if the pilot had landed shortly after taking off as he at first thought of doing. So far as I know, this is the first stowaway who ever attempted to steal a ride on an airplane.

 p165  Air Warfare

Our imperative need for aircraft in a future war has already been indicated. That aircraft will play a most important part in warfare is known now by all military men. The World War started less than eleven years after the Wright brothers had first shown that man could fly. The United States bought its first military airplane in 1908. Prior to the outbreak of the war the leaders of all nations had grasped the fact that airplanes would be of use in military operations, but the extent of such use and the various ways in which airplanes could be employed were not known until the war came. These new weapons made their first appearance then.

When the war started, Germany pinned her faith largely upon her airships and zeppelins, with which she expected to carry on bombing raids against Paris and London, the principal cities of her enemies. Germany, like France and England, had also a few slow-moving, not very manœuvrable, airplanes. At first neither the commanders of the ground forces nor the airmen  p166 themselves knew just what these aircraft could do. Of course, information of what was going on in front of an army has always been essential in warfare. The ability to obtain such information, or the lack of the means to procure it, in times past not infrequently decided the issue of a campaign. Heretofore, reliance had generally been placed upon spies and upon the cavalry attached to an army to secure information of the enemy.

Aircraft were capable of rising to great heights. When a mile above the earth's surface the horizon is a hundred miles away and the eye sweeps over an area of about thirty thousand square miles. The airman, therefore, from such heights was able to determine by eye or by taking photographs the conditions beyond the front lines, enemy movements or concentrations, and it was for such purposes that airplanes were first used in military operations.

The war had not continued long when the fact was grasped that often it is as important to prevent the enemy from obtaining information as it is to secure it for one's self. From that dates the era of air fighting, the effort on the part of opposing airmen to prevent information being  p167 taken back to the enemy, or to sweep enemy aircraft from the air in order that our own pilots and observers might secure the information so essential to the success of our own movements.

Under such conditions and under war's stress the crude machines with which the war started were greatly improved. As they became more power­ful, capable of carrying greater weights, it was found possible to load them with bombs which could be dropped on all sorts of targets. Just as the war ended planes equipped with a number of machine guns and small bombs were used most effectively against troops on the ground and the terror that these fast-moving, fast-flying planes instilled in ground troops was sometimes as effective in breaking up an attack and interrupting a troop movement as the missiles rained down upon them.

Since the World War ended there have, of course, been further developments of aircraft, and particularly of air tactics, and their employment in battle. As has been said already, there are some enthusiasts who go so far as to claim that aircraft alone may win a war. General Duval, of the French Army, is on record as  p168 having said that, in the future, wars will be fought in the air and the victors in the air will dictate peace on the ground. No less an authority than Marshal Foch said: "The potentialities of aircraft are so great that an air attack may strike such terror into a people that they will force their government to lay down its arms." President Coolidge is on record as having said: "Our defence must be supplemented, if not dominated, by aviation."

There is every probability that should another war break out the first military operations will take place in the air, and there is at least the possibility that if one of the belligerents has an overpowering air force it may obtain a speedy victor. Unless we are properly prepared to defend ourselves, a hostile air force would be able to do incalculable damage by dropping bombs upon our industrial centres and large cities, not only those near the coast line, but those also that are hundreds of miles inland from our ocean borders.

There is no manner of doubt that hereafter aircraft must be carried on naval vessels, must accompany a fleet, and must be prepared to  p169 attack opposing vessels and to ward off an air attack against their own fleet. Naval aircraft on airplane carriers will take off from and land on their decks.

The recent phenomenal run of the airplane carrier Lexington from California to Hawaii, during which she made more than seven hundred miles a day, indicates the short time which would be needed for an air force to approach our shores. The speed of such airplane carriers may make it possible for them to evade our own fleet. An airplane carrier such as the Lexington, at nightfall might be beyond the operating zone of land-based reconnaissance planes, and driving through the night at full speed, it could easily be close enough to our coasts to launch an air attack by dawn.

Airplanes carried on battle­ships or cruisers will be shot into the air from catapults, devices by which the necessary flying speed is imparted quickly and in a comparatively short distance.

Defensive Measures

The possibility of an air attack having been pointed out, it is well to consider what means  p170 should be employed to meet it success­fully. There are just two ways in which aircraft can be fought: first, by other aircraft in the air; second, by fire from the ground, ordinarily called anti-aircraft fire, delivered from machine guns and from what may be called small cannon firing either shrapnel — that is projectiles which enclose a number of small metal balls and which are timed to burst near the airplane — or high-explosive shells which, when they burst, propel their own fragments at high velocities in the vicinity of the airplane attacked.

During the World War airmen, for some reason, called these shells fired at them "Archies" and of them they had little fear. The firing was inaccurate and the casualties they inflicted were almost negligible. The gunners on the ground found it difficult to determine the height and the speed of the planes against which they were firing and this, of course, detracted from the efficiency of such a defence. Since the World War great improvements have been made, not only in the weapons employed for anti-aircraft firing, but also in the instruments used to ascertain the elevation of the planes and the speed at which  p171 they are flying. Such practice against aircraft is like firing at any other moving object. It takes time for the projectile to reach the vicinity of the airplane. It is necessary to predict where the airplane will be at a certain instant and to regulate the fire from the ground so that the projectile will reach the same point at the same moment.

There is no doubt that these improvements make such anti-aircraft fire more effective and that the damage done by it will be greater than before. Tests of anti-aircraft guns have been conducted against targets towed by airplanes and a number of "hits" have been made. The towing planes have, however, in all cases been flying straight and without varying their altitude materially. Attacking planes may come from all directions, at varying altitudes, and they will not fly straight except for a very short time before dropping their bombs. The difficulties confronting the ground gunners will, therefore, be greatly increased, and it is improbable that the actual "hits" will be anything like the number made upon the towed targets.

Such fire from the ground will force the airmen  p172 to higher altitudes and may somewhat interfere with their aim, results which, added to the hits which will actually be made, will undoubtedly lessen in a measure the efficacy of an air attack. It is even possible that a sufficient number of anti-aircraft weapons may be concentrated around small (comparatively speaking) targets, such as, for example, the Capitol building at Washington, and afford a great measure of protection. Such batteries must, of course, have with them power­ful searchlights to spot attacking planes at night. Any effort to provide a sufficient number of anti-aircraft weapons to protect a large target, such as one of our great cities, may be put down as absolutely impossible. Here other means must be employed.

Most military men, it is thought, will agree that no matter how intense may be this anti-aircraft fire from the ground it cannot possibly provide a certain and adequate defence against an air attack pushed home with vigour. In war, losses are to be expected and an attacking force, whether on the ground or in the air, will "carry on" until the losses it experiences are out of proportion to the damage which it can do. An  p173 air force will continue to attack, in spite of such losses, as long as there is a probability that losses which it can inflict will more than counter-balance those which it suffers.

Furthermore, the Army Air Corps, aided by the Chemical Warfare Service, has developed the smoke screen until it has become a practical and very effective aid to the attacking planes. The chemical compound ejected from a reservoir attached to a plane vaporizes and forms a thick cloud of whitish "smoke," which, when properly placed, will hide approaching planes from the anti-aircraft gunners on the ground.

Smoke screen, over Langley Field, Va.

Within the last year, it has been found possible to equip the fast-flying pursuit planes so that they may be used to lay such smoke screens. Diving at a speed of about two hundred and fifty miles per hour, these planes will suffer little from fire directed against them, while the screens they thus lay will hide the slower-moving bombing planes which can then approach their target and deliver their attack in comparative safety.

Such smoke screens will be especially effective when used during an attack against naval vessels. It goes without saying that anti-aircraft  p174 fire from a vessel's deck, particularly in a seaway, cannot be as accurate as from the ground. Add to the normal difficulties of firing at attacking planes from naval vessels the handicap of well-placed smoke screens and the probability that the air attack will be success­ful is greatly increased.

It must also be remembered that air attacks will frequently be delivered at night. The planes can then certainly approach quite near their targets with little or no danger of being detected. Smoke screens will be even more effective by night than by day. Again it is a fact that vessel targets are very easily located from the air at night, especially when they are in motion. Take it all in all, the advantage certainly lies with the attacking air force when the defenders rely solely upon anti-aircraft fire.

The other means of defence will be the employment of airplanes to fight airplanes, to shoot down the opposing or attacking aircraft. This will be the method most commonly employed and the most effective.

All history shows that man has never yet invented a better weapon or devised a new  p175 method of fighting that he did not hold his opponent helpless until the latter armed himself, or fought, in the same way. This holds true from the day when the first man supplemented the weapons nature gave him by using a club. If his antagonist did not thus arm himself, the club wielder would have been king of his little world. The archers of old with their bows and arrows likewise prevailed against troops without such weapons; the mailed knight with his sword and spear and shield swept before him opponents who were not similarly caparisoned. It was true also when muskets and cannon were first used by fighting men, and there is no reason why it should not hold true now that man has taken to the air and is able to wage his battles far above the earth's surface.

Put in one word, there is no adequate defence against an air attack except an air force of your own. Any country, therefore, which endeavours to be prepared in readiness to defend itself against aggression, must anticipate an attack from the air and must provide an adequate air force with which to meet it. Lacking such an air force, the result is inevitable and the undefended  p176 country may expect that it will be forced to sue for peace.

As for an attack by sea upon our borders, the hostile fleet will have with it its complement of aircraft. It is manifest that the defender on shore should be able to concentrate a larger air force than that which can accompany any approaching fleet. Scouting far out to sea, the enemy fleet can be located in ample time to provide for such a concentration of aircraft on shore. Weather conditions, fog, for example, which will interfere with an air defence, will likewise seriously hamper an oncoming sea enemy. A properly conducted and vigorous air defence may frustrate any such attempt to attack us by sea or to land a hostile expedition on our shores. The results of the bombing experiments against battle­ships in 1921 and others which were conducted in the fall of 1923 proved conclusively that seacraft were in great danger from an air attack.

Official Photograph, U. S. Army Air Corps Direct hit of an 1100-pound bomb on the Virginia. Bombing tests of 1923

Six seconds after a direct hit of an 1100-pound bomb on the U. S. S. Virginia.

The conclusions by some of the air enthusiasts that surface naval vessels could no longer be employed may be somewhat overdrawn. No nation has yet been convinced by them that battle­ships are no longer necessary; they will  p177 still be part of every nation's fleet. Nothing but another war can prove conclusively whether or not aircraft have rendered battle­ships entirely obsolete. Nevertheless, the danger to an attacking fleet is so great that with an adequate air force, supplemented still by guns on the shore, there need be little fear that a naval attack against the ocean borders of any country can be success­fully carried out.

Investigations

The Air Service, or rather the air effort, of the United States since we entered the World War has probably name the most investigated activity ever carried on by the United States. Beginning while the war was in progress and continuing until 1926, there was one investigation after another instigated by different people with all sorts of motives and making all kinds of charges. Many witnesses were examined and volumes of testimony were taken.

The first of these inquisitions was conducted at the request of President Wilson by the Honourable Charles Evans Hughes. Mr. Hughes dismissed practically all of the charges as being  p178 without foundation, although he did reflect somewhat seriously upon one or two individuals who had to do with the Air Service in the early days of the war. With the exception of these strictures of Mr. Hughes, it can be said that the subsequent investigations showed that the charges or complaints which instigated them were likewise based upon flimsy premises and no blame was attached to any other individual who had to do with the Air Service after this. Congress had provided liberally for airplanes, motors, and other things needed for the building up of the Air Service, but it was shown conclusively that these funds were honestly administered and that not a dollar of them had been misappropriated.

In 1924 such an investigation was started and carried on by a special committee of the House of Representatives. This body went into the matter with great thoroughness, examined a large number of witnesses, and probed deeply every charge which had been made.

At the same time the Military Affairs Committee of the House was also considering Air Service matters and particularly the proper  p179 peacetime organization. While these inquiries were going on, in the latter part of December, 1924, the Secretary of War called me to his office. He reminded me that General Mitchell's four-year term would expire in the early spring of the next year and asked me whether I wanted him reappointed as my assistant. As I have already said, General Mitchell had carried out in a fairly satisfactory manner his agreement to work with me along the lines that I had laid down. It had been necessary on several occasions to take him to task for minor matters, but these had been duly corrected and I, therefore, told Mr. Weeks that I did recommend his reappointment .

A little later, early in 1925, General Mitchell appeared before these committees of Congress and once more attacked the Navy violently and also reflected seriously upon the General Staff of the War Department and upon the Department's attitude toward the Air Service. For some of his utterances the War Department promptly called upon General Mitchell for explanations and for proof of his charges. This gave rise to the charge, both in and out of Congress, that the War Department was endeavouring to "muzzle"  p180 the witnesses who had been summoned by the committees to give their evidence. There was absolutely no ground for any such criticism of the War Department. Mr. Weeks had publicly stated in so many words that any witness was absolutely free to give his evidence before any member of Congress, but that if he made, in so doing, any specific charges, he should be prepared to back them up with facts which would substantiate them.

The explanations given by General Mitchell to some of his testimony were not regarded as satisfactory, and the Secretary of War finally told me that he would not recommend his reappointment and wrote a letter to the President giving at length his reasons for this decision. I was told to recommend another officer to take General Mitchell's place. This was done and Mitchell reverted to his rank of Colonel and was sent from Washington to San Antonio, Tex., where he became Air Officer of the Eighth Corps Area, a position of responsibility, particularly as there was more Air Service activity in this than in any other corps area. Furthermore, another Air Service colonel was at that time  p181 serving in a like capacity in another corps area.

On September 3, 1925, the Navy airship Shenandoah encountered a "line storm" while flying over Ohio and was destroyed with the loss of the commander and a number of his crew. Colonel Mitchell seized this opportunity to launch in the press another violent attack upon the Navy, charging that the conduct of the Navy Air Service showed incompetence on the part of those in charge, and went so far as to claim that this was criminal treason on the part of these Navy officers. This pronouncement of Mitchell was so outrageous that the War Department determined to bring him to trial before a court martial, charging him with conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline.

The court sat in Washington where the trial dragged along for weeks. Every latitude was given Colonel Mitchell and he introduced many witnesses and took the stand himself in an effort to substantiate his charges. So far as his own testimony was concerned it boiled down to his statement that he was voicing his own opinions and he could produce little or no evidence of facts to warrant them. This was certainly the  p182 view taken of the matter by the Court which found him guilty as charged and sentenced him to be suspended from rank and duty for five years without pay. Shortly thereafter Colonel Mitchell resigned his commission as an officer of the Army and since then has been but little in evidence so far as air matters are concerned.

As another consequence of these charges made by Mitchell, President Coolidge appointed a board, headed by the Honourable Dwight Morrow, now American Ambassador to Mexico, and charged it with another investigation of air matters and with the duty of recommending what should be done. This Morrow Board, as it came to be known, likewise took much testimony and heard the views of many witnesses, all of whom voiced their opinions quite freely. The two principal things for this board to determine were: first the proper organization of the Air Service of both the Army and Navy; and second, the peacetime strength of these two air components.

So far as organization was concerned, there were three plans proposed. First, the old idea of a "separate" Air Service in which the Army  p183 and the Navy air forces would be united under a Cabinet officer, forming really a Department of Aëronautics, which, in the opinion of some, should control, in addition to the military forces, all civilian commercial flying. Again it was proposed that Air Service of the Army and that of the Navy should be given an organization similar to that of the Marine Corps in the Navy, which occupies a quasi-independent status, its chief reporting directly to the Secretary of the Navy. Applied to the War Department, this meant that the Chief of the Air Service would report directly to the Secretary of War, that he would not be, except remotely, under the control of the General Staff, but would himself exercise complete control over the air component of the Army. The third suggestion was that matters should remain as they were, the organization unchanged in either the Army or the Navy.

The Morrow Board decided that this last plan was the best, and therefore recommended no organizational change. It did, however, recommend most strongly the adoption of a continuing policy and what is known as a "five-year programme" for both the Army and the Navy,  p184 which, if carried out, would result in an increase of both personnel and equipment, so that at the end of the five years the Army would be equipped with 1800 planes of new designs and the Navy with not less than 1,000 similar planes.

A further recommendation of this Board was that there should be authorized and appointed in both the War and Navy departments an additional assistant secretary whose prime duty should be the administration of the separate Army and Navy components. Two additional assistants to the Chief of the Air Corps, each with the rank of brigadier general, were also recommended.

The President sent the report of the Morrow Board to Congress with his approval. The offices of the additional assistant secretaries were duly created: two assistants and the "five-year programmes" were initiated with the apparent intention on the part of Congress of carrying them out in their entirety.

This brought about a better state of affairs than had ever before existed in the Army Air Service, whose name, by this same legislation, was changed to the Air Corps. Although all of  p185 the troubles were by no means cleared up, nevertheless with a definite policy adopted, with the reasonable probability that the increase of personnel and of equipment would be brought about, vigorous steps were taken to effect the many changes consequent upon this new legislation. The new office of Assistant Secretary of War for Aviation was filled by the appointment of the Honourable F. Trubee Davison. Of the two new assistants to the Chief of the Air Corps, one was placed in charge of all procurement, of all research and experimental engineering, all of this work to be carried on at Wright Field just outside Dayton, O. The public-spirited citizens of this city had donated to the United States a tract of land containing •more than 4,000 acres and Congress had appropriated money for the necessary buildings and other installations. These now constitute what is probably the most complete and up‑to‑date aëronautical laboratory in the world. This concentration of all matters relating to the supply of the Air Corps at one place and under one responsible head was certainly a businesslike move resulting in greater economy and greater efficiency.

 p186  Bearing in mind the desirability of keeping closely in touch with the operating personnel, with the men who fly the planes in season and out of season, those in charge of experimental work, of selecting new types of planes and of procuring all equipment, had been directed to visit the various stations, to observe how everything supplied stood up under actual service conditions, and to listen intelligently and sympathetically to all comments or criticism based upon the flying experience of those who were using this equipment.

Every opportunity is afforded the piloting personnel to visit this supply centre in order that they may see for themselves the methods employed, how carefully all the testing is done, and thereby give them greater confidence in the planes and instruments they must use in their daily work. Orders were also issued that no equipment of new design should be procured until after some of the best of the pilots had been asked for their practical suggestions and for their recommendations. Similarly, skilled fliers were directed to assist in the tests of all completed planes of new design.

 p187  These instructions were loyally carried out by all concerned and the result has been a much better understanding, a much better feeling between the supply and the operating personnel.

The other new assistant to the Chief of the Air Corps was placed in charge of all flying training. Heretofore it had been necessary to administer the two flying schools, the primary and the advanced, at San Antonio, Tex., from the Chief's office in Washington. This was slow and difficult. There was needed at the schools a commander upon whom the responsibility for their conduct could be placed and who could be given the necessary authority to bring about the desired uniformity of training methods, the coördination of effort to produce efficient, newly trained military pilots. This has also worked well and the creation of this training centre is being justified by the results.

The city of San Antonio has recently donated to the United States an ideal site for a flying school and Congress has appropriated a large sum of money for the erection of the necessary buildings. Ultimately this will replace the two schools in that vicinity, which are now, as has  p188 been said, on separate fields several miles apart. When this is done, there will be no finer flying training establishment anywhere in the world.

While the legislation enacted by Congress directed that this programme should be started July 1, 1926, the bill itself did not become a law until July 2d of that year, and as Congress adjourned then without providing funds for the increase it had sanctioned, it really became necessary to postpone the beginning of the carrying out of the programme until the first of the following July.

At this writing, June, 1928, the Army Air Service is receiving the first increment of the programme and the others which will follow should insure, by July 1, 1932, the equipment of the Air Corps with not less than the 1,800 planes recommended by the Morrow Board.

One of the things that have been apparent during the last six years is the gradually increasing understanding on the part of all military men of the rôle which aircraft will play in future wars. An an illustration, it took about two years or more to convince officers of other branches that there was justification for using the words "Air  p189 Force." Airmen insisted that an aggregation of aircraft did constitute such a force, that it could operate at a distance against all sorts of objectives and practically independent of ground forces, although of course the common mission of both would be victory over the enemy. It took a long time to rout the old idea that the Air Service could do anything else besides assist ground troops in their operations.

In 1923, at my instigation, the War Department conducted its own inquiry as to the proper peace and wartime strength of the air component of the Army. Major General William Lassiter was the president of this War Department Board. It finally accepted the contention that there should be an "Air Force," that it could operate as just outlined, used this term "Air Force" in its report, and recommended a very much enlarged Air Service for the Army. The report of this Board really formed the foundation for the recommendation as to the strength of the Air Service which was incorporated in the report of the Morrow Board. The Lassiter Board had suggested that the increase it advocated should be spread over a period of ten years. The  p190 Morrow Board merely cut this period in half and provided that the entire recommendation of the Lassiter Board should be about half completed at the end of the five years.

Although the recommendations of the Morrow Board are now being carried into effect, and although, as has been said, conditions are better than ever before, it is regarded as improbable that the final solution of the vexing question as to the best organization for our air forces has been reached. Personally, I am strongly of the opinion that the time will come when it will be found advisable to change radically our plans for national defence. I am heartily in favour of the creation of a single department which will be employed by the United States in case we are again drawn into a war. This means the creation of a Department of National Defence, with a Cabinet Minister at its head and under him the three military branches, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, each with an Assistant Secretary in charge. The Minister of National Defence with these three assistants might properly constitute a War Council or Council of National Defence,  p191 which is probably the preferable designation.

Such an organization would undoubtedly make for efficiency and economy. The Constitution of the United States makes the President the Commander-in‑Chief of its armed forces. At present there is no way in which any difference of opinion between the Army and the Navy can be reconciled without an appeal to the President. The Chief Executive of this country has too much to do even in time of peace to devote any considerable attention to military matters. In time of war it is even more impossible for him to do so. There is need for one official who can devote his whole time to these matters. This would be the function of the Minister of National Defence. Taking a broad view of the country's needs, he could undoubtedly effect many economies, prevent duplication, and promote greatly the efficiency of our armed forces on land, on sea, and in the air. That the time will come when such an office will be created, such an organization perfected, I confidently hope and believe.​b

The End

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The Author's Note:

1 Four of these men, the round-the‑world fliers, crossed both the Pacific and the Atlantic. Three men, General Pinedo and his companions, crossed the Atlantic both ways.

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Thayer's Notes:

a An account of the flight is given in Trumbull & Lord, History of United States Naval Aviation, pp164‑170; see also Alden & Earle, Makers of Naval Tradition, pp339‑343.

b The author was right on target, but did not live to see his vision confirmed. Gen. Patrick's suggested organization of the armed forces of the United States was put in place almost exactly as he hoped, on July 26, 1947 with the signing by President Truman of the National Security Act establishing among other things today's Department of Defense; Mason Patrick had died on January 29, 1942.

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