CHARTING THE AIR.

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 111, 10 May 1919, Page 17

CHARTING THE AIR.

A COMPLEX PROBLEM

Many pilots who have down continuously along well-defined routes or over! limited areas can tell you exactly where the principal air pockets are, as well as the. general direction and normal velocity of the prevalent winds, says "Nighthawk" in the "Daily .Mail." There is. for example, a very famous "bump" near one of the well known aerodromes not far from London —a "hump'" which is, to all intents and purposes, permanent. It 'is caused by a big sewage farm, over ; which you generally have, to fly in order Ito land on the aerodrome. j During the war that very old science. meteorology, enlisted thousands of new and enthusiastic devotees. The causes of air variations were closely studied: wireless observation stations were erected in a thousand and one different places; our knowledge of air streams . and air habits increased by leaps and j bounds. The result was that during the I.l=l | two years of the war ".Meteor." the I genial weather prophet of the Royal Air j force, was able to tell us approximately what weather we might expect to encounter on any given route at any given Uei-jht for ten or twelve hours ahead.

On the western front the air was charted to a nicety. Lives and machines were spared by a comparatively accurate foreknowledge of changes in air conditions. I remember once that, on a very clear, starlit night, our wing headquarters ordered a bombing raid upon a German army group headquarters pome fifteen or twenty miles over the lines. The raidin; machines were timed to leave the aerodrome at nine o'clock. Engines were being run up. pilots and observers had climbed into their seats, when unexpectedly "Meteor's" message came through: — "Heavy fog drifting in from the North Pea. Dangerous flying weather for all machines north of the Somme." The raid was cancelled. An hour or so later the aerodrome was shrouded in a dense blanket of fog, through which it woo.ld have been impossible safely to land a michine. "Meteor" probably saved the squadron anything from a dozen to eighteen machines that night. The sea has been charted: the air will be. charted. We already know many ot the prevailing air-streams. In a year or two it will be possible for an aerial navigation company to ring up "Air Weather Headquarters" to ascertain the approximate direction and velocity of the wind at all heights, the conditions of visibility, and the chances of rain or fog over given routes.