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HUNTING PLANES

SHOOTING DEVICE, COPIED. FROM THE 'ifIJEMX ; The French, and probably all other fighting armies (.says lleuter's Special Correspondent; have divided their air services into two distinct classes—tho observation machines and ■ the lighting machines, or, as they call them, hunt-ing-planes. The latter. are, small machines, built as lightly as possible, and ablo to travel <u au enormous speed. In front of the airman is his machinegun, which fires straight ahead, . the uultet just passing clear of the whirling propeller-blade. The ingenious invention which makes it. possible for the airman .to firo through the circle traced by the propeller, revolving as it does at an unthinkable speed, is of German origin. The Allies found tho device oh a captured machine* and adopted' it without acknowledgment of patent rights. Tho airman can use' it without moving from his seat, for these .weapons are necessarily fixed, and the airman aims not his gun but his' machine at tho enemy. In practice observing ; and fighting caiuiot be combined in the same machine. Tho observing aeroplane carries two men, the pilot and the ' observer, a quantity of photographic apparatus, and petrol enough to enable it to remain in the air for some hours. It is necessarily a heavier machine than the fighting ■ piano. It is also slower, because observation cannot bo done at tyie enormous speeds at which tho fighters travel. Tho armouring of military aeroplanes has been given up. Both sides uso a bullet with a steel core- in air lights, which will pierce any armour that could be carried on an aeroplane. The observation plane carries a machine-gun to defend itself in case of need, but its real! business is to.observe. ■

Tho lossoa of fighting machines and, what is worse, lighting airmen, are very high in proportion to their numbers on both sides. The observation piano carries two men, the pilot and the observer. It is the latfcor on whom-the bulk of the work falls. He must be a first-class expert .in jihotography and map-making, and a trained machine-gunner. Tho results obtained by tho camera in tho air are extraordinary., I have seen photographs .of French infantry attaclsing taken from the air in which the men leaping from shell crater to shell crater, and running down the German trench, could bo plainly made out. At the divisional aerodrome a largo staff of, highly-trained photographers and cartographers are kept constantly at work" piecing together the photographs/and information brought back byxthe airmen until every battery position, every lire-trench and communica-tion-trench, and, as far as possible, every machine-gun ' battery on the enemy's front, is known and marked on tho maps supplied-to tho gunners and the infantry. When an airman reports an unknown battery somewhere, other airmen are sont out to report on tho position. Further confirmation is sought from the artillery observation posts, from the infantry nearest the suspected spot, and.from oyery other possible source of information, and it is not until tho original report has been confirmed from several sources that it is embodied, in the permanent record of the enemy's defence. The aeroplane carries a -wireless installation, and can always signal back anything of interest which requires immediate attention. Bombarding planes, built for very long flights, carry a largo supply of petrol and bombs.— lleuter's Special.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19161211.2.39

Bibliographic details

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2951, 11 December 1916, Page 6

Word Count
543

HUNTING PLANES Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2951, 11 December 1916, Page 6

HUNTING PLANES Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2951, 11 December 1916, Page 6

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