[B] The National Advisory Committee for Aëronautics in its report of October 17, 1916, on Nomenclature for Aëronautics, the name airplane is substituted for “Any form of aircraft heavier than air which has wing surfaces for sustention, with stabilizing surfaces, rudders for steering, and power-plant for propulsion through the air.”
Location of the School.—Whatever the final action may be as to permanent location, it has been conceded by all authorities that the situation of the aviation school on North Island, San Diego Bay, is ideal. (See [Fig. 21].) The so-called island is connected with the peninsula of Coronado by a narrow sand-spit, and it comprises many hundred acres of level land free from buildings and any sort of overhead wires. The island fronts the ocean on the south; Point Loma on the west with the narrow entrance to the bay between; to the north is the city of San Diego across the bay; and Coronado just beyond Spanish Bight on the east. This natural arrangement gives good air conditions for beginners, and also enables them to use the smooth waters of the bay as well as the rough ocean water for the seaplanes. The proximity of this location to San Diego is also a distinct advantage. (See [Fig. 11].) All of the structures of the aviation school on North Island are temporary, the buildings consisting of a scattering array of huge sheds.
Character of Instruction.—Officers from all branches of the army volunteer for this service. The qualifications of an aviator are caution, judgment, and technical skill. Deficiencies in caution and judgment being temperamental are rarely remedied, while technical skill is largely a matter of acquirement. Less than ninety days are allowed for qualification as a junior aviator, and if in that period the officer’s deficiencies are found to be inherent, he returns to his company.
The school is a place for hard work and quick thinking. Detail in the repair shop is part of the course, as is also the use of the gasoline engine in motor trucks as well as in aircraft. (See [Fig. 22].) Theory and practice are closely united: the former is carried on by means of bi-daily lectures, while the early morning hours are devoted to flying. Pilot-and-observer machines equipped with double control are used in instruction. The aviation instructor ascends with the student and allows him to manipulate the controls, only resuming the management of the airplane in an emergency. Needless to say, the life of an instructor is a most hazardous one and full of thrills. His duty is to be on the alert to correct errors in the manipulation of the machine. After every trip the instructor reviews, point by point, the features of the flight, showing the pupil his deficiencies and explaining how he may avoid them in the future. The instruction is terse but kindly, and the manner of imparting this information leaves nothing to the imagination. After watching student and instructor, and closely studying the finished work of an aviator, it is my opinion that in no other occupation must there be such perfect coördination between mind and muscle: the perfectly qualified aviator is the modern super-man.[C]
[C] The army aviator of today is picked for his quickness of mind and body, and the first thing that strikes you about him is a sort of feline, wound-up-spring alertness. Then you note his reticence, the cool reserve of a man whose lot is to express himself in deeds rather than words. And, lastly, there is the quiet seriousness, verging almost on sadness, of a man who must hold himself ready to look death between the eyes at any moment and yet keep his mind detached for other things.—Lewis R. Freeman in the Atlantic Monthly.
Results of a Year’s Work.—During the year 1915, the students of the aviation school made 3,652 flights with a total time aloft of 1,516 hours, and a mileage of 95,000. As regards weather conditions affecting flights, it will be found interesting to note [Chart No. 5] giving number of flights and duration for the fourteen months ending August, 1916, which shows that work progressed regardless of weather, and at an increasing rate.[D] In February, a military tractor-seaplane (an all-California product), 125-horsepower motor, with twenty-six gallons of gasoline, four gallons of oil, and three passengers, making a total weight of 3,100 pounds, reached an altitude of 12,362 feet. This was the world’s record, the previous altitude under the same conditions having been 9,000 feet.
[D] “It is estimated that the average cost to France of training each pilot is five thousand dollars ... no less than from four to six months are devoted to the training of finished pilots. Although I have just come from France, the progress of aviation is so rapid that much of my own knowledge may be out of date before I again return to the front.”—C. D. Winslow, “With the French Flying Corps,” 1917, 4–5: N. Y.
CHAPTER II
APPLIED METEOROLOGY FOR THE AVIATOR
Activities of the Weather Bureau in Relation to Aëronautics.—Naturally the progress of aërial navigation has at all times been rather closely connected with the Weather Bureau. For over a decade the Bureau has not been content with surface observations but has maintained laboratories for the study of the upper air. The results of its observations are considered a mine of information for the student aviator. Prof. Charles F. Marvin, the Chief of the Weather Bureau, is a member of the National Advisory Committee for Aëronautics, and chairman of a subcommittee engaged on the determination of the problems of the atmosphere in relation to aëronautics.[E]