AERIAL AMBULANCE.
R.A.F. Can.—Monthly Strength in Canada and Percentage Incapacitated by Illness
[WINTER FLYING.]
Prior to the operations of the Corps, it was generally assumed that the obstacles to intensive training in a snow-covered country were almost insuperable, but in the light of last winter’s experience it is difficult to imagine the limit to which the aeroplane may not safely be used in the latitudes of the far north. Its apparent fragility, the exposure of the pilot, the fact that a large percentage of accidents occurred in making landings, and the mental picture of a machine floundering through snowdrifts in an attempt to rise, all seemed to reduce the matter to an impossibility. To-day it has been demonstrated by the work of the 44th Wing of this unit that, with such provision as has already been proved suitable, the aeroplane will rise from a snow surface more easily than from bare ground at temperatures far below zero, land in spots inaccessible in summer time, and that the pilot may be maintained in physical comfort and security and practically immune to the weather.
The process was one of return to aboriginal principles, in that there was adopted a method used by the North American Indian, since first he traversed the frozen waste. Experiments soon evidenced that undercarriage wheels were out of the question in snow more than six inches deep, and by the elimination of things that rotated and the adoption of things that slid, the aeroplane fell, so to speak, into line with the winter customs of the country. The progressive experiments out of which were evolved the skids finally adopted, called for the united suggestions of the unit, the Repair Park and the Canadian Aeroplanes Limited, but passing over the investigations into proper length, width, anchorage, bow curve, and kindred points, the result was an effective and curiously attractive combination of ancient and modern. As seen in the illustration on [page 130], this gives the machine a semi-naval appearance—prophetic perhaps of the early union between the air forces of land and sea in the R.A.F.
Once in regular use, the efficiency of these shoes became very noticeable. The slight bump observable in the best of landings smoothed itself out into a gently cushioned settling in which the actual first contact with the snow was imperceptible. Similarly, in taking off, the sensation was as in a toboggan darting without friction down a steep slope. Breakage in propellers and undercarriages became reduced to a minimum, and frequent landings soon ironed out the white expanse of the aerodrome to an unusually good surface.