Anti-aircraft gunner's training
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Title (Dublin Core)
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Anti-aircraft gunner's training
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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Training the Anti-Aircraft Gunner. Why not use free balloons shaped like airplanes
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Caption: Trap-shooting is an excellent training for bird-hunters. Shooting with an anti-aircraft gun at an airplane is somewhat like shooting with a shotgun at flying duck or snipe-only more difficult. Anti-aircraft gunners need previous training even more than bird-hunters. Why not let them go through a course of modified trap-shooting, with balloons shaped like airplanes as targets, instead of clay pigeons? Another plan would be to let them shoot at balloons or kites, towed with great speed by powerful dirigibles
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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IN the good old days when Wild West
Shows instead of motion pictures
thrilled the youngster who yearned to
Lead the life of a scout cunning enough to
outwit the wiliest Apache, Buffalo Bill
would gallop around the tanbark ring,
preceded by a rider who tossed glass balls
into the air. Raising his trusty rile
to his shoulder, Buffalo Bill would fire
at the balls tossed up in front of him, if
not exactly with unerring aim, at least
with an tecuracy sufficiently startling
£0 make every small boy on the bleachers
put his two fingers to his mouth and
Whistle in joyous admiration,
Firing at an airplane with an anti-
airerait gun is about as hard as shooting
at glass balls from horseback. Therefore,
it has been suggested that the antiair
craft gunner be trained by making him
fire at small target-balloons shaped like
airplanes.
No gunner needs so much practice as
he who sims at elusive bomb-droppers.
IU the formerly inefficient anti-aireralt
guns have become formidable, it is due
entirely to experience gained in three
years of warfare. What may not be ex-
pected of systematic preliminary practice?
Some Objections to Balloons
It may be objected to the target
balloon scheme that the drift of the
free balloons is much slower than the
fight of a modern airplane. To this it
‘may be replied that the smallness of the
targets makes up for their slowness.
Moreover, f they are sent up on a stormy
day their drift may become as fast es
sixty or seventy miles an hour.
To make target practice of this kind
as realistic as possible, it would, of course,
be aduisable to shape the balloons some.
what like irplanes. Thia plan is now
followed in training air gunners to fire
at balloon targets towed from airplanes.
It ia possible that even tissue paper
bags floated by an alcohol flume might
answer; but they could hardly attain
great atitudes.
The only real objection to the plan is
the fact that in order to attain a great
altitude it would be dificult to release
the balloons so that they would actually
drift into the range of the guns. After
all, time enough must be given to them
to reach a high altitude. There is also
the difficulty that the real problem of
aerial gunnery is that of determining how
much time must be allowed for the speed
of the airplane so that the projectile will
actually bit it. it would never do to aim
at the airplane where it is at the moment;
it must be aimed at where it wil be five
or oven seconds hence. 1 it were posible
to attain a great height with free balloons
while they are sil within range, even tho
smallness of the target would not sufi
ciently make up for its relatively slow
motion. The gunner does not get true
practice in making the proper time
allowance.
Why Not Use Diigibles?
A plan that offers much better oppor-
tunity for practice to the anti-aireralt
gunners would be to send up a swift
and powerful dirigible balloon and let it
tow a whole string of aerial targets,
either balloons or kites, at the desired
distance and height. Even when handi-
eapped by the resistance to the air of th
towed balloons or kites a dirigible could
attain great speed, particularly when
going with the wind. In that case, it could.
reach airplane velocity.
The weight of the towing cable would
not prevent a powerful dirigible from
rising to a great height and the cable
could be made long enough to insure the
safety of the dirigible from stray shots.
The conditions, being under almost.
perlect control, could be sufficiently va-
ried at will to give to the gunners ample
opportunity to obtain a thorough training
in estimating distances, angles and the
necessary time allowances. in placing
shots at moving targets. Kites, of
course, would be the most economical
targets.
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Carl Dienstbach (writer)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1918-09
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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424-425
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Filippo Valle
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 93, n. 3, 1918
