1584 



Canadian Forestry Journal, March, 1918 



"Square 2" or "Square 3," as the 

 case may be. Then the chap at the 

 station takes a look at his map and 

 knows immediately just where the 

 trouble is and can send help at once. 

 Carrying Men 



THE PRESIDENT: An import- 

 ant question in this connection is the 

 possibility of the operators taking the 

 machine close to the fire and going in 

 to put the fire out, or, if it is too big 

 for them to handle, to go back and 

 get more men to help. Would that 

 be possible? 



MAJOR KENNEDY: It certain- 

 ly is. You can do nearly anything 

 with an aeroplane. (Laughter). Well 

 — you can! I know of several har- 

 bour cities where they are used for 

 fire fighting; they are fitted up with a 

 small wireless installation, and fire 

 engines. That equipment down there 

 in the corner (indicating pump and 

 fire fighting apparatus) could be 

 carried in an aeroplane with no 

 trouble at all. You could take that 

 pump, connect it up with the engine 

 you use to run your propeller, and use 

 it that w^ay. As for landing near a 

 fire, that would depend on the water- 

 w^ays. From what I know of the 

 country it would be practicable to 

 get within a mile or two of any fire. 



THE PRESIDENT: Well, that 

 would be all that would be necessary. 



MAJOR KENNEDY: As for 

 what you can carry, that all depends 

 on the machine, ot course, but you 

 get a big machine and you can carry 

 up to 20 or 30 passengers quite 

 easily. 



A MEMBER: Would it be pos- 

 sible to land in a waterway it there 

 were a current of about tour miles an 

 hour? 



MAJOR KENNEDY: Quite pos- 

 sible, if there were no rapids. 



MR. ATKINSON: How great a 

 depth of water would be necessary? 



Landing in Running Streams 

 MAJOR KENNEDY: Anything 

 over one and one-half or two teet, it 

 would depend largely on the weight 

 ot your load. Aeroplanes could be 

 designed specially for fire fighting 

 purposes, — they could be designed tor 

 landing in shallow water. The 



'buses used in those harbour cities I 

 mentioned can land in very shallow 

 water. One thing about making a 

 landing is that you must be careful 

 to land head on to the wind, if it is 

 over eight or ten miles an hour. Of 

 course you can, by skihul manoeu- 

 vering, land with the wind at your 

 back, but it is a whole lot better to 

 land the other way. With the wind 

 at your back when you land you are 

 likely to keep on going longer than 

 you intend, and to stop more suddenly 

 than you want to! (Laughter). 



THE PRESIDENT: ^Ve hear a 

 lot about aeroplanes fl^'ing low% doing 

 machine gun work over at the front. 

 Can you tell us anything about what 

 they are doing over there in this 

 connection? 



Over the Heads of Infantry 



MAJOR KENNEDY : That is one 

 of the several phases of our co-opera- 

 tion with the infantry, and one which 

 has developed a very great deal in the 

 last short while. The Royal Flying 

 Corps were the originators. Of course 

 before any big movement the Flying 

 Corps do a really great work taking 

 photographs of the country where 

 the advance is to be made. They 

 take photos of every road, every bit 

 of trench, in fact, they photograph 

 everything, whether they are being 

 fired on or not. When the infantry 

 goes into action, while they move 

 forward our planes are flying just in 

 the rear of the German lines, gather- 

 ing up information to wireless back 

 to headquarters, information as to 

 where the German forces are concen- 

 trated; where to throw the greatest 

 numbers; where enemy guns are con- 

 cealed; in fact, any scrap of informa- 

 tion which will be useful. Some 

 planes simply go forward with the 

 men from the beginning of the ad- 

 vance to the end, flying perhaps 100 

 feet above the ground. Some of the 

 planes have machine guns which are 

 fired automatically by the engine, 

 through the propeller. The propeller 

 is geared with a safety device so that 

 when the blade gets in the way of the 

 bullets, the gun cannot fire. In such 

 cases the aim is taken by pointing 

 your machine in the direction you 



