THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



103 



Another chap named Bulkely was 

 brought down in similar circumstances 

 about the first of September. Ten days 

 ago, word was received from the Amer- 

 ican Embassy that he had communicated 

 with them, a prisoner in Germany. There 

 are many similar cases, where men 

 brought down with crippled machines or 

 wounded, escape destruction by a miracle. 

 The only sure thing is when a machine 

 goes down in flames or is seen to lose 

 a wing or two. 



For instance, there are two officers in 

 the group who are in the best of health 

 and daily working. Several months ago 

 they were on patrol together ; collided in 

 the air. One cut the tail rigging com- 

 pletely off the other and they separated, 

 one without a tail and the other with 

 various parts of a tail mixed among the 

 cables and struts of one side of his ma- 

 chine. They both landed in France, one 

 on his wheels, followed by a capotage, or 

 somersault turnover, the other quite com- 

 pletely upside down. Then a term in 

 the hospital and back they are again. 



THRILLING FEATS OF DARING 



Kenneth Marr, an American, had the 

 commands of both his tail controls cut 

 in a combat, the rudder and elevator, 

 leaving him nothing but the aileron — the 

 lateral balance control and the motor. 

 He landed with only a skinned nose for 

 casualties and got a decoration for it. 



Another chap in an attack on captive 

 balloons, drachens, dove for something 

 like 10,000 feet vertically and with full 

 motor on, thereby gaining considerable 

 speed, as you can imagine. He came 

 right on top of the balloon, shot, and to 

 keep from hitting it, yanked as roughly 

 as he could, flattening out his dive in the 

 merest fraction of a second. 



Imagine the strain on the machine! 

 When he got home all the wires had sev- 

 eral inches sag in them; the metal con- 

 nections of the cables into the struts and 

 wood of the wings had bit into the wood 

 enough to give the sag. 



Machines are built to stand immense 

 pressure on the under side of the wings. 

 In some acrobatic maneuvers I was try- 

 ing the other day, I made mistakes and 

 caused the machine to stall and then fall 



in such a way that the full weight was 

 supported by the upper surface — by the 

 wires, which in most machines are sup- 

 posed merely to support the weight of 

 the wings when the machine is on the 

 ground. 



Yes, the Spad is a well-built machine — 

 the nearest thing to perfection in point 

 of strength, speed, and climbing power 

 I've seen yet. Of course, it's heavy, and 

 that's why they put 150 to 230 horse- 

 power in them. The other school, that 

 of a light machine with a light motor, 

 depending for its success on lack of 

 weight rather than excess of power, may 

 supplant the heavier machine in time ; I 

 can't tell. 



WHEN DECORATIONS ARE BESTOWED 



So, as any one who knows has said 

 right along, there is a long way to go in 

 the development of the J. N., or even the 

 little triplane, before American - built 

 planes get to the front. Of the bombing 

 game I don't know anything at all. 



Yesterday there was a revue here in 

 honor of Guynemer and decorations for 

 the pilots of the group who had won 

 them. Three Americans received the 

 Croix de Guerre — members of the La- 

 fayette Escadrille. Lufbery, the Amer- 

 ican ace, carried the American flag pre- 

 sented to the escadrille by Mrs. McAdoo 

 and the employees of the Treasury De- 

 partment, beside the two aviation em- 

 blems of France. 



He was called to receive his decoration 

 "for having in the course of one day 

 held seven combats ; descended one Ger- 

 man plane in flames and forced five 

 others to land behind their lines" (which 

 means that he is officially credited with 

 one, his thirteenth, and that the other 

 five, though probably brought down, do 

 not count for him because there were not 

 the necessary witnesses required by the 

 French regulation). 



Being the bearer of the flag, he was a 

 very worried man to know what to do 

 with the flag when he should go up to 

 get his medal, till one of the fellows in 

 124 (the Lafayette) came to his rescue. 

 For a military revue it was decidedly 

 amusing. Aviators are not very military. 



The chief of one of the escadrille was 



