570 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Press Illustrating Service 



THE AMERICAN ACE, MAJOR RAOUE EUPBERY, AND HIS NlEUPORT 



Note the gun on the engine hood, synchronized to fire through the propeller. On the 

 machine at the rear a Lewis gun is shown mounted on the top plane. Major Lufbery was 

 killed in an air fight on May 19, 1918. His record of official victories over the Huns was 18. 



La Guerre Aerienne, of Paris, recently 

 he made the following observations con- 

 cerning his preparations for combat: 



"One must be in constant training, al- 

 ways fit, always sure of oneself, always 

 in perfect health. Muscles must be in 

 good condition, nerves in perfect equilib- 

 rium, all the organs exercising naturally. 



"Alcohol becomes an enemy — even 

 wine. All abuses must be avoided. It is 

 indispensable that one goes to a combat 

 without fatigue, without any disquietude, 

 either physical or moral. 



"It must be remembered that combats 

 often take place at altitudes of twenty to 

 twenty-five thousand feet. High altitudes 

 are trying on one's organisms. This in- 

 deed is, at bottom, the reason that keeps 

 me from flying too continuously. And I 

 never fly except when in perfect condi- 

 tion. I am careful to abstain when I am 

 not exactly fit. Constantly I watch my- 

 self. 



"It is necessary to train as severely for 

 air combats as for any other athletic 

 contest, so difficult is the prize of victory. 

 Yet if one finds oneself in prime condi- 

 tion, all the rest is play." 



And these precepts come not from a 

 Sunday-school teacher, but from a youth 

 who has demonstrated his theory with as 

 thorough a test as can be imagined. 



"All the rest" may be play, yet there is 

 in that little play of Fonck's a secret of 

 quickness and anticipation that is almost 

 superhuman. 



HOW HE DESTROYED SIX MACHINES IN 

 ONE DAY 



Lieutenant Fonck is the only French- 

 man who has brought down six enemy 

 aircraft in one day. He went up back of 

 Soissons with his patrol on May 9 last 

 and encountered three two-seater ma- 

 chines of the enemy. Two of these he 

 destroyed in less than ten seconds and 



