Flight Training - December 2013 - 5

CENTERLINE

By Adam Smith

HAT IN THE RING

Focus on
what matters.

MEMORIES OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR

Flying.

can date my grandmother's earliest memory very precisely, to
shortly before midnight on September 25, 1916. She was pulled
from her bed and taken out into the streets of Waterfoot, England, where a crowd of people had gathered to look up into the
starlit sky. A giant Zeppelin was overhead, and it was dropping bombs.
Recounting the story decades later,
there was still a distinct note of horror in
Grandma's voice as she described the huge
white airship, its throbbing engines, and
the crash of exploding bombs all around
town. This was one of several airship raids
on England during World War I, and a
total of 1,413 civilians were killed by the
world's first aerial bombing campaign.
In this way, and many others, the First
World War was of profound importance
to the development of flying. Between
1914 and 1918 the major industrial powers
of the world invested gigantic amounts
of time and money in aviation. More than
200,000 airplanes were built, and pilots
trained in similar numbers. Aviation went
from being an artisan, demonstration-type
activity to something that was practical,
useful, and industrialized.
Distinct echoes of World War I are still
felt in the way we conduct flight training
today. From 1914 to 1918 we discovered the
fundamentals of how to do it well. But the
lessons were learned the hard way.
The early days can best be described
as "carnage." In the British forces alone
more than 8,000 young men lost their lives
in flight training accidents, considerably
more than the 6,000 killed on active duty.
In the early years it was not unusual for
there to be upwards of two dozen crashes
per day at a military training airfield.
Two things turned this around. First,
the airplanes got better. Some of the early
aircraft designs were dangerous not just in
flight characteristics, but also in basic construction. Many early fatalities were caused
by basic structural failure of wing spars
and the like. This is why two-seat training
aircraft such as the Avro 504 and Curtiss
Jenny acquired legendary status. They had

pleasant and safe flying qualities, and could
be relied upon not to fall apart.
Second, the training got better. Much
of the credit for this can be placed on the
shoulders of Maj. Robert Smith-Barry, who
in December 1916 created the Gosport
System, a standardized curriculum of
classroom work and dual instruction that
employed an unusual philosophy. Rather
than avoiding dangerous maneuvers, as
most courses of the time did, students
were deliberately exposed to them in a
controlled manner. The basic ideas behind
the Gosport method were copied all
around the world and are the predominant
form of flight training today.
I once had a job doing oral history with
World War I veterans, tape-recording
their memories for posterity. Some of
these interviews were truly harrowing, but
it was always fun to speak to an aviator.
The freedom of the air provided a stark
contrast with the trenches of the Western
Front. There's something magical about
hearing a 95-year-old man describe his
first solo flight with perfect recall, and the
sparkle of an 18-year-old youth in his eye.
The 100th anniversaries of the First
World War are next year, and I hope they
will stimulate renewed interest in the aviation legacy of those times. One way we do
this is through the AOPA Foundation's Hat
in the Ring Society, which takes its name,
logo, and inspiration from America's most
famous air combat unit of the First World
War, the 94th Aero Squadron.
The Society supports initiatives to
teach safety, preserve airports, grow the
pilot population, and uphold the image of
GA. As you consider year-end charitable
giving, perhaps you'd be interested in the
Society (www.aopafoundation.org).

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Flight Training - December 2013

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