WAR

He was struck by the behavior of the pilotless Bleriot after he had bailed
out. It had described the most perfect curves by itself. It followed that what
the aeroplane would do by itself it could be made to do by the pilot. Obviously,
the machine, left to its own devices, would follow a set of "natural" responses:
if the pilot were sensitive to these he could utilize them to make the machine
manoeuvre as he wished, and this included upside-down flying. A pilot could
turn an aeroplane upside down by rolling it on its long axis or by going into a
steep sideslip and letting it flip itself over by abruptly dropping the high wing.
Pegoud contrived to have a machine slung up in
the hangar, himself strapped
in, and rolled over to simulate the upside-down flying attitude. When his ears
turned red they rolled him back. Satisfied that he had the hang of it, he went
out and did it. The next day he gave a public demonstration of inverted flight.
Sensation. Asked by a reporter to describe how it felt to fly upside down, he
replied, "Bizarre, but not at all unpleasant."
Stunting and flying exhibitions aside, the real purpose of his experiments
was to know. To know just what an aeroplane would do and to know what the
pilot should do in any situation. Aerobatics are, after all, insurance. When a gust
of wind whips your crate upside down, is it the end Certainly not. An aviator
who has already had the experience of deliberate, controlled upside-down flight
knows there is
nothing simpler than rolling out of an inverted position. Of course,
Pegoud did not stop until he had experienced every conceivable position and
attitude that he could put the machine, or it
could put itself, into.
Pegoud was the star of the day. The Paris newspapers hailed him as a hero.
He flew and thrilled spectators from Norway to Italy. In September 1913, at
Brooklands aerodrome a few miles southwest of London, he gave a demonstration
of calm mastery of the machine. After performing his usual repertoire of stunts
he flew by the stands with both hands raised over his head.
He was in Hamburg, prepared to embark with three crated aeroplanes for
a tour of America, when "some fool thing in the Balkans" made it imperative
that he return to
France immediately.
before the war, Germany, like England, arranged for flying instruction to be
given to select military personnel. Regular Army officers were chosen for air
observer's and aerial photography courses, and pilots were trained as "chauffeurs."
The aviation training was given in civilian schools operated for the most part by
established aero-engineers and constructors. At the Halberstadt Aeroplane Works
in Halberstadt, for example, Oswald Boelcke learned to fly in the summer of 1914,
and at the Fliegerschule, or Flying School, operated by the Albatros Works in
Berlin, Walter von Teubern took his pilot's training in the autumn of 1913.
In the suburb of Berlin known as Johannisthal was an aerodrome where
some of the great firms of German Aviation were located, Albatros, Aviatik,
L.V.G., Rumpler. There they maintained their factories and display rooms and
gave flying lessons as a side line.
9