Opportunities in Aviation   By: Gordon Lamont

Transcriber's Note: Inconsistent hyphenation in the original document has been preserved.

OPPORTUNITIES IN AVIATION

OPPORTUNITY BOOKS

OPPORTUNITIES IN AVIATION BY LIEUT. GORDON LAMONT CAPTAIN ARTHUR SWEETSER

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE NEWSPAPER BUSINESS BY JAMES MELVIN LEE

OPPORTUNITIES IN CHEMISTRY BY ELLWOOD HENDRICK

OPPORTUNITIES IN FARMING BY EDWARD OWEN DEAN

OPPORTUNITIES IN MERCHANT SHIPS BY NELSON COLLINS

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK ESTABLISHED 1817

[Illustration: At work on one of the F 5 L type of seaplane at the Naval Aircraft Factory, League Island, near Philadelphia. The F 5 L is one of the largest type of naval seaplane, and flew from Hampton Roads, Va., to Rockaway Naval Air Station, L.I.]

OPPORTUNITIES IN AVIATION

By Captain ARTHUR SWEETSER

U.S. Air Service

Author of " The American Air Service " and

GORDON LAMONT, Late Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, Canada

Frontispiece

[Illustration]

HARPER & BROTHERS Publishers New York and London

Acknowledgement is made to the New York Evening Post for some of the material which first appeared in its columns.

OPPORTUNITIES IN AVIATION Copyright, 1920, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America Published, January, 1920

To that great new gift which is so soon to come to us, this little book is enthusiastically dedicated by the authors.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

INTRODUCTION i

I. WAR'S CONQUEST OF THE AIR 1

II. THE TRANSITION TO PEACE 11

III. TRAINING AN AIRPLANE PILOT 24

IV. SAFETY IN FLYING 39

V. QUALIFICATIONS OF AN AIRPLANE MECHANIC 52

VI. THE FIRST CROSSING OF THE ATLANTIC 63

VII. LANDING FIELDS THE IMMEDIATE NEED 76

VIII. THE AIRPLANE'S BROTHER 85

IX. THE CALL OF THE SKIES 96

ADDENDUM 107

INTRODUCTION

Any ordinary, active man, provided he has reasonably good eyesight and nerve, can fly, and fly well. If he has nerve enough to drive an automobile through the streets of a large city, and perhaps argue with a policeman on the question of speed limits, he can take himself off the ground in an airplane, and also land a thing vastly more difficult and dangerous. We hear a great deal about special tests for the flier vacuum chambers, spinning chairs, co ordination tests there need be none of these. The average man in the street, the clerk, the laborer, the mechanic, the salesman, with proper training and interest can be made good, if not highly proficient pilots. If there may be one deduction drawn from the experience of instructors in the Royal Air Force, it is that it is the training, not the individual, that makes the pilot.