Part 6 (1/2)

What is to become of all the new words, some of them with new meanings, the old words with new meanings, and the new words with old meanings, coined by the aviators of the American and British flying services in the war? Are they to die an early death from lack of nourishment and lack of use, or will they go forward, full-throated into the dictionary, where they may belong? Here are just a few of them, making a blus.h.i.+ng debut, so that it may be seen at once just how bad they are:

AEROBATICS--A newly coined word to describe aerial ”stunting,”

which includes all forms of the sport of looping, spinning, and rolling. The term originated in the training schedule for pilots, and all pilots must take a course in aerobatics before being fully qualified.

AEROFOIL--Any plane surface of an airplane designed to obtain reaction on its surfaces from the air through which it moves.

This includes all wing surface and most of the tail-plane surface.

AILERON--This is a movable plane, attached to the outer extremities of an airplane wing. The wing may be either raised or lowered by moving the ailerons. Raising the right wing, by depressing the right aileron, correspondingly lowers the left wing by raising the left aileron. They exercise lateral control of a machine.

BLIMP--A non-rigid dirigible balloon. The dirigible holds its shape due to the fact that its gas is pumped into the envelop to a pressure greater than the atmosphere. It can move through the air at forty miles an hour, but high speed will cause it to buckle in the nose.

b.u.mP--A rising or falling column of air which may be met while flying. A machine will be b.u.mped up or b.u.mped down on a b.u.mpy day. A hot day over flat country, at noon, will generally be exceedingly b.u.mpy.

CRASH--Any airplane accident. It may be a complete wreck or the plane may only be slightly injured by a careless landing.

Crashes are often cla.s.sified by the extent of damage. A cla.s.s A crash, for instance, is a complete washout. A cla.s.s D crash is an undercarriage and propeller broken.

DOPE--A varnish-like liquid applied to the linen or cotton wing fabrics. It is made chiefly of acetone, and shrinks the fabric around the wooden wing structure until it becomes as tight as a drum. The highly polished surface lessens friction of the plane through the air.

DRIFT--Head resistance encountered by the machine moving through the air. This must be overcome by the power of the engine. The term is also used in aerial navigation in its ordinary sense, and a machine flying a long stretch over water may drift off the course, due to winds of which the pilot has no knowledge.

DUD--A condition of being without life or energy. An engine may be dud; a day may be dud for flying. A sh.e.l.l which will not explode is a dud. A pilot may be a dud, without skill. It is almost a synonym for washout.

FLATTEN Out--To come out of a gliding angle into a horizontal glide a few feet from the ground before making a landing. The machine loses flying speed on a flat glide, and settles to the ground.

FLYING SPEED--Speed of a plane fast enough to create lift with its wing surfaces. This varies with the type of plane from forty-five miles an hour as a minimum to the faster scout machines which require seventy miles an hour to carry them through the air. When a machine loses flying speed, due to stalling, it is in a dangerous situation, and flying speed must be recovered by gliding, or the machine will fall into a spin and crash out of control.

FORCED LANDING--Any landing for reasons beyond the control of a pilot is known as a forced landing. Engine failure is chiefly responsible. Once the machine loses its power it must go into a glide to maintain its stability, and at the end of the glide it must land on water, trees, fields, or roofs of houses in towns.

FUSELAGE--This word, meaning the body of a machine, came over from the French. The c.o.c.kpits, controls, and gasolene-tanks are usually carried in the fuselage.

HOP--Any flight in an airplane or seaplane is a hop. A hop may last five minutes or fifteen hours.

JOY-STICK--The control-stick of an airplane was invented by a man named Joyce, and for a while it was spoken of as the Joyce-stick, later being shortened to the present form. It operates the ailerons and elevators.