Reconnaissance Flight Patterns

[Wayfarer 5]

Bullethead, that is very interesting about the wireless antennae. Something I had not appreciated.

For specific artillery spotting missions I have been keeping to the pattern that usually resulted from me following the mission waypoints. These did indeed give a repeated racetrack pattern (at least the way I flew them - I could well have been wrong), but roughly perpendicular to the trenchlines. I usually find one U turn point behind enemy lines, presumably in the vicinity of the target area, and the other behind friendly lines. The waypoint indicator would switch between these points a number of times before setting a course home.

This is about the only time I use waypoints now, to identify these two particular points in a spotting mission. I then fly between them for the time indicated in the mission brief before heading home.

I did wonder whether flying parallel to the trenches might have been more likely, but hadn't got any concrete reasons to base that on.

[33LIMA 972]

Art Obs missions - to use a common RFC abbreviation - were generally flown in a figure of 8 pattern, according to WE Johns. Gentle turns would have prevented problems with the trailing antenna, and a figure of 8 would probably have made them a harder target for Archie than a 'racetrack', while keeping them in view of their target area - and possibly the battery whose fire they were controlling. IIRC they could usually see both at the same time - in fact that might have been necessary or at least desirable so they could see the flash of 'their' battery firing and know when to look for the fall of shot. With no WT comms TO the plane, there could be no such thing as the modern infantry/artillery co-operation drill where the Forward Observation Officer announces 'shot' on the radio for that purpose ie 'My battery has just fired a ranging round, look out for it, and send corrections'.

 

I'd guess that the vertical axis of the figure 8 would have been flown roughly at right angles to the line of fire - up and down the Lines roughly, probably no further away from friendly teritory than was needed for accurate observation, which might have varied with different factors. I don't recall the height usually flown at but 3-8000 feet seems to ring a bell with me.

 

In British forces parlance anyway, 'wireless', or for that matter, WT, depending on the context, can mean Wireless Telegraphy or Wireless Telephony ie morse or voice. The sources I have, and that's quite a few, all indicate the latter was not in use in WW1 aircraft, in the RFC/RAF; and that Wireless Telegraphy, notwithstanding experiments or exceptions, was used only for art obs, with recces being camera and notepad jobs.

 

PS I did find the piece online below but it appears to refer to VERY late-war use (like the last few days) and even then reads to me like field trials if anything. IIRC the square hatch behind the SE5a's cockpit was intended to be a hatch to a compartment for some kind of radio but one was never fitted. Anyway I think we can fairly safely rule out the use of voice radio comms for WW1 planes.

 

Telephony, November 23, 1918, page 17:

American-Developed Radio Telephone Success in Airplanes

Squadrons of American airplanes fighting in France were maneuvered under vocal orders transmitted by radio telephone. News of the successful development of this device, hitherto a military secret, was allowed to become public last week by John D. Ryan, director of aircraft production.

W. C. Potter of the equipment division of the bureau said:

"For some months it has been possible in our offices in Washington to hear the planes flying miles over the city, talking to each other and to the ground as they worked out and perfected the telephone device."

The fact that radio telephones were a regular part of American aerial equipment has only been permitted to become known since the capture of a German order to aerial squadrons, demanding that an American plane with wireless telephone equipment be shot down and brought to the rear for examination.

According to the statement of Mr. Ryan, the device was put into practical service some weeks ago and its advantages proved in actual air combat.

By means of the radio telephone, it was possible for a ground observer to talk to pilots in the air miles away. Commanders of aero squadrons could voice warnings to all their pilots as to the movements of enemy aircraft, and squadron formations of all sorts could be maintained in the air as easily as infantry units on the ground. The wireless telephone messages could be delivered at a distance of several miles.

"There are some details concerning it which we cannot discuss yet," said Mr. Ryan. "I have, myself, standing on the ground, given orders to a squadron flying in the air and watched them maneuver according to instructions. The transmission of the voice is clear enough to be heard distinctly over the noise of the airplane motor."

Edited March 13, 2012 by 33LIMA