Gradually this use of the airplane was discarded,, and the kite balloon took its place. The work of the observer stationed in the balloon was less spec tacular than that of the aviator, but far more accurate, and in many respects more important. His work was not marred by haste. He had powerful glasses that gave him a radius of 10 hazardous. But he had to be a fatalist and remain quietly in his position. His balloon offered an alluring target for the enemy's long-range guns. Hostile aviators swooped down at the great bag and sought to puncture it with bullets. If an incendiary bullet penetrated the fabric and ignited the hydrogen gas, the balloon was doomed. Not more than 15 or 20 seconds would elapse before the explosion came. The observer's only salvation then was the parachute with which each was equipped. In the 17 days before the armistice was signed, the American army alone lost 21 balloons in this way, but in return our own aviators and artillery brought down 50 German balloons in the same period.
When the war began, the Germans had about 100 kite balloons of the Drachen type. The Allies had practically none. They set to work, however, and even tually produced the Caquot balloon, which proved to have so many advan tages over the Drachen that Germany herself finally adopted it.
The Caquot- balloon has a length of 93 feet, while its largest diameter is 28 feet. It has a capacity of 37,500 cubic feet of hydrogen gas, and this proves sufficient to lift the mooring cable, the basket, two observers and all necessary equipment to a height, if desired, of 5,000 feet. The lines are so curved as to offer the least possible resistance to the air. It is made of rubberized cotton cloth. It has lobes of rubberized fabric to act as rudders. When the wind blows, the lobes, which are attached to the rear third of the balloon, fill with wind. When the air is calm, the lobes hang loosely.
The construction of the balloon makes it ride horizontally and almost directly above its moorings. It is released and drawn down again by a windlass mounted on a motor truck, so that it can be trans ported to any desired location. A spe The scouting plane and the kite balloon represent the defensive feature of aviation. But it was soon discovered that the air service could also be made a formidable weapon of offense. Machine guns were furnished that were so synchronized that they shot through the blades of the propeller. Aerial squadrons were organized that wheeled and dove and rose in accordance with a system of tactics as precise as those on land and sea. There were Homeric battles in the sky, in which as many as forty or fifty planes might be engaged at once. Rewards were offered for those cial feature of the Caquot is the location of the balloonette or air chamber within the main body of the gas bag. To separate it from the gas chamber, a diaphragm of rubberized cotton cloth is used. There is no air in the balloon ette when it is first fully inflated at what is practically the ground level, but as the balloon ascends the wind blows into the balloonette through a scoop placed under the nose of the balloon.
This forces up the balloonette and com pensates for the inevitable leakage of gas from the envelope.
The average life of a kite balloon on an active war front was only fifteen days, but it did valuable work while it lasted. So anxious were the Germans to destroy them that they gave an aviator who brought one down a credit equivalent to the one bestowed for planes destroyed.
who brought down the greatest number of enemy machines and the coveted title of "ace" was bestowed upon the airman who had the attested destruction of five or more planes to his credit. Supremacy in the air was eagerly sought for by both sides, for it meant that one's own planes could hang over the enemy's front and watch his movements, while he was debarred from doing the same thing in return. Planes were constructed with armored protection to ward off the enemy bullets. Sometimes, instead of fighting with aerial competitors, a daring aviator would swoop down near the ground and rain machine-gun bullets on a marching detachment of the foe. The keen rivalry between the aerial enemies stimulated the invention of devices that would increase the effectiveness of the service. Chief among these was the wireless telephone, that enabled the aviator to keep within speaking radius of his com mander in the air and his ground station. At the beginning of the war, aerial supremacy resided with the Germans, but as the conflict progressed it gradually swung to the side of the Allies, so that largely at the mercy of wind and weather, and offered too great a target for anti aircraft guns and the hosts of planes that rose in the air like a swarm of wasps to attack the huge craft with bombs and !ncendiary bullets. Grad when the armistice was signed they had an overwhelming superiority in men and machines.
Far overshadowing this phase of aerial warfare, however, was the bombing machine. These were first developed and used on a large scale by the Germans. The dropping of bombs on fortified places came well within the spirit of the articles of war. But Germany went further and dropped them upon the helpless civilian population of Paris, London,, and other cities. The claim that these were fortified towns in the accepted meaning of the word was merely a pretext. Not even hospitals were spared in the savage warfare she adopted. The design was not merely to inflict a certain number of casualties, which after all could not be considerable, compared with the whole population, but shake the nerves and weaken the morale of the people back of the firing line. How greatly they failed of this effect is now a matter of history. At first, Germany relied for this work chiefly on her Zep pelins, of which more than a hundred were constructed during the war. But these giant dirigibles proved unsat isfactory. They were too unwieldy, were ually their use was abandoned as their vulnerability was demonstrated. Thirty at least are known to have been de stroyed, and the great majority became unserviceable before the end of the war. The same fate overtook the majority of the Gross,the Parseval, and the Schuette Lanz types of dirigibles.