OCR Text |
Show AMERICA IN ACTION j MARINE GLIDERS Invasion operations by the United States marines in the present war are likely to include troop-carrying glider planes as well as naval landing land-ing craft. Pilots for such gliders are being trained in rapid time at the marine base at Parris Island, S. C. There they are learning all the new tricks involved in putting 12-man and 24-man 24-man troop gliders down behind enemy ene-my lines. At first each student pilot sits at the controls while his glider is towed by a winch or an automobile until it takes off and rises to an altitude of 500 feet The pilot cuts loose the tow line and glides away without power other than air currents. cur-rents. Then he graduates to the glider towed by motored aircraft. The plane rolls down the runway with the glider attached by cable behind, and after a few hundred feet the glider rises. Soon the plane takes off and circles for altitude with the glider circling right in its path. Later the pilots will learn to take part in two and three-glider formations forma-tions behind the guider plane. . Glider pilots must be on the alert every second. There can be no slacking of the cable ; every time the tow plane dips or turns to change direction or altitude the glider pilots in the rear must follow with the same operation. At a pre-arranged time or place the glider pilot disengages the cable and is on his own. The ceiling at which a glider can be safely operated operat-ed is about 20,000 feet. From this height it can glide 75 miles, counting count-ing a loss of one foot of altitude for each 20 feet of glide gained. The student pilot is towed on long cross-country trips during which he gains valuable practical experience. In learning to land he is given practice in pulling his ship out of a stall or a spin, and he learns how to land on a "target" with precision or to pick his landing spot in a strange field. When he graduates from glider school he is thoroughly capable of guiding groups of fighting marines from the clouds down into the heart of enemy territory where they may blast out victories that might not otherwise be achieved. |