Knights of the Air - The Epic of Flight Author:Ezra Bowen If volunteers for air service were plentiful when war broke out, training facilities were not. Students learned everything from plane construction to difficult tricks of flying, including looping, rolling, spinning and the climbing turn called a chandelle. And they were introduced to deflection shooting - how to hit a moving target from a moving... more » aircraft.
Not all survived the course. Over 4 years, Germany alone lost 1,800 airmen in training accidents. But if a pupil considered training hazardous, a British instructor warned, "let him find some other employment. Whatever risks he is asked to run here, he will have to run 100 times as many when he gets to France."« less