Outline:
- Special qualifications.
- Training.
- Air-flight.
- Dangers and accidents.
- His importance
Though all members of the fighting forces must have a certain standard of physical fitness, the air-pilot must have, above those things strong lungs and perfect eyesight. Without strong lungs, he cannot go thousands of feet up in the air. Without perfect eyesight he cannot observe what he is asked to observe nor can he accurately. bomb the enemy targets. Have you ever seen an air-pilot with asthma or an air-pilot with spectacle?
He is trained to fly up even beyond 30,000 feet. He is trained how to release bombs on enemy targets. He is trained in dive-bombing and machine-gunning. He knows how to understand and make maps. He is trained both in the arts of fighting and throwing bombs.
The air-pilot never goes up in the air alone when he is not sufficiently trained. His officer is with him and gives him instructions. It is a thrill of a life-time for him to go up in the aeroplane for the first time. His officer sees that he does not feel shaky. He flies over houses, trees and plains at terrific speed and lands his plane again.
His life is most dangerous. He may die owing to his own mistake or negligence. The also dies owing to enemy action. Then there are unforeseen accidents, like the collision of two planes, crashing of a plane against a tree or a house, or unexpected failure of the engine or petrol. When his plane crashes, he is wounded or killed. Sometimes when his plane crashes in the enemy territory, he is taken prisoner by the enemy.
In the eyes of modern boys and girls, an air-pilot is a romantic, figure, for, he lives dangerously. Perhaps his life short, but it is as short as a flashs of lightning which fills every nook and corner with light. His life is perhaps only one glorious hour of crowded life, which is better than a century of ignoble life. He is very backbone of modern war. Without him who would bomb the enemy, who would observe enemy: movement; who would give protection to the navy, who would hold an air umbrella over the figthing men?