Luck on the Wing: Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy

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Elmer Haslett. Luck on the Wing: Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy

Luck on the Wing: Thirteen Stories of a Sky Spy

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

I. BEGINNER’S LUCK

II. HARDBOILED

III. MY FIRST SCRAP

IV. BRERETON’S FAMOUS FLIGHT

V. TROUBLES ON THE GROUND

VI. THE WILD RIDE OF A GREENHORN

VII. EILEEN’S INSPIRATION

VIII. DOWN AND OUT AND IN

IX. THE COURT OF INQUIRY

X. BECOMING KULTURED

XI. ESCAPED ALMOST

XII. THE PRIVILEGES OF PRISONERS

XIII “COMING OUT”

Отрывок из книги

Elmer Haslett

Published by Good Press, 2019

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I thanked him and told him that I had to start some time and I would be all ready to go over at my first opportunity.

Fully decided to make myself at home I went out to the hangars and to my surprise, I saw the same kind of old airplanes we had used in the observation school in France. They were an obsolete type of French service plane, known as “A.R.’s”—Avion Renault—which in English meant “Renault Airplane.” The accepted meaning to the Americans, however, was “Antique Rattletrap.” The only good feature about the A.R. was the dependable motor, but they were very slow and did not fly well. They might in those days pass for a second class training plane, but to have them on the line, functioning as service planes, was a great surprise to me. The life of the airman depends very largely on the bus he drives. We all wanted Spads, Salmsons or Breguets, and, of course, any prospect of an American plane in those days was a myth, so there was noticeably keen disappointment when we found that we must fly over the front in those old, discarded and obsolete A.R.’s. However, they were all we had and so far as I was concerned, I knew that my stay in the squadron was largely by sufferance and I could not afford to kick lest I be also kicked out, so I immediately decided to think a lot, but say nothing.

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