BUREAU***


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[Illustration: ARMY AIRPLANE GLIDING TO NORTH ISLAND OVER U. S. CRUISER
“SAN DIEGO”]


THE AVIATOR AND THE WEATHER BUREAU

by

FORD A. CARPENTER, LL.D.

Meteorologist

Illustrated with Photographs and Charts
by the Author and Others






Published by the
San Diego Chamber of Commerce
1917

Published by permission
Dated August 25, 1916

Second edition, 5,000 copies

J. Horace McFarland Company
Mt. Pleasant Press
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania




Introductory Note


This is a brief but general account of the history of aviation as
it is associated with southern California, a description of the War
Department school of aviation at San Diego, a syllabus of the course
of lectures delivered there on the subject of practical meteorology as
applied to aviation, a narrative of weather-study from an airplane, and
a recital of subsequent active coöperation between the aviators and the
U. S. Weather Bureau.[A]

    [A] It may be remembered that the weather service of the
        United States originated with the Signal Corps of the Army
        and that the Weather Bureau was created from it by Act
        of Congress, June, 1891, and made a bureau of the U. S.
        Department of Agriculture. As a former member of the Signal
        Corps the writer enjoyed the renewal of old friendships
        among the officers at the Aviation School. Col. W. A.
        Glassford, Signal Corps, U. S. Army, Commandant of the War
        Department Aviation School at San Diego, kindly read the
        manuscript of the following pages and the writer gratefully
        acknowledges his valuable suggestions.

Much of the material in the following pages was obtained by the writer
while detailed as Lecturer in Meteorology to the Signal Corps, War
Department Aviation School at San Diego, in 1915–1916, also when
detailed in the same official capacity to the U. S. Army Military
Training Encampment, Monterey, 1916; and at the summer sessions of the
University of California during 1914–1916.

  LOS ANGELES, CAL.,
   February, 1917.




     _To_
  _J. S. A._




Table of Contents


  CHAPTER I

  The Signal Corps Aviation School at San Diego, California            7


  CHAPTER II

  Applied Meteorology for the Aviator                                 11


  CHAPTER III

  Weather Observations from an Airplane                               16


  CHAPTER IV

  Investigating the Upper Air                                         25




List of Plates


  Figure
   No.                                                              Page
      Army airplane gliding to North Island Over U. S. Cruiser
          “San Diego”                                _Frontispiece_

   1. Congressional Medal awarded Wright brothers                     33

   2. Ascent of sounding balloons at Avalon                           34

   3. Meteorograph which made the ascent of July 27, 1913             35

   4. First flight of airplane carrying two persons                   36

   5. Sub-station at Mount Wilson Observatory                         37

   6. Type of airplane used in 1911 on North Island                   38

   7. Discussing a flight                                             39

   8. Captain Culver and parachute for determining wind-direction     40

   9. Lieutenant Gorrell, U. S. Infantry, as observer                 41

  10. Point Loma from the eastern shore of North Island               42

  11. San Diego, across Spanish Bight, from U. S. Aviation School,
        at twilight                                                   43

  12. Instructor Brindley and Meteorologist Carpenter in
        Military Tractor No. 50                                       44

  13. Military Tractor No. 50                                         45

  14. “Trimming” Tractor No. 50                                       46

  15. Military Tractor No. 50 just before leaving the ground          47

  16. San Diego harbor at over two thousand feet altitude             48

  17. San Diego viewed from an altitude of thirty-five hundred
        feet                                                          49

  18. Military Tractor No. 50 viewed from the ground                  50

  19. Flying Squad’s Wind Direction Pennant Tower                     51

  20. The Aviation School Motor-Boat “Pronto”                         52

  21. U. S. Aviation Field at three thousand feet altitude            53

  22. Repair Shop, U. S. Aviation School, San Diego, Cal.             54




The Aviator and the Weather Bureau




CHAPTER I

THE SIGNAL CORPS AVIATION SCHOOL AT SAN DIEGO


_History._--The year 1911 marked the beginning of the United States
aviation school at San Diego. There is no finer tribute to the
equability and general excellence of the climate of southern California
than that given in the history of a