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Manual
of instruction |
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Paul
Garber |
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Video
: gunners's training |
U.
S. Navy Target Kites are designed to serve as maneuverable aerial
targets for gunnery training, from ground or ship. Paul
Garber, the designer, begins with a Eddy
kite, which he equips with a double reel (two lines), a control
bar, and a brake. To refine simulation, the silhouette of a Japanese
Zero airplane is painted on a blue background. At 180 meters,
it resembles a true enemy plane which would be at a distance of 400
meters, their travel rate being identical.
The Navy Target Kite (NTK) was born.Over 350,000 of them were
made, and Garber spent most of the war on that assignment. It is being
manufactured for the armed forces by A. G. Spalding
& Bros., makers of athletic equipment. What the Target
Kite will do to peacetime kite flying is easily imagined. |
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