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124 be learned at the French aviation schools. Finally, when the pilot is deemed properly qualified, he may be sent to the fighting front, there to take his place with the veterans in the art, who have perhaps won their right to be called "ace," because they have already brought down at least five enemy machines, and can prove each and every encounter.

"Corkscrew looping" was not so very difficult for Tom, although generally considered so by most aspirants for honors.

Only the very best pupils are considered fit subjects for the most advanced course, known as the "vrille," but so ambitious a student as Tom Raymond would not be satisfied without attempting it.

This manoeuvre consists in a series of spiral movements constituting a rapid descent. The plane is tipped at an acute angle, and set to spinning on one wing. An accomplished aviator will take as many as eight of these speedy spirals, one after the other, and thus fall a distance of some five thousand feet, when he can suddenly recover, and fly away in safety from the flock of enemy machines by which he had been suddenly beset high in the air.

It is a manoeuvre full of danger to the novice, and a number of ambitious aviators have lost their lives in trying to accomplish