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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0665.PDF
OCTOBER 23, 1909. one which became damaged and another start was made. By this time the wind had risen to a degree which made even the intrepid Paulhan see discretion as the better part of valour, and after doing half a lap he descended. In the hour between 2.4$ and 3.45 the wind, as recorded by a pressure-tube, changed from 10 m.p.h. to 26 m.p.h. maximum, the gustiness making the pen of the instrument fluctuate erratically through a range of about 5 m.p.h. The red flag, signifying flying in progress, continued at the mast- head, but it was generally supposed that proceedings were over for the day. Thousands of visitors left the course, when Latham sud- denly decided to make an attempt in spite of the wind. His machine had been repaired with a new skid, new wheel, and new propeller, and was apparently in good running order. He succeeded in flying over the line, but descended without attempting the first turning. Roe also made an attempt at the last moment, but without effect. Fernandez, who made a relatively early start at noon, had failed to return from his journey up to closing time. No day could have been less auspicious than this was in the morning, yet in the end it provided a thoroughly interesting set of flights, including the setting up of some worthy British records by Farman. Times and Speeds. » ;; Competitors entered for all events eligible for competition this day, the times made during the flight standing good for each. FARMAN. Lap. m.p.h. m. 31-5530-84 30-7930-66 30-77 30-89 30-48 30-79 s. 464 Si* i 52*| 5*1 lLap. m.p.h. 9 3O-98 30-30 3O-5330-61 3O-9531-69 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 30-77 m. 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 s. Sot 56 54* 53i! 451 45! Lap. m.p.h. m. s. 17 30-74 3 52* 18 31-39 3 47* 19 3084 3 20 31-33 22 3O-7I 23 3I-64 481 49i 3 3 3 -3 46 Total distance, 47 m. 1,184 yds. TotaHime, 1 h. 32 m. 16* s. Slowest lap, 30-3 m.p.h. Fastest lap, 31 " 2 m.p.h. Distance in 1 hour = 30 miles 1,577 yards. ROUGIER. Speed, 28-1 m.p.h.Lap 1 ", 3 - » 2879 Total distance, 5 m. 1,688 yds. Total time, 12 m. 45J s. Time, 4 m. 14! s. „ 4 m. 22jJ s. „ 4 m. 8f s. Slowest lap, 27-25 m.p.h. Fastest lap, 28-79 m.p.h. Thursday, 21st. With a wind registering 30 miles an hour, prospects of early flight this morning were of the remotest. Local prophets fore- casted the possibility of relative calm after two o'clock in the afternoon, more especially if rain intervened. Obviously the only thing to do was to sit down and wait patiently. Most of the spectators thought it time to go home, but those who elected to stay were entertained by free admission to the field in the vicinity of the sheds, so that they could at least get a glimpse of the machines they had come forth to see. In the face of the black flag and half a gale it was, perhaps, foolish of them to have been so speculative as to pay for admission. The public are hardly yet educated to flight meetings, naturally, and the Committee were well advised to extend some special privileges to those who had supported the meeting, in spite of" the bad flying prospects, especially in view of the fact that so few of the aviators had managed to fly up to date. It was at least interesting for the public to have the chance of seeing the machines on exhibition. Some of the competitors ran their engines in honour of the occasion, and Latham made a dynamometer test of his propeller by hitching on a rope to his machine and anchoring it to a post of his shed. This enabled the pull or tractive effort to be measured direct by means of a spring-balance inserted in the rope. Only one test was made, and the reading on the balance was 120 kilogs., or 265 lbs. Assuming that the engine developed 50-h.p., this would be equivalent to 5-3 lbs. pull per h.p. Two o'clock came and passed without rain, beyond just a spot or two, but the wind, so far from abating, persisted with increased vigour, some of the gusts forcing the gauge momentarily up to nearly fifty miles an hour. A patient public continued to parade the field in a forlorn hope of the calm which came not. The Last Days. Friday's programme included the contests for the passenger carry- ing prize, the " Ashley " prize for British aviators, and the all-British prize, while the competitions for the Daily Sketch prize for speed and the Manchester Guardian Cup for the slowest circuit were continued,- and on Saturday the proceedings were to be the same, except that the altitude prize took the place of the speed competition. In the " Ashley " competition the prizes were to be awarded to the British aviators, .flying any machines, who accomplished the greatest distances, while for the all-British prize the machine had to be all-British, and the winner would be the one traversing the longest distance (not less than ioo yards) without touching the ground. Measurement of the Course. As the result of advices from Paris, the measurement of the course was changed from the centre line to the inner line, so that the lap distance is now 3,496 yards. This change reduced the speeds initially given out, and also the distances for the flights on Monday, but all the figures given in our table are in accordance with the corrected measurements. DONCASTER MEETING. The Opening Day. FRIDAY of last week, which had been announced as the opening day of the Doncastcr meeting, provided little excitement, for although several machines had arrived no attempt was made to fly. All that was done in the way of a public performance was the running of the Cody machine along the ground and posing of the others before the camera, and this provided the only entertainment of the afternoon. Three Bleriot monoplanes were brought out to be photographed, and on lining up were joined by the Windham monoplane. Then the old standing joke about "smashing the camera " was reversed, as just at the moment when shutters clicked, Mr. Windham was gently prepi- pitated to the ground, the main frame of his machine snapping about DONCASTER FLYING WEEK.—An incident. M. Roger Sommer, on his Farman biplane, flying over M. Molon's machine, which had been smashed, during the competition for the Bradford Cup. 667
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