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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0304.PDF
fyGHT] Alteration of Supporting Surface. A sailing vessel has its sails so arranged that their area may be increased or reduced at will in order to suit the strength of the wind that may be blowing. The necessary supporting surface of a flying machine depends on its speed of propulsion, less surface being required when travelling fast through the air than when moving comparatively slowly. If some means can be devised for increasing and reducing the supporting surface, aero planes will be given a wider range of speed than if dependent on a fixed area of aeroplane surface. Floats for Support on Water. If a satisfactory arrangement of floats could be devised, aeroplanes would at once be provided with plentiful starting and landing places. Every pond and river would become an aerodrome ! The difficulties in the way of the satisfactory solution of this problem appear to be many. The floats must be of such a character that the necessary speed through the water may be obtained to enable the machine to attain flight, but this should be quite possible, because the amount of immersion will decrease as the speed increases. The resistance to propulsion should not thererore become prohibitive. If the floats do not make a sufficiently extended base, the floating aeroplane will be liable to capsize, and in an arm of the sea or harbour, where waves from a passing steamer may cause the floating aeroplane to roll, the extended planes may dip in the waves which would put them to sufficient strain to cause a general wreck. Launching and Boarding Apparatus. A tremendous field is open to the experimenter in devising a convenient means for enabling an aeroplane to be launched from and subsequently be taken on board a ship at sea. It is, perhaps, needless to point out that such facilities would be of incalculable value for the Navy, and even the mercantile marine would find plenty of use for such a speedy means of communication with the shore. APRIL 23, 1910. The dirigible balloon of to-day can carry the weight of many people besides the necessary fuel for propelling the vessel to a considerable distance. It would there fore be possible for the millionaire to travel in comfort in an enclosed compartment from London to the Riviera through the atmosphere on a calm day, without having to submit to the vibration of the train or the pitching of the steamboat. Hitherto no millionaire has yet been found to inaugurate this luxurious means of transit, and the ordinarily rich man is not rich enough to do so. There must be many people, however, who tour in motor cars, and who would welcome the delightful change from the dusty roads to the sparkling air, where there are no corners to be turned nor new metal to be ground over, and I can see no reason why in the near future, the more enterprising of the motorists should not abandon the macadam for the ether, by the adoption of the aeroplane. Do not think that we have arrived at anything like finality when only half-a-dozen men in England have flown their five miles or so. These are only the pioneers, like the men who first attempted the feat of motoring from London to Brighton, some of whom only succeeded in negotiating Westminster Bridge. The aeroplane may not improve at the same rate as the motor car improved, but in the end it will outstrip it. I am even so convinced of the inevitable triumph of the aerial car, that I would not invest my savings in railways because of the future shrinkage of the passenger receipts when every traveller who is in a hurry will travel direct to his destination, without having to wriggle his way through all sorts of towns and villages he has no desire to see, simply because both rail and road go that way and no- other. It rests with the pioneers of flight in Britain, to so develop the aeroplane and the dirigible balloon, that they may be brought within the sphere of general practice, even as the motor car builders of England have brought their cars up to the level, and in some cases beyond the standard, of those in the country of the motor car's birth. We shall then have one more triumph to add to an already splendid list of great improvements. A STRANGE CRAFT IN THE HARBOUR AT MONACO LAST WEEK.-This novel aero-hydroplane is fitted with a 50-h,p. 3-cyl. Anzani motor. 302
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