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Aviation History
1910
1910 - 0579.PDF
much of a show with the very early cars, and it was never particularly safe to have an accident even with a motor car, although, to hear some people talk, one might think that flying was the only kind of experience attended with any sort of danger at all. Just at the present time it happens that flying is rather difficult, and calls for a special sort of temperament that makes it look as if a good pilot is born and not made. What is true of to-day will not necessarily be true of to-morrow, however, and we see no reason why we should not at any rate confidently hope for the time when ordinary flying will be a more or less commonplace accomplishment. There is a great deal in the confidence that is born of custom, and in a very few months we shall see quite a number of pilots doing their corkscrew turns at the mark-posts with the grace and ease of which Morane alone was master at the Bournemouth Meeting. At Blackpool no one thought of such corner work. Then we suggest that the prizes should be offered hourly, with, if possible, a premium in windy weather to advocate the encourage ment of a useful risk. The practical value of flying must, after all, be ultimately gauged by its indifference to climatic conditions. What should we think of the boat as a means of transport if we could only cross the Channel in a dead calm ? What we want to find out at these meetings is how much flying can be done in a week of average weather. Bournemouth constituted an exceptionally fine week for England, and there was far less flying than there ought to have been. On the first bad morning, which was Saturday, one of the least experienced of all the pilots (Loraine) promptly flew to the Isle of Wight. It may have been somewhat of a hazardous attempt for him, but that is not the point—he got there. And if he did that then we contend that there was never an hour of the meeting that some one or other of the competitors might not have been reasonably expected to circle the track. TECHNICALITIES FROM THE BOURNEMOUTH MEETING. To those who have followed the Bournemouth Meeting with an interest in the technicalities of flying, the event has been a brilliant triumph for the Bleriot monoplane and the Gnome engine. Every one juet now seems to want that particular combination, because it is the best thing in sight; but without wishing in any way to detract from the splendid performances of this machine, we would just like to remind our readers that, in similar manner, the majority of those who went to Blackpool last year came to the conclusion that it was no use trying to fly unless they possessed a Farman biplane. Certainly the Gnome engine showed up very well at both meetings, but it is not necessarily the only type in the world that is capable of giving satisfactory results, and we think it a pity if unsuccessful pilots allow themselves to be too despondent about the motors and the biplanes that have failed to stand up to the Bleriot and Gnome combination at Bournemouth. Probably Grahame-White, Dickson, and Grace got about as much out of their respective machines as the biplanes of those types are capable of giving, but it remains to be seen whether a biplane cannot be constructed in the future to compete with a monoplane even in speed. In many ways the monoplane is a nicer sort of type. It looks well in the air, not that that has much to do with it, and the pilot is less boxed up in it, which is an advantage in the event of alighting on water. Seeing Morane or Drexel on their Bleriots is naturally to want a machine of the same kind, but it is ill advised to suppose that the constructive genius of our best builders, including Bhfriot himself, may not soon improve on that machine, excellent as it is to-day. After all, the Wright type biplane has not yet been surpassed for efficiency, and by the time we come to the end of our possibilities of speed from increased engine power we shall neces sarily have to look to increased efficiency as the next high road to further advance. Of the Gnome engine itself there are some useful lessons to be learned, not the least of which is the value of cleanliness and good workmanship in the operation of mechanical appliances. First and last the Gnome engine works at all because it is well made; it continues to work because it is kept clean. When it gets dirty it gets hot, and being an air cooled engine it has a practically unlimited capacity for getting very hot indeed. It does not ordinarily get more than warm, in fact the cooling of the Gnome engine is very remarkable. Its rotation in the air has doubtless much to do with it, but we imagine that a still more important factor is its comparatively low efficiency as expressed by the ratio of horse-power to cylinder capacity. The cylinder capacity of the Gnome engine is very nearly twice as much per horse-power as the best motor car engine of the present day, and it would be instructive to know how far this efficiency could be increased without danger. It is, comparatively speaking, a slow- speed engine, which adapts it to the direct driving of large propellers, and the radial arrangement of the cylinders effects a considerable saving of space and weight that does much to compensate for the extent of their cubic capacity. The fuel consumption of these engines is somewhere about 44 galk>ns of petrol an hour, which works out at about '9 pint per horse-power-hour for a continuous development of 40-h. p., which is about their useful capacity in the estimation of some of the pilots who use them. In addition to the fuel the cylinders also consume about 2 gallons of castor oil per hour as lubricant, so that it is not altogether difficult to appreciate that they should have a tendency to gum up a little after long use. With castor oil at 4*. 6d. per gallon and petrol at is. 3d., the cost per mile at 35 miles an hour is about 50?. If the cost is proportional to the useful load this is equivalent to 5^. $d. per ton-mile for a machine of equal efficiency, which affords some indication! of why it is that efficiency is a factor that should not be overlooked, and why it is also that speed, being the chief factor wherein flight sur passes all other modes of transport, must necessarily be encouraged. In order to clean the Gnome engine it is always taken down from the machine and placed horizonally on a stool that suggests one of those Turkish coffee tables turned upside down. In this position all the cylinders are accessible, and the inlet-valves and pistons are taken out through the cylinder-heads and thoroughly washed in paraffin, so that every trace of oil is removed from the working parts of the valves. It seems to be a good plan to have the inside and outside of the Gnome engine not only clean but bright, in order ' Flight" Copyright. route." Robert Loraine ("Tones") on his Henry Farman, ready, with lifebelt on, for his sea flight to Alum Bay—and "en Note the lady "snappers." 577
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