FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0511.PDF
TUNE IO. IUI I/O GUT PARIS-ROME.—"Beaumont" (Lieut. Conneau) arriving at the Rome Aerodrome. On the following day Garros continued his journey, and succeeded in finally reaching Rome, after making a stop at Castiglione, close l>y Grossetto, for petrol. Vidart also left Nice on his Deperdussin monoplane, flying well, and continued on to Genoa and Pisa, hoping to complete the journey to Rome the same clay, but as a result of the damage done in a faulty landing at Cecina, about 20 kiloms. from Pisa, he was obliged to postpone his departure for Rome. Kim- merling, having received a new Sommer monoplane, started from Brignoles, and managed to get as far as Cabasse (Var), where the machine capsized. Bathiat continued as far as Lyon ; Lieut. Lucca went on from Avignon to Hyeres, and Lieut. Clavenad to Griseu. On the 2nd inst. no change took place in regard to the position of the actual competitors, but in trying to start from Hyeres Lieut. Lucca's machine fell from a good height, the pilot and his passenger being badly hurt. On Saturday Frey continued from Pisa and reached Rome, whilst on Monday Vidart was also able to continue his journey ® ® THE ZIMMERMANN BALLAST GAINER FOR AIRSHIPS. CONSIDERING how much is done to reduce weight in every corner of the mechanical side of aviation, the idea of an apparatus for making weight may, to the uninitiated, seem rather extraordinary. Anyone who has studied the problem of airships, however, will have realised that a serious difficulty in aerial navigation is intro duced by the constant loss of ballast that takes place through the consumption of petrol. It is a very common error to overlook the weight of fuel in matters of this sort, as may readily be realised by making a rough estimate of amounts. For instance, a 100-h.p. engine using o-6 pint of petrol per h.p. per hour will consume j\ gals, an hour, and if working at full load for four hours will have used 30 gals. Roughly speaking this will amount to a loss of weight of 210 lbs., which is obviously a very serious item to be contended with by those in charge of the dirigible. Various means have been proposed for compensating for this loss of weight, but perhaps the most interesting is that associated with the apparatus illustrated herewith. This is a device, built by the Motor Radiator Co., of Park Side, Coventry, the well-known makers of the Zimmermann radiator, for condensing the exhaust, and it is claimed that as much as 97 per cent, of the weight of the fuel can thus be recovered in water. In the proper combustion of a hydrocarbon, like petrol, in air, the principal product of the exhaust is the water formed by the chemical com bination of the hydrogen in the fuel and the oxygen in the air. Needless to say, the water is emitted as vapour in the heat of the exhaust and the object of the Zimmermann ballast gainer is to trap the water by condensing the vapour before it is discharged into the atmosphere. The apparatus is composed of corrugated tubes of flattened section for the greater part of their length. They are set edge on to the air and the currents that flow between them are still further broken up by numerous fine fins arranged in the interstices between the tubes; the tubes terminate in a box tank, which receives the liquid of condensation. The dimensions of the ballast gainer illustrated,which is for a 40-h.p. engine, are 54 inches in height and reach Rome. All the rest of the oiiginal competitors had by this time abandoned the race. Vedrines, however, on Tuesday morning was on the warpath, and made a start in an endeavour to catch up the other competitors and take part in the final stage to Turin. He hoped to fly from Paris to Rome in one day. These hopes were doomed to speedy disappointment. Leaving Buc at 3.35 a.m. he reached Macon at 9.15, having stopped on the way at Dijon. In landing, however, the machine capsized, and was so badly smashed that Vedrines decided not to continue. The net result of the race from Paris to Rome is therefore: 1. "Beaumont" (Bloriot monoplane), 82 hrs. 5 mins. ; 2. Garros (Bleriot monoplane), 106 hrs. 16 mins. ; 3. Frey (Morane mono plane), 132 hrs. 41 mins; Vidart (Deperdussin monoplane), 171 hrs. 13 mins. The amounts won to this point are " Beaumont," IC9.0O0 frs. ; Garros, 45,000 frs. ; Frey, 23,000 frs. ; Vidart, 20,000 frs. by 18 inches wide, excluding theexternal down - comer tubes, which measure ten inches across. The weight is 97 lbs., and the guaranteed mini mum of ballast re covery is 90 per cent., which on the preceding basis would b e equivalent to 21 lbs. per hour. It is, of course, impor tant to observe that this high percentage recovery is in reality due to the fact that the oxygen in the chemical composition of the water has been supplied from the atmosphere and is not, there fore, reckoned in the original weight. It is, of course, obvious that if the possible recovery of ballast reaches such a high percentage the problem almost solely resolves itself into making the apparatus as light as possible without detracting trom its efficiency. 513
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
