FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0521.PDF
attached to the machine, so that the speed can be read at any moment in feet per sec. VVnen the bomb leaves the tube, it will obviously be possessed of two velocities, namely, the velocity due to gravity, and the velocity of the machine. If' is the time in sees, taken to fall through a height, /; in ft. f t?~ ~ & •'• f — i y/k- If •< is the reading of the anemometer, i-ivA is the horizontal distance travelled by the bomb before reaching the earth. Then, if 8 be the angle, DAB, such that __ \x*/h _ x Un e — ^ — T~/T J an^ if, at the moment when the telescope in this position is p >inting at any body on the earth, the bomb is released down the vertical tube, the bomb will hit the bodv. It is obvious that from a great height the field of view from the telescope is very large, and, therefore, in order to obtain greater accuracy, the telescope will have to be made on the pin-hole system. If the army is marching at 4 m.p.h., the error in not allowing for this at a height of 10,000 ft. will only be a matter of 200 ft. or so ; cJjatjs to say, less than the distance occupied by a company, and if the " bomb-dropper" aims correctly at the front of the troops, he is sure to hit them somewhere. but violent currents of air are produced, which are sufficient to knock down most buildings, and would therefore be capable of bringing down an aeroplane ; but were, on the other hand, shrapnel shell used, the falling shrapnel would do as much damage on land as they would to the aeroplane. The details of the gun employed are a matter for the gun-maker, but it may as well be mentioned that any gun which is not vertical in its normal position would be entirely useless. The aeroplane could not keep up any prolonged night attack, although it might possibly do a great deal ol instantaneous damage. By flying at a great height it could reach the spot required without being heard, then plane down, and when at close quarters discharge a large number of bombs, moving off again in the confusion. The pilot would have 10 be careful, however, to keep outside the radius of the damage he causes. There now remains only one sphere of action in which the almost obsolete, for military purposes, dirigible has an advantage over the aeroplane ; that is, in the weight it can carry. When a post of strategic importance is in a state of siege, one- and-a-half tons of food is by no means to be despised, and a Now it may seem hard lines on the aviator to have to wander about the air for half an hour or so, continually squinting down a 'telescope, with the hope of seeing something at the other end of it; but in practice armies always march along roads, and with a little skill a pilot could get vertically above a road, and follow it until he meets the opposing army. To further simplify this system, the barometer could be graduated on the one side to read h, and on the other to read ,, , and the 4 v/i quadrant could be graduated to read tan 6 instead of 9, the division being performed by a slide-rule. Opposing aeroplanes must naturally expect hostile intentions on the part of each other, and must therefore be prepared. On these occasions the ordinary rifle, although perhaps of slightly greater calibre than usual, would be a most effective weapon, and in the case of an aeroplane meeting a dirigible, a miniature shell would be used instead of ball cartridge, which on percussion would burn slowly, and thus set light to the hydrogen. The shell used from land against the aeroplane would probably be lyddite. In the case of lyddite, the shell is blown to pieces on explosion, •950 •sso •7S0 «S0 •550 •450 CD c 1 L. „.«.,—. 1 COBVl *HOWINiS VMJIATlONft • N ran 8 POB coRHtSPONriNo VARIATIONS OF- L. X Bt'NO 1 Zeppelin, flying at a great h:ight, could drop this amount by means of a parachute. Even then the dirigible is in a position of great danger, and there is always the chance that the food might fall into the enemy's lines. For the military aeroplane, as indeed for any type of aeroplane, safety is the first essential. Speed is a necessity. The rest will depend on the work required to be got out of the machine; for instance, the dispatch carrier will be a single-seater, the scouting machine a double-seater, and so on. The installation of wireless telegraphy, also, although not at present essential, would greatly increase the radius of action of the scouting machine. As has been the case with every other mechanical contrivance that has yet been invented, the world is divided into four parts in regard to the aeroplane. Fifty per cent, do not believe in the aeroplane for peace or war ; 24 A per cent, believe that it will bring about eternal peace; the same amount believe that it will bring about eternal war. The rest know that it will follow the general rule, and that although the aeroplane will further complicate warfare, it can have no vital effect on its existence. *' THE AEROPLANE, AN ELEMRNTARY TEXT-BOOK OK THE PRINCIPLES OF DYNAMIC FLIGHT." By T. O'B. Hubbard, J. H. Ledeboer, B.A., and C. C. Turner. Published by Longmans Green at 2s. bd. Those who want a simple little text-book of elementary aero dynamics will probably find what they require in a small primer published under the joint authorship of three very active students of aerodynamics. The first chapter of the book deals with the properties of air and it is certainly an excellent thing to thus give .the beginner a proper notion of the medium in which flight takes place. The second chapter deals with the resistance ot the air and the inclined plane, and the third chapter appropriately follows on with a discussion on the flow of air, stream line bodies and cambered planes. This takes the reader up to the practical side of the science, Chapter 4 being devoted to gliding and the theory of the aeroplane, which is followed by chapters on stability, steering and propulsion. The final chapters are notes on aerial navigation and motors. It is a well arranged little book, is well printed, has a few appropriate sketches and not more mathematics than is absolutely necessary. 523 C 2
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
