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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0060.PDF
t inuously. This is a feature which ought to have more attention in the training of pupils. On Friday, Ewen had the " 28 Dep." out, which has been fitted •with a new cylinder, and, notwithstanding the fog, made a very good flight over the surrounding country, at a height of 400 ft., finishing with a beautiful vol plant! right up to the sheds. Lawford, a new pupil, had his first rolling practice on Saturday, when he showed great aptitude, making a straight line at his first try. On Sunday the pupils had the aerodrome to themselves, and every •advantage was taken of the opportunity throughout the whole day. Lawford and Baumann greatly improved in their rolling, both doing straight lines with the tail nicely up. Mon. Dubois excelled himself in making a very fine straight flight, this being only his third lesson. In the evening the wind increased to 10-14 miles, in which W. T. Warren made two flights showing perfect control of the Bleriot. Salisbury Plain. Air Battalion.—In spite of the fog which hung over the ground •on Wednesday of last week, a fair amount of flying was put in, Lieut. Manisty being first out on the Bristol extension biplane, Lieut. Barrington-Kennett, on a similar machine, flying at a height •of 1,000 feet. Capt. Fulton, Lieut. Reynolds and Lieut. Conner were also flying Bristols, and several times disappeared from sight in the fog. On Thursday the weather was fine and plenty of flying was witnessed by Capt. Fulton, Lieut. Barrington-Kennett and Lieut. Reynolds on their Bristol machines. Lieut. Conner was also up •on the Bleriot two-seater, while Lieut. Hynds took Lieut. Barrington- Kennett for a trip on the Breguet biplane. Mr. Cockburn had out his new biplane, on which Ca.pt. Fulton also made a short flight. The new Deperdussin monoplane, fitted with six-cylinder Anzani ei?gine arrived during the day, and work was at once commenced on ® ® GORDON BELL, who, as I mentioned recently, has joined the R.E.P. organisation in France in the capacity of demonstrator, seems to find Himself quite at home on his new mount. Just lately, on one of the European circuit type R.E.P. monoplanes, he has been carrying out long cross-country flights from Buc, passing over Saint Cyr, Villa- poublay, and Versailles. A young English pupil, E. B. C. Scholefield, who is only in his seventeenth year, is studying under him, and, according to his tutor, should not be very long obtaining his certificate. * • •. Friday of last week saw the trying out of Mr. Barber's new biplane " Viking I " at Hendon. The accuracy with which the original designs were prepared, and the carefulness with which they were followed at the hands of the Aeronautical Syndicate Works, is well demonstrated by the fact that not a single adjustment had to be made. Altogether Mr. Barber had his biplane in the air for about an hour, at times mounting to over 400 feet. At the same time Mr. Ridley Prentice, the manager of the Syndicate was carrying out a series of practice flights on the firm's light Green-engined machine, the difference between the speeds of the two machines being most marked. • • * Talking with Mr. Barber a few days ago, I learned that although the machine shows a speed of something in excess of 55 miles per hour, curiously enough, the rush of air seemed to him much less than he would have expected had he been travelling in his motor car at one-third of that speed. His own explanation of this singular feature is that not only does the scuttle front afford some degree of protection, but that the two tractors suck in the air, and so leave a •constant partial vacuum in the neighbourhood of the pilot's seat. • • • The action of the balancers, too, has altogether exceeded his anticipations, for on one occasion he unintentionally flew the whole length of the aerodrome in a straight line with the machine banked considerably, wondering the while what was happening. Finally he noticed that he had failed to return the balancers to their normal position, and, making the necessary adjustments, the biplane con tinued on a dead level keel. As he did not bring the vertical rudder into play the whole time, it certainly seems as though he has •devised a balancing system which, in its operation, does nof disturb the symmetrical distribution of head resistance. • • • Rumour has it that in all probability Huntingdon will soon have seen the last of its flying at the Portholme Aerodrome, for a report has been spread that the exploiters of that flying ground have decided not to renew their lease after its expiration in March. its erection. Friday was fine, Lieut. Fox getting into the air early on a Bristol biplane. The morning was taken up with the erection of Capt. Fulton's Deperdussin, which made a satisfactory trial flight with Mr. Bell at the helm later in the day. Lieut. Reynolds' two-seater Bristol monoplane fitted with a 50-h.p. Gnome engine has also arrived. Lieut. Hynds on the Breguet took Lieut. Barrington-Kennett for a sprint round the Mortimer Singer course. Lieut. Conner did some rolling on his Bleriot monoplane and Capt. Fulton and Lieut. Reynolds were using Bristols. No flying was possible on Saturday owing to the weather, but there was plenty t» do in the hangars. Sunday, although the wind was very treacherous, Lieut. Barrington-Kennett put up a good flight on the Bristol biplane. Bad weather precluded any flying on Monday or Tuesday. Bristol School.—On Tuesday, last week, it was somewhat windy and remous were plentiful. Jullerot made a trial circuit, followed by Lieut. Bower. Bendall made two short flights, and Fleming made one circuit on No. 66, taking Lieut. Murray as passenger. There was no flying next morning, but after lunch Fleming made a trial and then took Lieut. Murray, who afterwards made a good solo as did Lieut. Ashton. These two officers each made two solos and are progressing very rapidly. Fleming took Lieut. Brodigan, allowing him complete control of the levers. Mr. Smith-Barry made a very impressive flight, followed by Bendall, who did two solos in good style. Jullerot rounded off the day's work by taking Lieut. Marks for two flights. Fleming made a trial on Friday, afterwards carrying Lieuts. Ashton, Brodigan and Murray. In the afternoon, Fleming took Lieut. Brodigan, after having tested an army biplane for Lieut. Fox, prior to that officer flying it. Lieuts. Ashton and Murray made several flights during the day, and Bendall made a good circuit. Prier made a fine flight on the military monoplane. ® ® BB1ES. Lieut. Walter Lawrence, of the 7th Essex Regiment, who was recently reported in the daily press as intending tc cross the Channel with Miss Lottie Payne, one of the nuns appearing in " The Miracle " at Olympia, as passenger, has been for the past week at Filey, where he has been gaining experience on the Blackburn monoplane. By the time these lines appear in print he expects to be settled at Shoreham with one of the Blackburn school machines, which the firm has, in a very sportsmanlike manner, placed at his disposal, until he obtains delivery of the Blackburn two-seater for which he has placed an order. I hear that the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co., Ltd., un doubtedly the strongest and most enterprising British firm engaged in aeroplane construction, has registered at Somerset House its increase of capital from ^50,000 to ^100,000. The whole of this additional capital has been subscribed and paid up by the existing shareholders, Sir George White, Bart., Mr. Samuel White and Mr. G. Stanley White. Thus, with double its original capital at its disposal, the works which during the past twelve months have turned out nearly a hundred machines, will be enabled to treble their output. • • • Many are the notable people who from time to time avail them selves of the opportunity of experiencing the delights of airship voyages in Germany. On Wednesday of last week, Lady Eleanor G. Shelley, a sister of the late Hon. C. S. Rolls, made a trip in " Parseval VI," accompanied by her husband, Sir John Shelley, from Johannisthal to Berlin and back, a distance of 34 miles, in one hour and a quarter. This dirigible is the largest of the fine fleet owned by the Parseval Co., and during suitable weather makes a daily return trip to Berlin with its crew of four and its complement of twenty passengers. An incident during the voyage of Lady Shelley was the passing of the Siemens-Suckert dirigible, which had returned from a similar trip to the German metropolis. • • « Highly original was the plan adopted by Lieut. Parke, R.N., to keep his Viale-Avro on a horizontal keel during his flight in a dense fog from Brooklands to Abingdon as recorded in the Weybridge notes this week. Not having a clinometer with him, and being out of sight of terra firvia,he at first had no means of determining whether he was flying level until he hit on the plan of adjusting his elevator so that the needle of his revolution indicator remained constant at a certain engine speed. I hear that Sidney V. Sippe, who won his credentials last week, .intends to pilot the machine- back to Brooklands. " OISEAU BLEU." 60
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