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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0201.PDF
Curves No. i and 2 show the corrections that had to be applied to the compasses fitted into two Valkyrie machines. Although practically identical, the deviation is considerably different, in one case being all westerly and in the other all easterly. The maximum deviation in both cases has been reduced to about 2°. Curves No. 3 and 4 show the deviation in two compasses fitted to 50-h.p. Bleriot machines. The deviation in each case is both easterly and westerly; the maximum deviation in No. 3, however, is nearly 40, whilst in No. 4 it is only 1.5°. To look at the machines externally, curves Nos. 1 and 2 should have been identical, as also should Nos. 3 and 4. The conclusion to be drawn is that a compass cannot be taken off one machine and put on another exactly similar one without readjustment. To use these curves all that is necessary is to first obtain from the map the correct magnetic course it is desired to steer. Supposing we are dealing with machine No. 4, and we wish to steer a course of say 400; at 400 the deviation is i° easterlv, subtracting giving us the compass course as 390. If, on the other hand, we were working with machine A, which has been " swung," but has been left unadjusted, and we wished to steer the same course, the deviation at 400 is 210 westerly, which has to be added = 400 + 21 =61 compass course. Now supposing that in flying the machine's head swings ® ® The Clift Compass. IN the inscription appended to the illustrations of the Clift compass which appeared in our last issue reference was made to an adjustable lubber point. This referred to the movable pointer, attached to the compass dial, which Mr. Clift prefers to call a course pointer. It should be noted that the Clift compass has no adjustable lubber mark as might perhaps be imagined by a cursory glance at the sketch which appeared last week. Mr. Hewitt has a Rough Landing. ON Saturday last Mr. Vivian Hewitt started on a flight with his Gnome-BIeriot from the Foryd Aerodrome, Abergele but when only about 100 feet up the petrol pipe broke and the engine stopped. He was just leaving the aerodrome at the time and had no chance to turn into it. The machine did a tail slide, then pancaked and after wards started gliding. By that time he was only about 30 feet up and after hitting a ditch and bouncing along frightfully uneven ground the machine pulled up at the edge of another ditch. Fortunately nothing was broken, but it was necessary to dismantle the machine to get it back to the aerodrome. Good Flights by Mr. Gnosspellius. HAVING overcome the trouble with his hydro-monoplane, Mr. Gnosspellius made a very good flight of about two miles over Lake Windermere on the 21st ult. Rudyard Kipling Again Prophesies. IN the March issue of the London Magazine, Mr. Rudyard Kipling again adopts the role of prophet, and attempts to portray, in his usual vivid manner, what he imagines will be taking place in A.D. 2150. While the story, of which this forms the first part, promises to be full of human emotion, with all its thrills, there will also be a strong scientific interest. Aircraft, of course, play a large part, and are depicted as being very powerful; in fact, the world is then entirely dominated by ships of the air. The aeroplanes of to-day are looked upon as but for children. A Naval Aviation Station lat Dover. IF our army aviators are only to indulge in cross-country Mights between Salisbury and Aldershot, there is a possibility that the slowly growing number of naval flyers may be restricted to getting their cross-country practice between Eastchurch and Dover, as some hangars are being put up at the latter station for the naval officers training at Eastchurch. The Lake 'Windermere Fuss. PRESIDED over by Sir Wm. Anson, M.P., a meeting of Members of Parliament and others interested in the preservation of the natural beauty of Lake Windermere met at the House of Commons on the 20th ult. After some discussion, in the course of which it was suggested that many visitors were driven away from the district by the hydroplanes, it was decided to ask the Home Secretary to make regulations under the Aerial Regulation Act, 1911. io°oftits course, making it bear by compass 510 instead of 6i°, the actual correct magnetic course flow then becomes only 340, or an actual difference of 2;0 between course flown and the desired course, a very serious matter, showing the danger of using an unadj usted compass, even if the deviation is known. The writer came across a rather curious case in which two small steel tubes were replaced by two exactly similar ones in a portion of a machine; nothing else was altered, the tubes were the same length and thickness, and yet they put the compass many degrees wrong. The only explanation seems to be that either one or both sets of the tubes were hard and had become magnetised. On replacing the new sets the poles were inverted and thus produced this result. It must not be overlooked that in speaking of good and bad machines in the preceding paragraphs, reference is only being made to their qualities as far as ease of compass adjustment is concerned. This, of course, has no connection with their flying abilities. This article only attempts to deal with the fringe of the subject in a very elementary way, but if it leads aviators, manufacturers and their mechanics to understand how. im portant it is that no alterations in an aeroplane should taki- place after a compass is adjusted, it will have fulfilled its ® ® An Artistic BWrlot Publication. VERY delightfully got up, with all the charm of distinctly French design, is a booklet entitled " Bleriot Aeronautics, 1912," just to hand from Mr. Chereau, the British representative of M. Louis Bleriot, at Belfast Chambers, 156, Regent Street, London, W. Although it is a catalogue it contains a lot of information useful to those seeking to take up aviation, and it is illustrated by a large number of splendid photographs. Mr. Gordon Bell standing in front cf one of the R.E.P. monoplanes en which he has been making such splendid flights during the past few weeks over Buc and the surrounding country. I
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