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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0560.PDF
telegraph wires on the sea, and, therefore, even in the case of a fall from a small height into the water, which by displacement will very much minimise the force of the contact, the pilot and passengers should escape any accident, and be only the worse, or better, for a bath. " Once it is proved that hydro-aeroplaning is safe, and I am certain that it has only to be seen to be convincing on this point, flying over water will become a very popular sport. The delights of skimming over the Mediterranean I am quite unable to describe, but I can only bring it before your imagination by comparing it with the flight of a swallow. One can actually skim lightly on the top of the water at 25 or 30 miles an hour, using the machine as a hydro aeroplane, or one can fly at any height, and alight at will, in coasting trips. If a small cape or promontory is encountered it simply means rising to a few hundred feet, and coming down to the water at a lower level on the other side. "From the naval point of view, after the meeting at Monaco, there is no room for doubt as to the importance of such machines. Wireless telegraphy is, of course, of the greatest service in the despatch and receipt of news, but in the ordinary battleship the wireless operator is dependent on an outlook from a very limited height. The hydro-aeroplane is able to go up to a height of thousands of feet, and alighting on the water close to the ship this same wireless operator will receive news of what is in sight, within a radius as far as the human eye, aided with the very best glasses, can see. I have no hesitation in saying that the Dreadnought without an aeroplane will certainly be beaten by the Dreadnought with an aeroplane. When I first said this, years ago, my idea was that the aeroplane would drop on the water by the side of the ship, the pilot and motor being rescued, but the aeroplane being probably damaged. Now, however, we have in the hydro-aeroplane, not merely an idea, but an established fact. There is, of course, much to be done before a machine will land on a six-foot wave, but since the meeting at Monaco, although I have crossed the Channel many times, I have never crossed it when, in my opinion, it would have been impossible for a good pilot, on a good machine, to alight on the sea. From the military point of view, bomb dropping from the aeroplane, whilst causing great discomfort in the enemy's camp, has not yet been proved very efficient I believe, on account of the difficulty of getting a. bomb which will do sufficient damage. My impression is, how ever, that a bomb dropped on the deck of a battleship will be a very different matter. This can be done to-day ; and in case of war (and it must be remembered that we are maintaining Dreadnoughts and a huge fleet especially for war) we must be ready not only to act on the offensive, but the defensive. Our huge naval expenditure is m danger unless we pay what may be called the small extra amount for insurance. " It seems to me that we must make the ship to fit the hydro aeroplane. It is, I believe, the general opinion of authorities on the subject, that with each fleet there will have to be, in the very near future, a special ship or ships devoted entirely to aerial machines. Once this is decided they can be built with special slips, with enormous hatchways, and so on. Quite apart from the question of hatchways, or ordinary constructional difficulties, I can hardly imagine an aeroplane being in use on a battleship in case of war when the firing is in action. " We may, of course, indeed we certainly shall, come to aeroplanes which may quite easily carry guns sufficiently large to be of great service, but I have always refrained from prophecy as regards aviation, and what we have to do at the moment is to make sufficient use of what we have. When it has proved itself, as the hydro aeroplane undoubtedly has, reconnaissance or scouting, whether from the military or naval point of view, is of such enormous value that we cannot possibly neglect the arm that will give us the enormous range of vision provided by the aeroplane and the hydroplane. " I believe I was asked to read this paper because I had seen everything at Monte Carlo, and flown on the leading hydro-aeroplane there. All I can say from the opinion I formed after that meeting is this :— " I. I would say to our naval authorities it is absolutely necessary to provide a large fleet of hydro-aeroplanes at once, using the most efficient machines we have at the moment, whatever the develop ments may be in the future. "2. To the sportsman I would say, take up the hydro-aeroplane as a pastime. He will find that skimming over the sea, and making coastal trips, will provide a most delightful sport. "3. To our constructors I would say, experiment in every way possible to obtain the most efficient floats, with the object of being able to alight, even in the roughest sea ; but as I previously said, I advise them to commence these experiments with the most efficient flying machine, as a separate point to the fitting of the floats." ® ® ® ® THE SECOND JUNE MEETING, HENDON. ALL day long last Saturday the wind was driving in strong gusts of from 20 to 25 m.p.h., but in spite of this a goodly crowd turned up at the aerodrome in the afternoon. An interesting programme had been arranged, but owing to the elements all events had to be declared off. Besides a cross-country race and a speed handicap, Mr. Robert Slack was to have started his aerial tour of England on behalf of the International Correspondence Schools. Mr. Slack has just received one of the latest type of Bleiiot monoplanes, and it was this machine he intended UpMHBH to use. Another event was to have been a competition for the first student of the I.C.S. aviation course, who flies one mile over British soil. Messrs. J. H. James and H. H. James, had hoped to take part in this event, but were unable to do so, not only because of the weather, but because of the rules of the Royal Aero Club, which preclude anybody from flying in public competitions unless they have obtained their pilot's certificate. Flying in any case, however, was out of the question, and how to hold the interest of the crowd must have been a regular puzzle for the aerodrome management. Daylight fireworks were sent up at intervals, and at last, to everyone's surprise, Louis Noel started off on the old Farman (No. 22). He did about five circuits under most trying circumstances, being almost beaten to earth again and again along the railway embankment, but he managed to keep the machine under perfect control. Grahame-White then made a couple of straights on the same machine—which, by the way, is in a very ragged condition, the fabric on the leading edge of the lower plane being torn away, and many holes being apparent in the planes. Then there was another long interval, broken by Verrier, who had the Maurice Farman brought out. He made a splendid flight with a passenger, flying rather high, it appearing to be much steadier up above, and finishing with one of his "variable speed" vol planes. Little else followed to pass the time away—except some more daylight fireworks and a band of Scotch pipers, who walked up and down in front of the enclosures—until 6 p.m. Then Louis Noel flew a circuit and a-half, but as it was none too pleasant he came down. Shortly after it was announced that the aviators had decided that the weather was too bad to do any more flying, so the meeting was declared closed. M. Pierre Verrier, who has been giving some fine exhibitions of the capabilities of the Maurice Farman biplane before a number of British military and naval officials at Hendon, in the pilot's seat of his machine. 56O
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