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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0590.PDF
AIR EDDIES. Till; Caudron works at Crotoy have got more on hand than they can comfortably tackle. Besides their French orders—and they have been receiving quite a lot of attention from the French Military authorities of late—a very appreciable amount of business is coming frofiJ England. Just recently machines have been supplied to a customer in Scotland, to Pereival at Brooklands, and then there is one, a hydro-biplane, coming along for Grahame-White. No doubt the performance by Guillaux in the Aerial Derby, and the good impression it left behind, will help matters along still further. • • • Then, of course, we might lake into consideration that there is a persistent rumour around that the Caudron Brothers have got their minds set on capturing the world's speed record, that they have a machine nearly ready if not quite, and that they can just carry it ofi when they choo <•. » • • I have had a letter from Frank Champion outlining what's been doing lately out at Long Beach, California, and sending his best icgards to his many friends in England. He says, " I have a brace for my leg now, and can get around pretty well, only it makes my knee rather sore and I Mill have to ufe crutches occasionally to ease it (it will be remembered that Champion has been laid up and prevented from flying for several months ihrough an accidental gun shot wound in hid leg). Had a little spin la-it Sunday, June 2nd. A fellow that was giving a two days' exhibition here, Frank Stites by name, fell and broke himself up pretty badly, and they came along to me and wanted me to finish the contract. " My old machine was out in the hangar at the Dominguez field, where the had been for five months, ever since I was shot. They didn't Come to ask me to help them out until seven o'clock on Saturday evening. Gee ! but I had to hustle, as I had only eighteen hours to prepare, and ten of those were night time. The machine was all in bits. The magneto was in Los Angeles and no one knew where it was excepting Remington (Remington has partnered Champion in his flying) and he was seventy miles away. Cot him on long distance line and dug up its hiding place. Had no mechanic, so collected together a few of the cubs to help me to put her together. Tried the engine and she ran fine, so got aboard and without any ptclituinaries started for Long Beach. • • • " But it was good to get into the air again. ' Stunted ' all round the front at Long Beach, and got back to the aerodrome again inside of half an hour. "Better send me over a new 50 h.p. Bleriot for the American Circuit, and I will get the $15,000." able to publish this week will come as quite a shock to tho-e who have been reckoning that something like finality of design ha, been reached in aeroplanes of the single-deck type. Its immense size and marked originality were the chiefcharacterist.es of his first biplane. iS Cody himself the same remark almost appl.es-he is no l.gh weight, and there is certainly no one in the aviation profession hat can boast of so original a personality as his His new monoplane is no exception to the rule. It is all originality from propeller boss to the tip of the tail. As for its size, just glance over the photo graphs we print. Out of fairness to Ewen I must correct my remark in last week's notes that he has occasional lapses of memory. It is really not true His memory is as good now as ever it was. The fact is that the whole thing was caused by a little practical joke in the domestic circle. Neither Ewen nor myself got to know of it until after my remark had appeared in print. Then, of course, we fully understood. • • • Compton Paterson, of the African Aviation Syndicate, is going to fly at Durban during July. Things with them, so I hear from a friend of mine in S.A., are going very well indeed. Naturally it is to the Government they are looking for future business. In this respect, Capt. Livingston, the manager of the Syndicate, is just the man to get there, for if there is anything he is keener on than aviation it is soldiering, and we can leave it to him to suggett as to how the two things can be most advantageously combined. • • • Interest in things aviatic seems to be well on the increase in Ireland. Apart from the early pioneer work of Mr. Harry Ferguson and Miss Lilian Bland, and of course the temporary enthusiasm over the Leopardstown Meeting in 1910, nothing very exceptional had taken place until the recent flights by Corbett Wilson and Vivian Hewitt. Ireland soon ought to see quite a deal of flying, for Mr. M. Granville Loder has taken up the sole agency for Blackburn monoplanes, and as soon as he has established a school of aviation he intends to tour over the whole of the island, visiting all the main cities and giving free exhibition flights for the purpose of arousing a keener interest in the sport. • • • A convenient flying ground has been secured at Baldoyle, and it is proposed to equip the school with two Blackburn machines, one 50-h.p. Gnome single-seater, and a two-seater instruction machine fitted with a 5o-8oh.p. Green. It is this latter machine on which Mr. Loder intends to carry out his tour. Mr. Hubert O'Connor, a well-known barrister-at-law, is at present engaged upon preparing the tour. He has already arranged for exhibition flights to take placeat Maryborough, Wateiford, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, London derry, Tipperary, Cork, Ennis, Ballinasloe, Bundoran, Belfast, Clonmel, Tralee, Athenry, Ballinrobe, and Enniskillen. Two out of the three 50-Gnome-Avro biplanes ordered for the War Office have been safely delivered at Farnborough. The third is completed by now and will go through its preliminary tests at Manchester during the week-end, preparatory to it being flown direct from there to Farnborough. Lieut. Wilfrid Parke, R.N., will do all the necessary piloting, and I believe that he intends to take another pilot with him so that the efficiency of the Avro dual control can be put to practical test during an extended cross-country flight. • • • Some very interesting points reach us in connection with the tests which the two machines already delivered have gone through. The minimum speed permissible was 38 m.p.h. The machines delivered did 61. The climbing speed was to be in excess of 70 ft. per minute. The Avro did 440 ft. per minute—a very remarkable performance indeed, when one comes to consider that the engines are of only 50-h.p. In the sand test the wings had to be loaded up with twice their normal load of sand. The machines in question were loaded up with three times their normal load. Then one of the main supporting wires was cut, without making the slightest difference to the machine. Monoplane design has been settling down to such well defined lines of late that the particulars of the new Cody monoplane we are Writing of Ireland brings back painful recollections of the sad disappearance of Leslie Allen. During the past week leave has obtained in the Probate Division of the Law Courts to presume his death as on April 18th. Poor Allen's estate is believed to amount to about ^7,000. The amount left over from the various legacies that he left is to be devoted to a fund for the benefit of his infant daughter. • • . The stained glass window which is to be erected to the memory of the late Hon. C. S. Rolls and Mr. Cecil Grace, in All Saints Church, Eastchurch, is to be unveiled by the Archbishop of Canterbury on Friday, July 26th. It has been designed by Mr. Karl Parsons, and those in London who would like to view it before it is taken down to Eastchurch can do so on Wednesday, July 3rd at the premises of Messrs. Lowndes and Drury in the Munster Road, Fulham. J lying from Paris to London is getting quite a common occurrence these days. Two pilots, both of them carrying passengers, flew over ft week. One was B. C. Hucks, who brought over Mr. Harold Barlow on a new two-seater Bleiiot, and the other was Guillaux who came over with Mr. A. M. Ramsay as passenger on the new 60 h.p. Anzam-Caudron biplane, which Ewen is using in his tour up north m connection with the Daily Mail. Details of Hucks trip, from the pen of the pilot himself, will be found else where in this issue. 590
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