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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 0792.PDF
fyGHT unfortunate that such an interesting monoplane as the Handley Page should be disabled just when there is a chance of obtaining some reliable information as to iu action. Great claims are made for its air-worthiness, and indeed there is much evidence in favour of the crescent - shaped wing with the washed-out tips. Whether the designer's theory of its " stability " is true or not may be open to question, but when I hark back for a moment to the early experi ments of Jose Weiss I can hardly help feeling that some of the most interesting work ever done in this country has most unworthily been forgotten. Gordon England, who was associated with Weiss in those days, began his practical experience in the air by being pushed over a kind of precipice in a small Weiss glider •without any controls. Rushing down a slope of I in 3 the wind soon caught the little craft, and lifted it a clear 30 ft. into the air, after which it began to drift backwards, while still advancing through the wind. In the course of time, the man-bird settled lightly, away down in the valley. The longest glide ever accomplished in this way lasted 59 sees., the best of many attempts, which were made in the roughest as well as the finest weather. The Weiss craft, once properly balanced, always exhibited the utmost stability, and, according to England, it seemed impossible to make them side-slip. Models launched vertically by holding them by one wing-tip would immediately right themselves, and glide properly. Dead birds stiffened with wire would behave similarly, while live birds fitted with paper collars would fly piqui, and those fitted with reins to hold the head back took on the cabre habit. Here, then, is some early work that deserves due credit and atten tion now that the first essentials of aviation have been mastered. The prime characteristic of the Weiss apparatus is the crescent shape of the wings and their variable camber and incidence. Other machines with this peculiarity are the Etrich and the Handley Page, while the Dunne has a V-plan form and a different principle of variable camber. Of special interest in this connection, so it seems to me, is the possibility of reversing the usual order of warp, by raising the upturned wing-tip to force down the high wing in order to restore balance. An objectionable feature of the standard warp, which tends to become more pronounced with the expanded tips now becoming popular, is the drag it puts on the machine. If the speed of flight is much below the normal, warping the down wing might slew the machine into a nose-dive or promote a side-slip ; and this effect may be the cause of some reports by pilots, that their warps have on occasion ceased to be effective. In this connection, the question of momentum seems to me, at • fk 15- August 1QJ2. AVOOST 31, 191a. first sight, to be important as affecting the relative influence of drift. The mathematics of this sort of problem are apt to be a stumbling-block to quick thinking, but others may care to discuss whether there is or is not any inherent importance in speed relative to the earth. In a recent discussion I found myself at variance with others on the point, and in the long run it came to the question as to what is momentum. As a definition, from the aviator's point of view, I suggest " a force that forms a component with gravity." On this hypothesis, a machine that has no speed relative to the earth has no momentum, but there is quite a large number of people who say that it has. In any case it is very important to decide the question, because a machine without momentum, i.e., flying against a wind of its own speed is, according to my view of it, in a fair way to fall if the air could suddenly become calm. This is a particularly important aspect of the problem of turning into and out of the wind. Reverting to the subject of the reversed warp, the forcing down of the raised wing would transfer the extra resistance to that side, and if the warp acted only as a drag the slewing of the machine would increase the velocity of the lower wing-tip and thereby tend to restore equilibrium. Under present conditions, the'opposite effect is apt to occur in an emergency. Two machines finished their transport test to-day, the Maurice Farman and Busteed's Bristol monoplane, the latter being a very smart performance. Busteed also flew to the plough and had an amusing encounter with the haystacks in the next field while ascending. Harvest beer was consumed in great quantities at the Bell Inn the same evening, by way of compensation, and in conse quence. Sippe, taking the Hanriot to the plough made a perfect atterrisage, but the drag on the wheels at the last moment brought the machine gently over on to its nose. Both pilot and passenger, Col. Everitt, kept their seats, and very little damage was done to the machine. Among the other pilots who came out for practice, Gordon Bell, who has taken over Vedrines' British Deper- dussin, put up a very fine flight, followed by a spiral glide that rivalled the demonstrations of Prevost. Really, Bell is a pilot of the first order, for no machine seems to come amiss to him, and with anything like luck, he should put the British Deperdussin through the trials with flying colours. During the afternoon, an interesting exhibition was the Bleriot transport wagon, a special device, excellently designed, to facilitate the towing of a machine behind either a car, horses, or a gun carriage. Packed on board, and covered with a properly made 24r-^ August 191a. p.m. 2 > 6 & " Flight" Copyright. Wind Charts for August 13th and 24th, 1912, as recorded on Salisbury Plain between the hours of 5 and 8 p.m.— In the chart for August 13th Is seen the remarkable gust which killed Fenwick on the Mersey monoplane, and on the chart for August 24th will be noticed an almost identical gust at the same time in the evening. General flying was in progress, but, happily, only experienced pilots were aloft. All noticed the change, and the gust struck the Avro biplane while Parke was undergoing his speed tests. Behind the sheds the remous were especially noticeable as machines came down through the gap to land up wind. 792
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