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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 1041.PDF
Flight, November 16, 1912. First Aero Weekly in the World. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Loeoraotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. No. 203. (No. 46. Vol. IV.)] NOVEMBER 16, 1912. CRegistered at the O.P.O.T at a Newspaper. J ("Weekly, Prloe 3d. L PottftM, Sid. Editorial Office: 44, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1828. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... 15J. od. Abroad aor. od. CONTENTS: Editorial Comment : The Technical Report Men of Moment in the World of Flight: Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, C.B., F.R.S., the Director of the National Physical Laboratory What Night Flying Feels Like. By Sydney Pickles The Military Wing, Royal Flying Corps Second Illuminated Night Flying and Firework Display, Hendon The Blackburn School Monoplane Royal Aero Club. Official Notices The Paris Aero Salon From the British Flying Grounds Foreign Aviation News Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A Hydro-Aeroplanes at Monaco Correspondence 1041 1043 1046 1046 1047 1048 1052 1053 1058 1064 1065 1066 1067 EDITORIAL COMMEMT. The Technical Report. No doubt, to the dilettante, the Technical Report of the Advisory Committee for Aeronautics may seem heavy reading; . but to the student, there is nothing better worthy of the expenditure of time and mind. It contains the cream of the technical research for the past year, and that research, as conducted under the aegis of the Advisory Committee, both at the N.P.L. and at the R.A.F., is second to none in the world. Much of it must, of course, be read with discretion, and some of it is perhaps hardly conducive to a furtherance of the knowledge of the " practical man " in its present form. On the other hand, even the " rule of thumb" constructors can scarcely find fault with the simple language and directness of statement throughout the covering letter under which the Report is addressed as follows: "To the Right Honourable H. H. Asquith, M.F., First Lord of the Treasury—Sir," and subsequently proceeds in some thirty pages of text to provide a succinct synopsis of the result of the year's work before it is finally signed on behalf of the Committee by Lord Rayleigh, its President. With this letter and the facts it contains we purpose dealing exclusively for the moment, and indeed we could wish for nothing better than that space permitted us to let Lord Rayleigh write the leading article for this issue, for there is no clearer way of explaining what the experi ments have led to than has been adopted in the President's introduction to his committee's report. The full text of this and other useful material, however, must abide its time for available space in other parts of less crowded issues of FLIGHT. The Paris Show and the Technical Report are more than we can manage at once, even with the most liberal extensions. Some of the most interesting work discussed in the Report was that made under the direction of Mr. Mervyn O'Gorman at the R.A.F. at Farnborough. In order to check experiments on dirigible shapes, which had been conducted under water on small scale models at the N.P.L., large models, 18 ft. in length, were towed down a tramway by a falling weight. By a law known as "dynamical similarity," enunciated by Lord Rayleigh in the Report for 1909-10, it is possible to convert results of experiments made in water into data for similar larger objects moving in the air and vice versa, and Mr. Bairstow, of the N.P.L., who has been engaged a good deal on this sort of calculation, has worked out as an example from such small scale experiments that a 40-ft. diameter dirigible envelope of specified form and 6 :1 fineness ratio experiences a resistance of 320 lbs. at 40 m.p.h. To the majority of FLIGHT readers, dirigible experi ments are of less concern than those relating to aero planes, but we consider that it is of the greatest importance to keep the dirigible in sight; notwithstanding that it is for the moment in the shade of the aeroplane's popularity. It is, at any rate, of the utmost concern to know everything possible about resistance in the air, and if dirigible experiments help towards that end, as they do, then no one has cause to grumble that the main subject was airships. Many bye-products, even of commerce, are regarded as having the greater value. Much interesting work has also been accomplished on aeroplanes, however, and it will be admitted that the points tackled are such as concern the matters uppermost in everyone's mind. Wing cambers have been treated in a most interesting way, for instance, and the research has led to the conclusion that the upper and lower surfaces ought to be regarded separately and designed independently. The top surface is by far the more important for ordinary flight angles, and at "inclinations from 5° to io° the negative pressure on the convex surface is a maximum, and reaches a very high value at
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