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Aviation History
1912
1912 - 1086.PDF
EBBIES, YES, it is good to get back to the aerodrome again, after sundry wanderings, to see the same old cheery faces— and many new ones too—to get a sniff of burnt castor oil, and to hear the old familiar Gnome rattle. Seeing flying again, after even an absence of only four months or so, the mind cannot help reverting to the conditions of things in the early days of the game and pondering on all the rapid changes that have occurred since then. After all, aviation as we know it to-day is scarcely more than three years old. But what a long three years it has seemed; what a lot has happened in the time! • • • Then you would find an aeroplane being built in a garage or any old shed that would serve to keep out some of the mud and wet. Your plant consisted chiefly of a set of millimetre drills, a hammer, a vice, your pliers and wire cutters, a hacksaw, and a shifting spanner. Yet what a lot of work used to be got through with these simple tools, for it was the intense enthusiasm of the thing that carried you through. Little did you mind having hands like slabs of raw beef through being too vigorous in trimming off loose ends of 12-gauge piano wire with a pair of antiquated cutters. And when the machine was shipped out to the open field for testing, what transports of joy were yours if it only hopped even a yard or two ! At any rate, it had got off the ground, and that was something that you were justified in being very proud of, for many, perhaps most, of the other machines couldn't even get as far as that. • • • My mind takes me back to one in particular. The inventor claimed that a machine similar to the one he had built, but perhaps a little larger, would be capable of crossing the Atlantic with 24 passengers up. Its shed was kept severely locked, and all the windows were well covered up. At last it was brought outside on the ground. I won't describe the machine for fear its inventor, reading these lines and recognising it, takes it into his head to descend on me in all his wrath. The engine, a heavy one—seemingly taken from a motor 'bus chassis—was started, and three sturdy mechanics dug their heels into the mud and clung to the tail to prevent it bounding forward. The inventor took his seat after scrutinising all the wires. Yes! the motor was going beautifully. He waved for those behind to let go. They did, and waited open mouthed while nothing happened. The pilot—he did not look round—waved again, this time angrily. But his men had already done all they were expected to do. Then he looked round, went pale, switched off the motor and got out of the machine. Instead of rushing forward over the ground, his machine had merely vibrated itself down hub deep in the mud. * • * Nowadays, aeroplanes are constructed in well regulated factories. You hear the hum of metal and wood working machinery, and you notice that the men, arriving and leaving their work, "clock" themselves in and out of the works gate. Whenever a new machine appears, you know pretty well what will happen. The pilot will fly a straight or two, then he'll do a few left-hand circuits, a right hand turn, and finish up with a vol plane. Back three years, and even less, right hand turns and vol planes were looked upon as unnatural and unsafe. Yet to-day everyone does them. Aviation, for most of those in the running now, is no longer an exciting hobby; it is a serious business. • • • All this meditation whilst walking across the fields to the Hendon Aerodrome last Sunday morning to see M. Maurice Farman fly one of the magnificent biplanes that the Aircraft Company have built at Hendon under his licence. Like his brother Henry, Maurice Farman is no " stunt" flyer. He just takes the machine up for the purpose for which it was intended—to carry him safely through the air. Altogether he made three flights, the first a solo, the second and third passenger flights with Mrs. Holt Thomas and a lady friend of hers. But he did not remain at the aerodrome long. Just sufficient time to look round the works, inspect the biplanes, make these three flights, and he was speeding away from the aero drome in Mr. Holt Thomas' car, while Verrier, in the machine Maurice Farman had flown, flew overhead by way of a parting salute. A NEW MONOPLANE AT SHOREHAM.—This machine, which Incorporates a new idea in obtaining stability, has been built to the designs of Lieut. R. Burga by Messrs. A. V.'Roe and Co. Further reference to it will be found in the "Eddies." 1086
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