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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0054.PDF
[/OGHT] be of the kind humorously portrayed in our Christmas cartoon, nor do we pretend to specify what precise openings aeroplanes might have in the commercial world at present. If their possibilities were so apparent as to need no discovery, it would not remain for commercial acumen to realise that they exist. People may be as sceptical as they please, but the fact remains that the aeroplane can accomplish things that are impossible to any other sort of vehicle, and those accomplishments are certain to be turned to account sooner or later by anyone who can see a way of making them profitable to himself. It does not matter that the aeroplane experiences a resistance in flight of approximately one-sixth of its weight, whereas a railway train is opposed by a fraction more nearly in the order of one-hundredth; there will still be a use for the flying machine so long as it can accomplish journeys that are either impossible to other vehicles or such as would involve very much greater time. Take for example the case of some of the mining districts in different parts of the world. Mines are often situated several miles from the nearest town, and the intervening country is frequently of the kind that makes rapid transit impossible. Journeys between the two centres are nevertheless frequent and regular; moreover they often call for haste. Time is money in most businesses, and where the aeroplane is capable of saving time it is potentially capable of making money. There are undoubtedly many such situations in the commercial world to-day, but it is not to be supposed that they will be realised all at once. One can imagine the surprise, for example, that would be caused if the resident engineer of the Camp Bird requisitioned his board of directors in London for an aeroplane, yet the day will come when something of an analogous order will happen. Then we shall see commercial enterprise stealing a march on conservatism and making profit in the manoeuvre. Others will follow suit, and so the business will spread. It all depends on the safety of the undertaking, how ever. By this we do not mean that an aeroplane must necessarily become as safe as an armchair, or that it must be impossible for a fool to break his neck in it. What we mean exactly is that flying must cease to be associated with the singularly acute risks that have so unfortunately become identified with it in the public mind. In our opinion flying has reached a stage in which phenomenal exploits by individual pilots no longer advance the cause in proportion to the risk undertaken. This time last year the reverse was, in our opinion, the case. The wonderful performance of Beaumont and Vedrines in the Circuit of Britain put a finishing touch to the grand effort of Paulhan in the London to Manchester flight of the year before. From Lilienthal to the brothers Wright, and from Farman, Delagrange, and other pioneers to these highly skilled pilots of aircraft, the personal art of aviation might be traced through successive stages of individual progress. Machines improved apace, too; the essential features in design became better understood; and finally the construction reached a point at which the aeroplane could be made to do almost anything when sufficient skill was applied to the lever. During the past year, however, the Beaumonts and the Vedrines have multiplied until the experienced pilot is no longer uncommon. At any time of the day, and any day of the week, some aviator may cause a mild sensation by beating a record. But the records are already so great in themselves that one scarcely realises the merit of the last performance, and the public as such is undoubtedly beginning to lose concern. V JANUARY 18, 1913. It is this lack of public interest that is reflected in the lack of capital. The directors of companies who might be interested are human beings like ordinary men, and they take their cue when it comes to them. What do they find ? They open their newspapers, and they may perchance see that Garros has added another thousand feet or so to the height record; but, by chance also, the event may escape notice, for such things have long since been relegated to the status of paragraph news. But, if there is an accident, they are sure to hear of that. In this world of sensation the dramatic and the fatal in life have an asset from the newspaper point of view, and in consequence are made much of in the daily Press. At the dinner-table, if anyone speaks of flying, it is only too frequently that they feel called upon to preface their remarks with the words " How sad !" Clearly this is not the atmosphere in which even the spirit of speculation is likely to be born in the heart of the financier, while as to the idea of doing a steady business in aeroplanes, it would never so much as enter his head. It will be another story, however, when the uninitiated is induced spontaneously to remark, " How much safer this flying has become." The blindness of the majority is the minority's opportunity, however, and there are surely several people in the world who think sufficiently clearly to be able to see through the present mist. Among them some surely have the necessary capital themselves or can influence appropriate finance; to those we make our appeal on behalf of the British engineer and designer. By one of those coincidences that are less Negative singular than is generally recognised, yet f0T p not the less remarkable on that account, Stability, an article on negative wing tips and stability written by Mr. Hume-Rothery, M.A., B.Sc, arrived at this office within a few hours of the printing of Mr. Berriman's article in last week's issue, not long before any copies were circulated to the public. Mr. Hume-Rothery's work has the greater importance in that it treats the question with the proper regard to the fine mesh of the mathematical net that one expects from a Cambridge wrangler ; and so provides a basis for quantitive analysis, out of which designers can evolve definite dimensions for their own machines. Although so different in method of treatment, both articles arrive at the same essential conclusion as to the stability of the negative wing tip. By negative tip, be it thoroughly understood, is meant a down pressure thereon ; not merely the " wash-out" of a positive lift by the giving a slightly negative angle of incidence to a cambered plane or by slight upturning of the wing corners for the same purpose. The significance of the above statement ca»'better be appreciated when it is remembered how fundamental in modern aeroplane design is this principle of warp cum rudder that it seeks to upset. The Wrights realised from the very first that lateral and directional stability were inseparably connected in aeroplane wings as they knew them. From this fundamental association, they saw the necessity for the simultaneous use of the rudder with the warp, and this principle has been the essence of the successful control of all aeroplanes fitted with wing balancing apparatus, whether in the form of the warp or ailerons. By locating in the positive wing tips the crucial link of the connection between lateral and directional stability,
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