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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0082.PDF
1/05511 to train mechanics as well as pilots. Indeed, enough importance has hardly been made of this latter point, for there can be no question that the safety of flying depends almost more on the man who remains below than on the man who ascends aloft. A pilot once trained is more or less safe within the limits of his experience so far as atmospheric disturbances are concerned, and when the conditions in the air suddenly present him with a problem beyond his prior knowledge, it is necessarily very much a matter of chance as to how he will come out of it anyway. But the inexpert or careless mechanic is a factor in the situa tion that assumes a seriousness of an altogether diiferent kind. A nut that is unlocked may hold in place for an hour, for a day, or for a week, but equally it may come adrift at any moment. A slack engine mounting might well have fatal consequences to the man on the machine, for it is in just such slackness that one might expect to find the full danger of that much-talked-of gyroscopic force, which in itself and as a known quantity should not otherwise seriously disturb the pilot's control. Again, the adjustment of the stay wires is in the hands of the mechanic, and it depends on his skill and carefulness whether the wing spars leave the ground truly in line from shoulder to tip or whether they are initially stressed by deflection such as might easily escape general notice. Indeed, there are many different things to be done with the million, even if we get it, but the aerial fleet will not be a question of one million, but of several millions in a few years—and the sooner the better—not only have we to catch up other Powers in our fourth arm ; we have to pass them and, as on the sea, establish ourselves as Mistress of the Air. People can say what they please, but the man who is not otherwise interested will be well advised to adopt for his watchword, " England has got to have aeroplanes all the same." <e> •» * Sun ^e nave not been surprised to receive Soarability. from our readers letters drawing attention to the comparison that suggests itself between Mr. Dyott's fascinating account of his experiences in Central America, published in the last issue of FLIGHT with the observations by Dr. Hankin on Bird Flight in India, which we published in a series of articles during 1911. Indeed, it would be no exaggera tion to say that by eliminating the personal pronoun and substituting bird for aeroplane, much of Mr. Dyott's description might bodily be transplanted into the midst of Dr. Hankin's articles and none would be the wiser. Mr. Dyott's account of the influence of sunshine and shadow on what Dr. Hankin would have called the soar- ability of the air, tallies in almost every particular with Dr. Hankin's own version of the influence of the atmosphere on the soaring flight of birds. While we were anxious that Dr. Hankin should be afforded a free field for the discussion of his theory as to the cause of soarability, we hold no brief and in truth have small sympathy with his idea of "Ergaer." On the other hand, his powers of observation are marvellous, and we are inclined to think that personal prejudice against his conclusions may have in |ome measure discounted the general appreciation of the intrinsic worth ® ® Regulations for Meetings in France. CONSEQUENT upon the accident which occurred at Gray last September, the French Minister of the Interior has issued a series of regulations governing the conduct of flying meetings. In future a permit will have to be obtained from the local authorities, and application for this must be made at least a month in advance of the date of the meeting. The promoter must also see that those who will be taking part have not only a pilot's certificate, but also a JANUARY 25, 1913. of the detail on which they were based. None realised better than Dr. Hankin himself how separate and distinct was his theory of " Ergaer " from the array of facts that he marshalled so skilfully as evidence to prove it. He presented his facts and he presented his theory; if time sees fit to retain the one and discard the other the value of his work will have lost nothing in consequence. It has been open to all to draw their own conclusions on the same evidence as Dr. Hankin used for his own ideas, save only, of course, that Dr. Hankin had the advantage of living daily in the actual environment and of perceiving many things that may well have baffled systematic description. But while we were most anxious to present Dr. Hankin's conception of " Ergaer" for open discussion without prejudice at the time it was put forward, we must confess to having ourselves found in his articles a confirmation rather than otherwise of the soarability being due to an upward component of velocity in the air caused by the local heating effect of the sun's rays. Dr. Hankin himself, if we understood his point of view aright, considered that the magnitude of the velocity was insufficient to account for the phenomena observed, but one must bear in mind that the natural rate of fall of a soaring bird is slow, and that it does not need a very considerable upward component to satisfy the conditions of soaring flight. Similarly in the case of aeroplanes, local disturbances affecting the upward trend of the wind may assume serious consequences of a magnitude that is not perhaps fully realised even by pilots of wide experience. Undoubtedly Mr. Dyott was flying in a region where what may be termed sun soarability was apt to assume an exaggerated value, but, influences on a smaller scale that are nevertheless similar in nature may well affect the flight of aeroplanes even in this cloud-ridden country. Such effects are more particularly likely to be pronounced in cases where the machine is overloaded or the engine is pulling below par. Differences in the vertical compo nents of the movement of the atmosphere are also more likely to be pronounced where the flight takes place alternatively over water and over land in a country like this, for the heat of the sun would seldom be adequate to produce the phenomena locally over a region of land as is described by Mr. Dyott. Water is thus especially a region to be avoided unless the height at which one is flying will certainly suffice to carry the machine to a safe landing ground under the worst conceivable conditions. Just as it does not require very much up current to account for soaring flight of birds, so does it not require a very great down current to entrap a pilot who is flying low over the water. Moreover, there is this also to be considered, that any manoeuvre such as turning, is in itself a source of loss of altitude unless there is a very wide margin of power in the engine, and the sharper the turn the greater the drop, other things being equal. Those who read Mr. Dyott's description of his flight at Puebla when he nearly got trapped on the wrong side of a row of trees merely because the sun had got behind the mountains, will better be able to realise the broad character of a certain type of atmospheric disturbance that has not as yet come fully within the general run of pilots' experiences. ® ® licence from the Aero Club of France. Flying grounds must allow of a course being laid out at least 100 metres wide, and not less than 1,500 metres round. The enclosed area of the course in square metres must be at least equal to a figure obtained by multiplying the length of the course by 25. Round the course there must be a limit band 30 metres wide over which the aeroplanes must not pass. The ground constituting the course must be of such nature that a motor car can be driven all over it.
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