FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1913
1913 - 0369.PDF
ES Flight, April 5, 1913. VI ff First Aero Weekly in the World. Founder and Editor: STANLEY SPOONER. A Journal devoted to the Interests, Practice, and Progress of Aerial Locomotion and Transport. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE ROYAL AERO CLUB OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. NO. 223. (No. 14, Vol. V.)] APRIL 5, 1913. [^tri at the G.P.O ] [WP^*£!%I* Flight. Editorial Ofrcc: 44. ST. MARTIN'S LANE, LONDON, W.C. Telegrams: Truditur, Westrand, London. Telephone: Gerrard 1818. Annual Subscription Rates, Post Free. United Kingdom ... lit. ad. Abroad vat. od. CONTENTS. Editorial Comment: The New Daily Mail Prizes Aeronautical Lectures Our Phantom Air Defences Men of Moment in the World of Flight: Mr. Howard 1. Wright The Navy and Aviation Air Strategy of the North Sea Rebuilding a Bleriot Airship Pilots' Certificates Hervieu Transportable Tents Royal Aero Club. Official Notices From the British Flying Grounds Flying at Hendon Armchair Reflections. By tbe Dreamer Foreign Aviation News Models. Edited by V. E. Johnson, M.A Model Club Diary and Report FAG* - 375 ... 376 - 378 ••• 377 ... 380 ... 381 ... 383 - 384 ... 38S ... 387 ... 388 ... 391 ... 392 ... 395 ... 397 ... 398 KBETOMEAIL COMMENT. The Daily Mail has again come forward Sj ^u™/ witn a munificent money prize to encourage ^Prizes?' aviation. This time they have chosen, and very properly chosen, the waterplane as the machine for especial notice. When the waterplane first made itself apparent as a type of aeroplane with great potentialities, particularly for Britain, the Daily Mail seized an early opportunity of organising a series of flights around the coast that showed many people who might never otherwise have had an idea of the difference between a waterplane and a land flyer just what was the nature of that distinction. Now this same enterprising journal has offered a prize of ;£5>000 for whosoever shall first fly round Great Britain within 72 consecutive hours without alighting on land. There is another prize of ^10,000 for the first across the Atlantic in the same time limit. The offers are as sensational in their way as was the London-Manchester flight prize at the time it was first offered. We shall be interested to see, however, whether the contemporary Press that deemed that occasion so appropriate for satire will be so ready to commit themselves to similar doubting pleasantries on this occasion. The first of these prizes should be won fairly soon, for there is not the same obvious risk in making the attempt that seems to characterise the Atlantic passage. The journey, when one comes to reckon it out, however, is neither easy nor short; indeed, it is comparable in length with that over the Atlantic Ocean. The difficulty with the Atlantic passage is the problem of fuel supply. If it is worth while arranging for ships to be stationed at intervals, someone will probably take the risk sooner or later. In discussing the possibility of a single journey of this magnitude it is imperative to recognise the fundamental limitations imposed by the elementary mechanics of the problem. There is no aeroplane that has yet been built for a weight of much less than 15 lbs. per h.p. empty, nor any aero engine with which we are acquainted that consumes less than half a pint of fuel per h.p. hour. It is, doubtless, possible to improve upon both figures, but the Atlantic is scarcely the proper trial ground for such experimental machines, nor for using either new engines or new fuel. Looking at the map in order to estimate distances, and leaving out of consideration the possibility of jumping across in three stages via Iceland, Greenland and Labrador, it would seem that the shortest distance on which one might reasonably base an estimate is in the order of 2,000 miles. This should leave something of a margin on a straight line flight from Ireland to New foundland, but not more margin than is absolutely essential for safety. The starting point in such an estimate is, as we re marked above, the question of weight and fuel consump tion. The governing factor, however, resolves itself into a question of low resistance to flight—that is to say, on improved body design and the use of wings with a high lift : resistance ratio flying at their best attitude. At the present time machines experience a resistance in the order of one-sixth of their weight at their best speeds. There is no doubt that this value can and will be re duced in the future; but again, from the standpoint of a preliminary estimate of present-day possibilities, there is small justification for assuming a resistance of less than one in six at a speed of, say, 70 m.p.h. At lower speeds one might have less resistance, but one would occupy B 2
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
