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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 1134.PDF
lAHS Berlin, as a living object-lesson of Germany's determina tion to see the thing through, no matter what the cost. She has determined that the perfect airship can be developed, and having set herself to the task, there can be no turning back, no matter what the price of success may be. We have become accustomed to regard Germany as a potential, nay, a probable foe, but even where she our active enemy, we could not at a moment like this withhold our admiration of her behaviour in the face of appalling disaster And what of ourselves ? Are we to argue that because disaster after disaster has overtaken Germany's pet type of airship that there is nothing to be hoped from the dirigible, and to sit down and allow others to do our experimenting for us ? The answer lies with the future, but we cannot find it in our hearts to believe that we shall do aught but continue along the path of investiga tion and progress. In this connection we publish on another page a most interesting letter from Sir Hiram Maxim, in which he expresses the deliberate conviction that we have gone as far as possible with the design of the dirigible, and that nothing more is to be hoped from it. We do not propose to traverse his statements in detail, particularly as he quotes chapter and verse in support of his theories, but we must say at once that we do not for a single moment agree with his main con tention. Indeed, we should describe his conclusions as dangerous in the extreme at the present juncture. He speaks as an authority, whose words are very likely to find ready acceptance in many quarters where they may do incalculable damage to the cause of aeronautic progress. We must certainly say that we admire the German attitude of determination to succeed far more than we do Sir Hiram's theoretical damnation of the dirigible. Germany, in the face of disaster, says calmly and emphatically : " We will go on building." Sir Hiram, apparently, would have us sit with folded hands, because, forsooth, progress infers danger ! ® ® NOR] OCTOBER 25, 1913. It is impossible to read of some of the Reflections more notable performances in the air on Recent wmcn nave Deen recorded of late without er ormances. reflectjng [,off absolutely commonplace flying has now become. Not long ago, a flight of a mile Was enough to have ensured columns of high-flown descrip tive reports in all the newspapers of the civilised world. Now, a flight of a thousand miles passes with the simple record contained in an obscure paragraph, or nothing. The manner in which these things pass almost unnoticed is, to our way of thinking, one of the most wonderful aspects of the later development of flight. It simply amounts to the seeming paradox that the most wonderful thing about man-flight is that it has ceased to have any thing wonderful about it. Take, for example, the performance of Fourny, on a Maurice Farman biplane about a month ago, when he succeeded in flying an average of 425 miles a day for twenty-three consecutive days in the competition for the International Michelin prize. Or take Seguin's flight from Paris to Bordeaux and back, a non-stop flight across country of 13 hrs. 5 mins., during which the Henry Farman biplane traversed a distance of 650 miles. Or again, take the extraordinary records in the competition for the prize offered in Germany for the longest flight in twenty-lour hours on an all-German machine. As mentioned in our last issue, the best performance to date is that of Stoeffler, who, on an Aviatik biplane, covered over 1,300 miles in twenty-four hours, of which period he was actually in the air for over twenty-two hours, a good deal of which was in the night. There have been other flights made recently which are almost equal in merit to these, but they will serve amply to point the moral we have in mind and which we have outlined above. It seems almost useless nowadays to talk about progress, for the one and simple reason that so much progress has been made in the science and practice of aviation that no one any longer pays any attention to it. ® ® :. S PRATT, PILOT-INSTRUCTOR. NORMAN C. SPRATT is a pilot who has been given to us by South Africa, he having been born at Pietermaritzburg, although, as he is careful to tell you, of Irish parents. Before he was bitten with the aviation fever he was an assistant engineer in the Ladysmith District of the Public Works Department, South Africa, a post which he vacated in the summer of 1912 in order to come home to England to learn the art of piloting aeroplanes. He joined the Deperdussin School at Hendon in August, 1912, and in October was in possession of his brevet—Ho. 339. The following February he returned to the Deperdussin monoplane school as chief pilot-instructor, and remained there until the closing down of the school early in August last. While there he showed his aptitude as a pilot by the way he handled the 35 h.p., 60 h.p., and 110 h.p. monoplanes. He also flew the experimental ® ® British Military Aviation. ONE of the first pieces of work of the new air department at the War Office has been to prepare a set of notes for the guidance of flying officers and officers in charge of men whose manoeuvres are being observed from hostile aircraft. The notes have been drawn up as the result of the experience gained by various officers who have carried out a great deal of scouting and reconnaissance work, while the manoeuvres recently held also provided a great amount of hydro-aeroplane " The Seagull," when it was fitted with a chassis for land work, on one occasion making a quarter of an hour's flight at a height of 800 feet. On one occasion he took up a 35 h.p. Dep. to 3,500 ft, and then had to come down on account of engine trouble. On another occasion he climbed on a 35 h.p. Dep. to a good height in a wind which kept Chevillard on his 80 h.p. Henry Farman from reaching much over r,ooo ft. In September he joined the Breguet firm, and after a short spell of flying the machines in France, returned to Hendon, and has been flying Breguets almost daily since. A week or so back, in a wind blowing at a speed of between 40 and 50 miles an hour, he was flying one fitted with a 7-cyl. Canton-Unne motor. THE HAWK. ® ® useful information. Aircraft are to keep, as a rule, at not less than 3,000 ft. when exposed to rifle fire, increased by another 1,000 ft. when artillery is underneath. In the General Staff .Notes is set forth very clearly the importance of such things as seeing that every advantage is taken of cover ; that the colour of the ground is not in direct contrast to the troops on it; that the men do not directly look up at the aircraft ; keeping close to the hedge when marching along a road, &c, &c. I 160
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