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Aviation History
1913
1913 - 1309.PDF
DECEMBER 6, 1913. It has one additional advantage, and that is it will not yield the secret of its manufacture by examination or analysis. The advent of such a material as this will have a great bearing on gas consumption during a campaign, and will entail very much less gas transport than would be otherwise the case. Partiticm of Gas Vessels.—The second improvement which I foresee is an arrangement of partitions in the envelope. This applies more especially to semi- and non-rigid airships, in which, at present, all the gas is in one container. Partitions are very- necessary as a safety device and for war airships. Without them a single bullet hole means a continual leakage until it can be repaired ; with a system of partitions the leakage is reduced to a manageable quantity ; in cases where long flights are made the importance of this becomes very evident. It is here that the rigid type scores heavily ; Zeppelins, for example, have 17 separate gas containers. Gun Mounting.—To turn to other points, I see no insuperable difficulty in mounting guns on the top of a semi- or non-rigid airship ; weapons are essential in such a position for protection against aeroplanes, and an airship which lacks them cannot expect to survive long in time of war. Power Plant, &"c.—In the car and machinery, present tendencies point rather to separate engines of not more than 2CO h.p., each driving a single propeller, the engine, propeller arm shafting and propeller all forming a single unit which can be removed bodily if desired or in case of damage. For the sake of smooth running 6-cylinder engines and 4-bladed propellers seem likely. An airship would be equipped with two, four, or six power units, according to its size. Controls.—On no subject do opinions differ more than on the arrangement of controls. Almost all pilots I have met have their own favourite arrangement. Personally, I hold that the pilot should have all controls within his reach and view ; though whether he manipulates them directly or moves a telegraph instrument to warn his subordinates, depends on the size of the ship. Landing'.—Landing an airship gently requires the utmost nicety of judgment and a very thorough and long apprenticeship ; there are so many factors to take into account. With swivelling propellers it is possible to land with ease and safety when both very much lighter and very much heavier than air. In " Delta," though quite a small ship, ascents and descents have been made with the ship as much as 650 lbs. heavier than air, and on two occasions I landed when 200 lbs. lighter than air. One of these was after an eight hours' flight, the other after a parachute descent from the airship. This gain in buoyancy on a long flight is a difficulty which in larger ships would have to be overcome by special means. In the Naval rigid airship, built at Barrow a year or two back, an attempt was made to conserve the water vapour given off in the products of combustion of the petrol and air. There are many practical difficulties which render this impossible on a small airship, but it is a point which will certainly require attention. Suggested Army Airship.—For our Army expeditionary force I think the coming airship—or perhaps I should say the "not- coming " airship, as they have been abandoned by the Army—will be one of about 300,000 to 350,000 cubic ft. capacity : that is, a little bigger than Naval Airship No. 3, the " Astra-Torres." It would be of the non-rigid type, with a car like our "Eta," speed 55 miles per hour, crew of eight or nine. To carry nine hours' fuel supply at full speed. Designed to ascend to 5,000 ft. with four hours' fuel supply ; ballonet capacity up to 8,000 ft. ; mount two automatic guns, one on the top of the envelope and one in the car, both designed to shoot all round the compass. Two such airships could be run by an airship squadron of the same size as that which is laid down in the existing war establish ments and with the same amount of transport. The ship could be readily packed for transport, and could be used equally well on the continent or for " savage " warfare. The coming Naval airship I prefer to say nothing about ; perhaps there are Naval officers present who will be able to enlighten us. Commercial Airships.—For commercial purposes I believe the airship to have a great future. Even by now we ought to have had a Paris to London service, or at least a cross-Channel one. Airships will doubtless come into use in connection with the post office, and, as time goes on, for newspaper delivery. I can imagine reading in an enterprising daily paper that they have estab lished a special airship service to deliver their paper in every village in Norfolk every morning between 6 and 8 a.m. You can reckon that the ship will leave London at 2 or 3 a.m., and flying low over the various villages, will drop a small parachute with a bundle of mails or newspapers. [/yam] Why, we could do that with our little " Eta," small though she is, most days of the year. Spurting Airships.—ik few years hence a ship the site of " Beta" will be the aerial yacht of many men who now keep a big motor car ; such a ship could be produced at a very moderate figure with the prospect of a sale of 100. Hydrogen will lie as cheap as coal gas, and one "fill" will last a year. The mechanism will be as simple as a modern motor car, and will be within the capacity of a man of the ordinary motor mechanic class. An Imaginary Trip.—In conclusion, I would like to take you with me in imagination on a trip on the coming airship from London to Paris. We entrain at Charing Cross in a slip carriage with the 40 other passengers about five p.m. Arrived at Woolwich the carriage is slipped and is taken on by an electric locomotive to the airship sheds on the south of Shooter's Hill. The conductor enters to ask the gentlemen to stop smoking, and at 5.20 we pull up at the little covered station outside the airship shed. We pass through a turnstile and show our tickets, and note that our weight is being taken and recorded as we go by. Those over 13 stone pay excess, and in consequence gentlemen who are near the limit have discarded coats and wraps and given them to their lighter friends. Arrived inside the shed we enter the passenger car. The " Albatross," as the airship is called, takes a complement of 50 all told, and does her 60 miles per hour with ease and comfort. The men are already in their places in the fore and aft cars and the engines gently humming. The necessary ballast allowances have been made so soon as our weights had been recorded, and the airship is only held down by the weight of the two little trolleys under the fore and aft cars. There are also guylines attached to other trolleys each side, running on their own rails. A man is seated on each trolley, that is six in all. The swivelling propellers, of which there are two pairs, two fore and two aft, all in the horizontal lifting position. The shed doors open by hydraulic power, and as soon as they are fully extended we commence to move out, a motor in the leading trolley driving us at 10 miles per hour. Ahead in the darkness are two lights on the ground, a green and further on a red one. When the leading car approaches the red one it means the ship is clear of the shed, similarly when the aft one reaches the green one. When the ship is clear the three rear trolleys loose their connection, and the stern swings round to port in a fresh starboard wind, at the same time the aft propellers revolve and prevent the stern from hiiting the ground ; a moment later the fore propellers revolve, the fore car is released and the ship springs into the air. We are off. At 500 feet thel propellers drive us forward, and we seek higher altitudes on the planes. Looking back over the ground, we notire the Shooter's Hill lighthouse winking at us ; the white upper light Iwing the county one and the lower red one for the sub-district. All England is lit up in this manner, and it takes very little time to ascertain from a light your position in the dark. As we pass on towards the coast our wireless operator is receiving a message from Folkestone, telling us to be ready to take in 300 lbs. of local mails. Ahead of us is the big Mid-Kent light, near Maidstone, giving its two one-second flashes followed by 10 sees, darkness. Nearing Folkestone we approach the earth again, and as we get lower the Post Office officials are seen waiting with a big bundle ; we drop a rope from the front car, which is hooked on, and our power winch quickly hauls the bundle aboard. At the same time a small parachute with London letters is dropped over. The sea voyage is dull and uneventful, and the passengers are glad to sit down to dinner during the crossing. As we approach Paris we are struck by the big ligh's on the Eiffel Tower, visible many miles away ; later we spot the sheds near Billancourt, and light up our landing signal. In reply they hoist three red lights as a signal they are ready to land us. The swivelling propellers are all turned downwaids now, and We approach the ground at the rate of 500 ft. a minute. Three hundred ft. above the landing ground the clutches are taken out and the propellers turned into the lifting position ; our momentum continues to carry us downwards, and 150 ft. from the ground the propellers commence to check it, and as we reach the ground our momentum is absorbed and we land as lightly as a feather, half an hour past midnight. But for the 15 mile head wind we should have made a much quicker passage. Getting into the shed is an easy process, for here they have a circular shed, and it can be entered from any direction. The width of the shed shelters us from all wind, and a score of men quickly have the cars fastened down to a pair of trolleys, which are then wound into the shed by a cable. So concludes our voyage in the coming airship. 1335
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