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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0551.PDF
EDDIES. ALTHOUGH it has not been generally known, Marcus D. Manton, who it will be remembered, has joined B. C. Hucks, has been quietly practicing looping for some time past, and on Thursday of last week he gave a public demon stration of looping and upside down flying at Norwich. Going up to a considerable altitude, he made first three loops, and then, after having climbed another few hundred feet, two more loops in quick succession. The reception accorded him was so hearty as to be almost painful, Manton informs me. The crowd broke out of the en closure and surged round him ; and instead of reaching the tea tent for which he was heading, he was carried a quarter of a mile away. The other day Manton and Hucks arranged a nice little race, each flying one of the looping machines, which are both of approximately the same speed. It was very amusing, Manton says, to see the other Bleriot bobbing up and down as the machines rose and sank on the air waves, and he had an excellent chance of watching it, as the machines were flying side by side and very close together. XXX Harold Blackburn tells me of a rather exciting experience he had recently, when testing a new 80 h.p. Avro biplane near Manchester. Starting from a field at Bellevue, he lost sight of the field in which were H. V. and A. V. Roe and their men; and as his tanks were full, and be did not know the locality very well, he decided—to use his own expression—that he might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb, and so he set out for Harrogate, trusting to fly into fine weather. After flying for about an hour without sighting the ground, he came down very gingerly, and found himself over some very high hills, which he took to be the Pennines. He, therefore, concluded that his compass must have been quite wrong, as it had not been tested in the new machine ; and so climbing again, he flew on, steering by an occasional glimpse of the sun, and finally came out of the mist close to Mansfield after two hours' flying with one cylinder hot. xxx Evidently Messrs. Perry, Beadle and Co., who, it will be remembered, exhibited a very original flying boat at the last Olympia Aero Show, do not intend to confine themselves to hydro-aeroplanes, for last week, when I was at Brooklands, a small Perry, Beadle tractor biplane, fitted with a 45 h.p. Anzani engine, was being unloaded from a lorry. I gather that this machine will be tested shortly at the Brooklands Aerodrome. xxx I hear that M. Louis Bleriot has just laid down a very expensive plant for the commercial manufacture of monocoque type/use/ages, so that it appears that M. Bleriot considers this form of construction worth developing. Several of these machines have been built for experimental purposes, and it was not until after extensive tests that it was decided to lay down the above mentioned plant. xxx This year's Aerial Derby promises to be an un commonly good race, for the majority of the machines entered are fairly well matched. The two Sopwiths, the Bristol, Avro and Vickers scouts are all very fast machines. Whilst the three or four 80 h.p. Morants are all naturally of practically the same s-ptcd. There are also one cr two " dark horses " in the way of ntw and untried machines, which may provide some startling perfoimances. In all probability nearly all of the machines entered will start in the race, so that I should recommend all of our readers who can possibly manage to do so, to endeavour to see the race either from the storting point at the Hendon Aerodrome or from cne of the turning points. xxx It was an unexpected pleasure to see Mr, W. Brock (who, it will be remembered, put up some remarkable perfor mances on the little 35 h.p. Dep. during last year, and who later joined the Grahame-White firm), at Hendon on Saturday last, for I knew that he went across the " pond " some time ago, and that he was hardly expected back so early. Asked whether he had grown to like this country so well that he preferred it to his native land, he said that although England was " a cute little toy country," it was not exactly geographical preferences that had brought him back so soon. XXX It appears, according to Brock, that things aviatic don't look particularly rosy on the other side. The trouble seems to be that the Wright Company will not make a definite statement as regards the royalty which they intend to claim on machines built by other firms. Brock informs me that there are a number of people who would be quite willing to pay a reasonable royalty, provided that they were able to ascertain beforehand what the said royalty would amount to, but it is naturally difficult to secure capital when there is no guarantee that the Wright Company will not claim the whole of the profit. The public, Mr. Brock says, has lost all interest ii> aviation, and the only way in which public enthusiasm could be aroused again would be by putting up some startling performances on a really good machine, such as, for instance, one of the best of British machines. But then, who would risk the wrath of the Wright Company in the form of a prohibitive royalty ? XXX It, therefore, seems that the Wright Co. is the bugbear of aviation, at least, as far as America is concerned ; and Mr. Brock has now returned to this country to try and find a scope for his abilities. I should not think that he would have much difficulty in doing so, for although Brock does not possess that faculty which is so highly developed in some of his compatriots—that of advertising himself—those who know him best realize that he combines great practical experience with a sound know ledge of the theory of flying, in addition to being a thoroughly reliable pilot. Brock showed me some designs for a machine intended for the Gordon-Bennett race, which he would like to have had some American firm enter for, but which was out of the question under the present conditions in that country, and I can only hope that some British firm will " discover " him and benefit by his abilities. " ALOLVS." 55i
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