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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0659.PDF
JUNE 19, 1914. \fijm\ EDDIES. ALTHOUGH the Aircraft Co., Ltd., have met with great success in building Maurice and Henry Farman biplanes under licence^ they are too enterprising a firm to rest satisfied with building these machines, however excellent they are. In this connection they have secured the services of Mr. G. de Havilland, with a view to designing and constructing original machines. Mr. de Havilland, as our readers are, of course, aware, has been connected for several years with the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, where he has had long experience both in designing and piloting aeroplanes, and he is probably one of our cleverest scientific pilots at the present day. While at Farnborough Mr. de Havilland has had a great number of different machines, factory built as well as privately constructed, pass through his hands, so that he must have at his finger tips, as it were, the good and bad features of practically all the aeroplane types. With a designer of such experience, a firm which maintains so high a standard of workmanship as does the Aircraft Co., should be in a position to produce some thing really startling. For the exact form which this " startler " may assume, I must for the present leave my readers to " wait and see." XXX Marcus I). Manton, who has, it will be remembered, joined Mr. B. C. Hucks in giving exhibitions of looping the loop and other " scientific experiments," relates the following amusing incident: At the local cinema theatre of one of the towns where he had been giving exhibitions, a film was shown representing Manton doing a loop. Preceding the film a lantern slide portrait of Manton, taken at Hendon some time ago, before he was adorned with a moustache, was flashed on the screen. Following the film showing the looping was another portrait of him taken just after landing, showing him, of course, with the very decorative adornment of his upper lip which is now a source of great pride, sufficient to overcome objections to any possible increase in head resistance. One of the audience was heard to clamour loudly for information regarding the kind of "grower" used by Manton and which was capable of producing a moustache whilst he looped the loop. xxx Talking about moustaches reminds me of another case in which, however, the procedure was reversed. An Austrian pilot is said to have shaved himself whilst flying at an altitude of about 6,000 ft. The report does not state whether he used a safety or an ordinary razor, but at any rate the pilot may be assumed to have had " a close shave." XXX Mr. Pemberton-Billing tells me that Supermarine P.B.i was taken out for a short test on the water the other day, but that owing to the propellers being unsuitable only a short hop was accomplished. P.B. 1 has been altered from a single-screw tractor to a twin-screw propeller machine, as Mr. Pemberton-Billing is now concentrating on that type, and so wished to obtain some data which might be useful in designing the new P.B.7. I under stand that two machines of the P.B.7 type are on order from Germany and are already in the course of con struction. Briefly, P.B. 7 will consist of two separate units—the boat, which is of more or less standard hydro plane type, and the wings and tail planes. The engine will be placed down in the hull of the boat and will drive, through a chain transmission, two propellers situated behind the main planes, and in addition a water propeller placed under the rear end of the boat. By means of guide release devices the wings and tail planes may be instantly detached from the boat, which is thus converted into a high speed motor boat, driven in the ordinary way by means of the submerged propeller. Floats placed under the wing tips and under the inner ends of the lower main planes will keep these afloat, so that in a fairly smooth sea it should be possible to " back " the boat into the wings again, secure them in place and proceed as a waterplane. The experiment is a highly interesting one, and should furnish some valuable information, even if the first attempt should not be a perfect success. XXX Mr. Louis Noel, who, it will be remembered, was the first man back in the Aerial Derby, but who was dis qualified for not passing the last two controls, is to receive, as a consolation prize, from the distributors of " Shell" motor spirit, a solid silver model of his Morane- Saulnier monoplane. Last Saturday Noel received another consolation prize in the form of a miniature replica of the large cup presented by Mme. Manio and won by R. H. Carr. XXX According to a report from Germany an aeroplane is said to have made a flight of a quarter of an hour's duration over Cologne on Sunday last with nobody on board. It appears that the engine was started before the pilot got into his seat, and the machine taking charge was flying about for fifteen minutes when the petrol supply gave out and the machine perforce had to return to the ground. The propellers were smashed in landing, but it is hoped that with a little more training the machine can be taught the intricacies of alighting like a good little machine should. XXX This is not, however, the first instance of an aeroplane running away, for a couple of years ago a machine—a Bteriot, I think—got away from a pupil at Hendon, and was only caught after quite an exciting chase. On another occasion Mr. Ewen's Dep. monoplane made a dash for liberty, but was forced to abandon the attempt, as Mr. Warren managed to get hold of a wing tip, and stopped the machine by swinging it round until it charged into the railings of one of the enclosures. Neither of these machines, however, had the nerve to take the air. XXX Mr. W. R. Ding, who annexed great fame by flying across the Channel with Princess Ludwig of Lbwenstein- Wertheim as a passenger on his Handley Page biplane a short time after obtaining his " ticket," has been giving some very successful exhibition flights at Bath. Among the numerous passengers carried, the first was Miss Ivy Ashman, the well-known Bath soprano, who took very kindly to the air. Besides exhibition flights, Mr. Ding gave demonstrations of bomb dropping, a hayrick serving as a target. Out of the four bombs dropped from an altitude of between 200 and 300 ft. the nearest was only 15 ft. away from the target, whilst the other three dis tances were 45, 50 and 58 ft. respectively. Considering the short experience he has had, Mr. Ding's handling of his machine is remarkably good, and the fact that he has so quickly mastered the control, is still further confirmation of the ease and handiness of the Handley Page biplane. " ^Eoi.us." 659
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