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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0076.PDF
passenger will leave his seat, climb up on the lower plane, and go backward, approaching the propeller as closely as possible. " The upsetting couple in this case is about 120 lb. feet. " The same points should be observed as given under No. 8, i.e., that the machine is entirely under automatic control, that the longi tudinal inclination of the aeroplane does not change, and that the rudder is now compensating for the upsetting couple. " C.—Demonstration to Observers, who will make flights as tassengers in the demonstrating machine. " The passenger is asked especially to observe the following points : " 10. After gaining f peed on the water, the automatic stabilizer will l>e thrown in and the aeroplane will rise from the water under complete automatic control. In rising from the water, and in controlling the angle of climb of the aeroplane, the pilot uses the small lever to the left. " 11. The aeroplane flies smoothly and evenly, with almost complete absence of the so-called ' bumps.' " 12. The pilot is relieved from all work of stabilizing the machine and has only to direct its flight, which task becomes simpler and easier than steering a motor car. The pilot will from time to time place his hands on the steering wheel for the purpose of keeping the machine on a straight course of flight. When the pilot touches the steering wheel, while the automatic stabilizer is in operation, he cannot in any way assist the apparatus in stabilizing the machine, because the controls are rigidly held by the servo-motors. " 13. The gyroscopic base-line, i.e., the structure in which the gyroscopes are held, constantly maintains the horizontal plane. The graduated circles on this device act as an accurate clinometer, constantly indicating the inclination of the machine laterally and longitudinally. " 14. The gyroscopic base-line is causing the controls to ailerons and rudders to make very small smooth movements. These move ments are instantly counteracting each disturbing effect simultaneously with its occurrence. " 15. By operating the foot treadle the pilot can instantly throw out the automatic control and assume hand control. Note the difference in smoothness of flight when automatic control is thrown out. " 16. When the pilot throttles his engine, and in that way approaches too closely the critical speed necessary in order to sustain the aeroplane, the automatic air velocity device operates to vol plane the machine to an angle of about 200. " r7. When the automatic air velocity device has vol plantd the machine, the pilot cannot regain automatic longitudinal control until the vol plant! has brought the speed of the machine back to normal. " 18. When the aeroplane turns, automatic control continues to operate, although the pilot can use any angle of banking he wishes. " 19. When the speed of the engine is reduced, all parts function as before. The automatic stabilizing device is independent of the engine for a time sufficient to enable the pilot to make a landing or re-start the engine in case the latter accidentally stops. "20. The pilot alights on the water with the aeroplane under full automatic control. "On the above-mentioned date the tests began with a general ® ® German Views on the Air Raid. THE following message—described as officially in spired— giving the German view of the Zeppelin raid on the East Coast last week was received in Amsterdam on the 21 st inst.:— " Our airships, in order to attack the fortified place of Great Yarmouth, were obliged to fly over other places, from which, it is stated, they were fired at. These attacks were answered by throwing bombs. " England has no right to be indignant, as her flying machines and ships in broad daylight attacked open towns such as Freiburg, Dar-es-Salaam, and Swakopmund. '* Air war is acknowledged to be a means of modern warfare as long as it is carried out within the rules of international law. This has been done by our dirigibles. " The German nation has been forced by England to fight for her existence, and cannot be forced to forego legitimate self-defence, and will not do so, relying upon her good right." What Our American Cousins Think. IN contrast to the above, it is interesting to note the following comments from the New York Press. In the JANUARY 29, 1915. inspection of the apparatus mounted on the Curtiss flying boat, Mr. Lawrence B. Sperry explaining the principle, the different parts, and connections. Then the following members of the committee were taken for demonstration flights : Messrs. Alan R. Hawley, Charles Jerome Edwards, Henry Woodhouse, Robert Pluym. In each case the aeroplane, after gaining speed on the water, rose from the water under perfect and entire control of the stabilizer, and thereafter, until the time of touching the water again, in landing, the aeroplane was controlled entirely by the automatic stabilizer. In each case Mr. Sperry invited the passenger to ' pilot' the aero plane by moving the lever which controls the direction of the aeroplane, both right and left and up and down, and the passengers found it incredibly easy and effective. Though ithey had never learned to pilot an aeroplane, their experience being entirely limited to flights made with other pilots, they found that they could pilot this aeroplane with greater ease than they could drive an automo bile ; and though at the signal of Mr. Sperry they moved the lever far to the right and left and backwards, causing the aeroplane to turn and climb at steep angles, they did not experience any ' slipping.' On the return trip in each case passenger and pilot climbed on the seats and waved their hands at the rest of the committee below, leaving the instrument to pilot the machine and correct the unbalancing effects of their motions. " At the conclusion of these trials a long flight was made by Messrs. Sperry and Henry Woodhouse from the Bayside Yacht Club, Bayside, Long Island, where the hangar was located, to the Queens- boro Bridge, where Mr. Woodhouse landed. It usually takes halt an hour to cover this distance by automobile ; it only took the flying boat eleven minutes. "The aeroplane practically flew itself all the way. Messrs. Sperry and Woodhouse sat on the edge of the boat practically all the way, and the gyroscopes operated the machine. " The first trial having been carried out in fair weather conditions, the committee waited three days for rough weather before holding the second. On December 6th, the first day of the storm period which swept Long Island and New Jersey, the following gentlemen went to attend the rough weather tests : Alan R. Hawley, Henry Wood- house, Robert Pluym, Glenn H. Curtiss, William H. Williams, W. Benton Crisp. When the place was reached the wind had turned into a gale, and the water was rough and high. The boat was made ready and Messrs. Sperry and Pluym climbed to the seats, and the machine was pushed out of the hangar, with a rope fastened to the tail, to hold it while the wheel attachment, which is used for rolling the machine in and out of the hangar, was being detached. As soon as the machine Left the protection of the hangar a puff of wind blew it to one side, heading it for a wooden platform nearby. While they were attempting to turn it facing the wind the gale increased in violence, and became too violent to allow a safe landing on the narrow beach if a flight was made. So it was decided to beach the machine until the gale had subsided or the direction of the wind had changed. On the following day the gale reached the height of fury and swept away houses and trees. Sperry's hangar was an easy prey and bad the aeroplane been inside it would have been wrecked. As it was, part of the wreckage was blown against it and caused serious damage to the boat and the wings. So the tests had to be temporarily postponed, until Mr. Sperry replaces the machine and builds a new hangar, which he is doing." ® ® course of an editorial on the subject the Tribune ex pressed regret that:— "... a great forward step in civilisation like the invention of air craft should be seized on as a pretext for ignoring the limitations ot civilised war codes, and for going back to the wanton brutality of three or four centuries ago. " The fact that the invaders use airships does not relieve them from the restraints of civilised war. Such an attack does not differ in its essence from an attempt to massacre non-combatants. Civili sation revolts at the relapse from humane military methods which the war has shown to be setting in, and will eventually find some means of stamping out the recrudescence of brutality which subjects women, children, and male non-combatants to the same treatment as armed men." The Sun, in commenting upon the raid, adopted the same attitude. It said :— " An airship attack on unfortified places has no military value ; there is no glory in it; it stimulates recruiting among the people outraged ; it offends the moral sense of neutrals everywhere and alienates them. Therefore it is an amazingly stupid as well as a barbarous kind of warfare. Attempts to justify it insult the intelligence of the whole civilised world."
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