FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0079.PDF
JANUARY 29, 1915. It is quite surprising what a number of new interesting machines have made their debut in the U.S.A. during the last year or so, and in reviewing the ever-growing list of newcomers one cannot help noticing how the general trend of design seems to be in the direction of the fast tractor biplane. Sorting out mentally those that come to mind, a goodly number of the more recent ones are clearly influenced by German practice as regards their general lay-out. Several of them have the arrow type or back-swept wings, to which class belongs also the little biplane illustrated in the accompanying photograph. This machine was designed by Mr. Frank Pontkowsky and built by the Schaap-Sestak Aviation Co. of Chicago. It is fitted with a 50 h.p. Gnome engine, and is said to be a very fast and steady little machine to handle. Among the pilots who have flown it is, I believe, Earl S. Daugherty, who claims to have flown more different types of machines than any other American aviator. XXX Looking over some old aeroplane catalogues the other day, I came across one from a firm whose products, printed as well as constructional, are always very artistic. This particular catalogue was so beautifully " got up " that it was a joy to look through it quite apart from any interest attaching to the machineb illustrated therein, and so absorbed was I in the perusal of the fleecy clouds depicted that it was only by the merest chance that I happened to notice what may have been a mere mechani cal mistake on the part of the artist, or did he mean it as a suggestion for the next machine to be turned out from this factory ? Ordinarily the machine in question is driven by a stationary engine which everybody has hitherto considered to be of ample power.for the work it has to do, but the artist must have thought otherwise, for attached to the crankshaft of the stationary engine was a Gnome motor, the propeller working between the two. The arrangement, although possibly presenting certain mechanical difficulties, opens up vistas of immense possibilities ! XXX Although the Germans have not up to the present succeeded in paying the long-promised visit to London by air, it appears that their raid on the East Coast has infused a certain amount of nervousness into at least one ffiiGHT] Londoner, for, so the story goes, when the other day the tyre of a motor car burst with the usual ear-racking report, a lady who was near by threw herself flat on the pavement shrieking at the top of her voice, " Zeppelins! Zeppelins ! Bombs ! Bombs ! " As the Germans seem to be very well informed of what is going on in this country, they will probably not be slow in making capital of this incident in the form of articles describing the terror that German aircraft have instilled into the entire populace of London. It is hardly to be anticipated that they will elaborate the mirth of other passers by at the antics of the frightened lady, as to reveal such unnecessary details would hardly be in keeping with German policy. But then the German never did see a joke in the same sens? that it is viewed by British. Their humour is so ultra- refined, you know. XXX I happened across in a German contemporary, an interesting account of the testing of a new machine which, according to it, appears to have been evolved at the Potucek works in Prague. The inventor is Adolf Rilp of that city. Then come regrets that owing to the war be published, although the new patented. Already in the pre- machine, according to our con- remarkable lifting power. The object of these tests was to run in the engine and trans mission gear. One of the three cylinders of the 20 h.p. motor was cut out, but in spite of that as soon as the engine had reached about half of its revs., 700, the machine lifted and had to be held down, otherwise it would have flown out of the yard and away over the house tops ! Luckily the driving-chain came off its sprocket, the wing stopped and the machine came gently to earth. The next trials are to be conducted at the Bohemia hangars at Zilow. What impresses our German con temporary most is the low horse-power required to lift the weight of the helicopter (for such I presume it to be), which is stated to be 350 lbs. when the engine was only giving about 7 h.p. When the Rilp helicopter starts helicoptering with all the cylinders firing, evidently our Avro and Sopwith and Martinsyde scouts will have their work cut out to catch up, in spite of their good climbing capabilities. " iEoLus." no particulars can machine has been liminary trials the temporary, showed a^^I • ! Wkk i !BIL 'TZ li^B The 50 h.p. Pontkowsky tractor biplane built by the Scbaap-Sestak Aviation Co. of Chicago, and Down by Earl S. Daugherty. 79
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
