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Aviation History
1916
1916 - 0374.PDF
MAY 4. 1916. Continued from page 198.) Some General Considerations. WHEN we consider the new activity which will be created by the more extensive use of aircraft in the future, an activity which will by no means be limited by the bound aries of this or any other country, but will triumphantly encircle the whole world ; when we know that this activity will be governed greatly by external conditions, we realise that the selection of suitable harbourage for aircraft cannot be left in the hands of those who see only the necessity, on commercial or " business " lines, for placing these harbours in the vicinity of established centres of industry, without thought of the utilisation of natural con ditions. In other words, being a scheme of great national and international importance, it should, therefore, have a scope and facilities commensurate with such a position. In any case, applied science, practical geology, and other physical sciences constitute the essentials of this scheme. The economist will have, of course, a very important say in this matter, and it is certain that in well-advanced countries, like England, the choice of a suitable site will have to be somewhat of a compromise, between ideal natural conditions and the need of established industries. In the comparatively new countries, where the industrial activities are as yet primitive, this selection may be governed largely by favourable natural conditions. Unless it is proved that air currents, &c, have no influence on powerful airships, or only an influence so negligible that it can be ignored, the choice of harbours would have to involve, besides geological considerations, an exhaustive study of air-currents, and all the theory attached to them. Although it is true that this question of air currents is greatly minimised as the speed of our aircraft increases, it must be remembered that on leaving or returning to their harbours the airships must necessarily be moving at a comparatively low speed, and are therefore, under these circumstances, within the influence of air currents and other atmospheric dis turbances to a greater extent. For this reason deep and long valleys may offer but a poor shelter for airships. The air currents reaching the mountainous ridges of such valleys, often become weighted with a considerable quantity of accumulated rain or snow, and this additional weight would cause them to rush down the valley with great force, forming treacherous eddies along its slopes. Again, the cooling of the earth during clear nights is followed by aerial currents, and in such places as deep valleys they gain in force amounting almost to a gale. The rocks, in contrast to the sur rounding earth overgrown with vegetation, radiate air currents of different velocities, and this fact may render somewhat dangerous the employment of such rocky localities for harbours, especially as the horizontal currents would form considerable eddies against the rocks rising from the ground. For similar reasons the high cliffs round the sea coast may be found entirely unsuitable for our purpose. Perhaps a gently undulating country like the South Downs may present the most ideal condi tions for airship harbours. It will be seen, therefore, that all these points require very careful consideration, firstly in selecting our natural harbours so that they present the most favourable con ditions as regards air currents, &c, and secondly, since we cannot be entirely immune from the latter and their effects, in finding a means of surmounting the difficulties thus presented. Perhaps it would be better to see how we would deal with the latter case first, since the problems obtaining in the former depend much upon the nature of the particular kind of geological formation that may be decided upon to serve as our natural harbour, and this will receive attention when considering these various formations. When large ocean-going ships reach the vicinity of their harbours they have to reduce their speed and be carefully guided, usually by the aid of tugs, to the quay, and vice versa when outward bound : a slow and intricate process compared with their progress when at sea. It seems that it will be very much the same with the large airships of the future—a suitable landing space or outer-harbour, sheltered as much as possible, must be provided adjacent to the harbour, where the airship on descending is taken charge of by " tugs " and carefully guided into its dock. These " tugs " might consist of a series of electrical loco motives holding the airship forward, aft and amidships by its trail ropes, and running on rails suitably laid from the outer to the inner harbour. Too much stress cannot be laid on the necessity to prepare for the coming development of aeronautics on the broadest and most generous lines. The past has one significant message for us: in no case has man fully anticipated the development of his own inventions or fully realised their significance. We may pass over the seemingly haphazard way in which villages and towns in Europe grew; we are, of course, not considering here their charms, beauties or homeliness. It seems as if our forefathers were satisfied with a village green, whereon to career round the may-pole. The system of streets and roads leading from these towns is at the present perfectly bewildering, as any motorist can verify. The railway system is equally arbitrary and confusing. The over lapping which is the outcome of commercial competition leads to national waste. This irrational growth of railway system in Europe can be directly traced to commercial competition and to the want of imaginativeness, timidity, or lack of optimism in man's progress. The war is a splendid, if terrible, example of how a nation can abandon individual competition for collective action, when it desires to gain a goal beneficial and necessary to the national welfare. In the practice and science of aeronautics, which attained its present degree of usefulness in a few years, we must expect a phenomenal advance, a daring leap forward, of which there is no parallel in the world's 374
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