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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 0656.PDF
the hostile agitations against the use of cars in the early days of motoring—against dust-raising, noise and smell—are not disposed to treat lightly the possibilities of nuisances that must certainly arise from the use of thousands of aeroplanes flying low and unsilenced by night and day. Now we come to the levels above 10,000 ft., which I •propose should be internationalised. The upper air should, I think, be free to all, under certain regulations, provided pilots comply with certain rules for meeting and overtaking, and their craft passed as airworthy—let us say, registered as Ai in a Lloyd's aerial register. This would follow the precedent, which has worked well, of the 3-mile limit at sea open to all ships of all nations. Great altitudes will impose upon ordinary flying some disadvantages which will tend to keep international flying overland and oversea near the 10,000 ft. limit, and flying at these levels will probably, so far as international flying is concerned, be conducted along routes to be defined by methods to which I will allude presently, and in some cases nations may agree to admit international traffic to its own levels. But if a particularly cantankerous nation objects to admit any traffic to the lower levels below 10,000 ft., the air routes will not be altogether barred. It is clear also that there will be prohibited areas, naval and military centres, and flying over thickly-populated districts will probably be avoided on account of a certain risk to those who are still content to crawl about on the earth. But, of course, this will not preclude, as I have said, the air lifters of different countries using the lower levels when_ necessary under licence from the countries over which theyTpass. Then postal and passenger services may some- times be driven down to lower levels owing to stress of JUNE 2\ from the West to East, the direction in which the earth turns' there should be round marks—a white ring containing a black centre. Routes emanating from westerly points would be those whose general trend is between north and south on the westerly side of the compass. To take, for example, the routes from America to Ireland, Great Britain to Russia or India, Japan to Alaska or British Columbia, Brazil to the West Coast of Africa—on these the starboard or right hand marks on land and sea alike will be white circles with a black centre, while on the left or port side would be checker marks as shown here, square in shape. At sea a system of large buoys may be necessary, where the depths of the sea is not too great for anchorages. And these marks, I may observe, will have to be of considerable size, probably at least 100 yards xn diameter, for at 10,000 ft. these will appear mere dots on the earth's surface. At night routes may be defined, as you see on these diagrams, by a continuous white light on the right or starboard side, and red and white alternating lights on the left or port side. These international and national routes between countries, parts of a country and continents, should be of a minimum width of 5 miles, and in some cases a space of 10 miles may be a more suitable width when the air eventually becomes crowded. But that time is some way off. Dromes and landing places may have to be convex and circular, on the plan shown in the diagram. The advantage of this will be that every aeroplane alighting will have, running uphill, the force of gravity to arrest its motion, and when starting off again the force of gravity will equally help to give it speed to rise from the ground. At night the principal light which will illuminate these special places will, of course, show its rays up wind, so that the pilot PROHIBITED AREAS TO Bt DEFINED BY CROSS IN RED C'RCLE,-BY DAY, .CONTINUOUS RED LIGHTS BY NIGHT. comwuous RED RAYS - DAY NIGHT LIGHTHOUSES BY NIGHT STARBOARD LIGHTS CONTINUOUS WHITE LIGHT PORT LIGHTS S SeCS. RED 10 SECS. WHITE LIGHTS ON AIRCRAFT AND RULE OF THE ROAD. SAME AS S/i/PS. DARO PASS PORT TO PORT (LEFT TO LEFT) The World's Air Routes and their Regulation. weather. Aircraft desiring to leave" their own levels will, of course, use their wireless to ask for permission from national or international flying authorities. But in this case they should conform, at least so I think, to the rules for silence and any other restrictions which may be found necessary in the lower levels to ensure the peaceful enjoyment of the earth's surface by its inhabitants. The problem of how to Becure law and order on oversea routes is more-tlifricult, and for this purpose it seems to me that we shall have eventually to define the paths to be followed within, say, certain degrees of latitude and longitude. It is here again that international control will be necessary, and this control must be backed by international force in the shape of air police, for without force behind them conventions and international arrange- ments are as futile as the resolutions of the Hague Con- vention have proved to be. It may be, therefore, that flying over "the sea outside the 3-mile limit will become a questic/n of routes outward and homeward with no exactly defined air levels or a fewer number of levels, for there are no inhabitants to annoy over the wide spaces of the ocean, and no one to kill or annoy barring the very remote risk to those few human beings who still will be navigating the sea in ships, probably subniersibles by then. How Routes may be Defined. I now come to the question of how the routes chosen over continents are to be defined and traffic guided by night and by day ; also how landing places are to be constructed and defined. Here, again, I think we may follow the long and proved experience of the sea. It happens that we possess a more or less agreed code of buoys and marks for defining channels, which I suggest should be imitated in the matter of the air. On the right hand, or starboard, side of all routes who is obliged to land against wind will have the light at his back and not at his face when making his landing.- There must also be lights denoting the starboard and port sides, smaller green and red lights on each side of the portion of the ground on which landing is advisable. All these lights should be movable, and be placed on trucks on rails laid down round the circumference of the landing ground, so that they can be moved as the wind shifts from one quarter to another, and in the daytime they can be used in conjunction with indication marks to achieve the same purpose. Let us take as an example the route from London to the north of England and Scotland. On account of the less windy character of the east as compared with the west coast, the route would probably follow to some extent the Great Northern Railway. It would divide somewhere on the borders of Durham, near Scotch Corner, whence the Glasgow route would take a north- westerly direction, over by Brough, Carlisle and the Nith Valley ; while that to Edinburgh would continue straight on by Newcastle, and thence either by Berwick under the lee of the Cheviots in the westerly winds which largely pre- dominate in these latitudes or up Redesdale over the Carter Fell. These different routes would be indicated by large white arrows on the ground with, perhaps, the initial letter letter E or G to say in which direction the routes were pro- ceeded. At night such arrows would be illuminated. The marks and lighthouses could be at intervals of 10 miles alternately each side, or 20 miles apart on the same side, as shown on the diagram ; and in the case of fogs these light- houses will help, like those concerned in navigation by sea, with wireless telegraphy and toned fog horns. There will also be assistance given by at l^ast two new and very recent developments of wireless telegraphy, by which direction of bodies in motion can be accurately ascertained by the 656
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