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Aviation History
1917
1917 - 1057.PDF
OCTOBER II, 1917, as they do aerial photos, of a barrage, of the effects of abombardment, of reconnaissance machines at work, of German machines, &c, &c. Should these not prove sufficientlyabsorbing to the casual visitor, it is easy to spend an hour or more in the examination of the exquisite art studies, whichalways form such an attractive feature of the Society's show. IN response to an appeal on behalf of the Royal Flying Corps Hospital, the nice little sum of ^3,826 has been con- tributed by the Johannesburg branch of the Overseas Club. LORD NORTHCLIFFE, who has now been in America in charge of the British Mission for six months, is likely to be back home before overlong. He has done most invaluable work for the Empire and the world at large during his stay, and it is hardly surprising that he feels it getting time for him to turn his attention for a time to affairs at home, not forgetting aviation, present and future. BRIGHTON will have to look to its laurels, as it is now suggested, d propos of the recent visit to the Stock Exchange of Captain Laureati, who flew, non-stop, from Turin to London, that by October, 2017, quite a number of the men |CHT in the " House '- will have " air seasons " between Italyand London, travelling backwards and forwards night and morning, as is now their custom to the Queen of Watering-places. THAT an Air Ministry, with enlarged powers and inde- pendent control will before very long be an accomplished fact, may be accepted as a necessity of the situation. Neces- sarily Parliamentary procedure demands the sanction of the House, but this will hardly be difficult to secure in the present temper of the country. Many of the statements and deduc- tions, however, in connection with matters now in the melt- ing pot, the bandying about of names, &c, must be taken with considerable caution, although Lord Cowdray, the present Chairman of the Air Board, will no doubt be glad to be relieved of his responsibilities, when the time comes for the re-shuffle. ANOTHER question to be decided by Parliament when it resumes work is as to the hours for its labours. There are quite a number of members who would regard it as quite a national calamity should one of the Huns' hefty bombs distribute its contents whilst the House was assembled. And there are others. B H V*!S!'f*s^¥*s7™ fJkNSWEB H. S. (Hastings).—Judging from your description, themachine is probably one of the R.E. type biplanes. T. E. R. (Manchester).—Applicants for commissions in the R.N.A.S. " must be in good health and free from any physical defect of body, impediment of speech, defect of vision or hear- ing, and also from any predisposition to constitutional or hereditary disease or weakness of any kind, and be in all respects well developed and a good athlete." H. M. (South Shields).—There is no book dealing with "con- struction," but if you mean design we should recommend " Aeroplane Design," by F. S. Barnwell, which can be obtained from " FLIGHT " Offices for 2s. lod. post free. D. R. K. (Rugby).—Theoretically there is nothing inherent to the aeroplane which prevents the adoption of automatically controlled ailerons. A number of devices have been designed for the purpose, many of which, however, suffered from this common fault, however much they may have differed in principle, that there was an appreciable time lag. The majority of pilots are, we think, against the idea of any mechanical control device, and one condition in particular should always be fulfilled, namely, that in an emergency the device should be capable of being instantly put out of gear so as to let the pilot take direct control when desired. Apart from the prejudice of pilots, the objection to any device for automatically controlling the aeroplane is that no matter how simple the device, it always means a certain amount of mechanism, or, in other words, an additional chance of some- thing going wrong. For the large machines of the future, however, it is practically certain that some form of con- trolling mechanism will be employed so as to relieve the pilot of all the control with the exception of steering his compass course. If you are interested in the subject we should advise you to obtain a copy of " FLIGHT " for January 29th, 1915, in which was described the highly ingenious and very success- ful " Sperry Automatic Pilot," which is one of the bestautomatic ^jebilisers ever produced. "Icarus" (Oldham).—On an absolutely calm day it is quite possible for a pilot to switch off his engine, set his elevators, and descend in a straight glide without interfering with his controls. If the machine is longitudinally stable the dive may probably commence with a few " swoops," which will, however, gradually damp themselves out, after which the machine picks up her proper gliding angle and continues without oscillating. The greater the amount of stability the greater the pitching, hence designers usually so design their machines that there is a sufficient, but not au excessive amount of longitudinal stability. The time taken to come down from 10,000 ft. will depend on various con- siderations. We take it that What you have in mind is the time taken with the flattest glide possible. It should be pointed out that an aeroplane can be made to descend at almost any angle, and that when the gliding angle is referred to, the smallest angle of which the machine is capable is always meant. Let us suppose that the machine in question has a gliding angle of one in 10, and glides at a speed of 150 ft. per second. In each second it therefore drops 15 ft., so that the glide from 10,000 ft. would take n .6 minutes. D. J. S. (Petersfield).—The question of stability is already solved in all modern machines to quite a sufficient extent for all practical purposes, and certainly such an elaborate scheme as that of your suggested terrahedral cell arrangement would never have any chance of being adopted owing to the enormous head resistance offered by the cells. The extra lift—granting that there would be any at all, Which does not seem certain—would never be sufficient to outweigh the dis- advantages of the great head resistance. We should advise you to drop the matter entirely, as we cannot see any hope of making any progress along the lines you suggest. British Agent on Pacific Coast. IT was announced in New York on October 9th that Mr. Arthur F. Thane had been appointed Purchasing Agent, for Great Britain on the Pacific Coast, of lumber for aeronautical supplies. Mr. Thane will also have charge of the shipping on the Pacific Coast in the interests of Great Britain. Aliens and State Work. AN Order from the Home Secretary relating to the employment of aliens appeared in the London Gazette of Oct. 9th. The effect of the Order is that after Oct. 15th no alien shall undertake or perform work of the following descriptions, unless he has in his possession an identity book: Any work (other than munitions work as defined in the Aliens Restriction Order) for, or on behalf of, or under con- tract with the Admiralty, Army Council, or Air Board, at any naval, military, or aeronautical" camp, barracks, aerodrome, office, or other naval or military establishment. Other work which an alien is debarred from, is for, or on behalf of, any telegraph, telephone or railway or other concern engaged m the transmission of messages or members of His Majesty's forces, naval or military hospital or medical organ- isation or transport or work in connection with canteens or social clubs or organisations of a benevolent or religious nature for the benefit of or in contact with members of His Majesty's forces. 1957
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