FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1919
1919 - 1533.PDF
; NOVEMBER 27, 1919 Fig. 7: The Balloon safely home. was inflated at Roehampton and was let up to about 100 ft. The slip shackle was pulled from the ground, and the rip cords, of which there were two in case one failed, were then Fig. 10: Alter landing on Barnes Bridge. pulled. The balloon rose to about 500 ft. and descended quickly, but without apparent violence. The shock indicators showed the force of landing to have been equivalent to a fall of about 3 ft. This experiment was deemed sufficiently satisfactory, and permission was given for passengers to be carried on the next trial. Accordingly, on April 25, 1917, Major Max Spencer and myself were let up from the winch at Roehampton to 400 ft. in a wind of 21 m.p.h. On pulling the release, the cable dropped and the balloon rose quickly. Then we pulled the rip panel, and the balloon, after rising about another hundred feet, commenced to descend. No doubt I was somewhat nervous, so, finding the balloon descending quicker than we had expected, we threw all our ballast and landed in Richmond Park. There was no shock, the branches of an elm tree breaking our fall completely. We were on the ground fifty seconds after breaking away. The second experiment was madeby Major Dalziel and myself on May 4,1917 (Figs. 4 to 7). The balloon was released from its cable at Roehampton at an altitude of 1,200 ft. After rising to 1,500 ft. the rip was pulled when the speed of ascent had reached 750 ft. per minute, and the descent commenced. We had previously decided that, unless we were scared by the speed of fall, we would throw no ballast, but take the bump with knees bent. We certainly came down rather hard, and, the wind being rough, we dragged some distance in Richmond Park and through a stream "before we were caught by the men waiting to receive us. The time in the air was 2 min. 22 sec. On the third experiment (Fig. 8) 1 was fortunate to get General Maitland to accompany me, and it was at his desire that the break-away was to be made as high as the balloom would lift the cable. The cable available was a heavy one, and we were let up to 2,000 ft., where the balloon refused t» lift more weight. At this altitude, in a wind of 24 m.p.h., the release was operated and the cable dropped, being checked in its fall by a parachute attached to its top end. The balloon, then free and relieved of the weight of the cable (Fig. 9), ascended until the speed-of-rise indicator marked 1,000 ft. per minute at 2,500 ft. and the rip was then operated. As the gas escaped from the aft compartment the angle of the balloon increased from 450, its normal free angle, t» about 8o°, when the scoop of the tail approached the car and we could look down into it and see the interior rigging. As the balloon descended she slowly turned round, not quickly enough to give any sensation of giddiness, but continually changing the direction of view. The wind being from the south, our course was towards the Thames, which is only a little over a mile from Roehampton R.N.A. Station. There seemed every chance of the balloon descending in the river, so, not wishing to get wet, we put out a bag of ballast at 500 ft. and another at 200 ft. These saved us from the river, but not from Barnes Railway Bridge, the parachute lines of the balloon catching in the g rders of the bridge and making the balloon captive, while the balloon descended on the electric railway. The stationmaster at Barnes Railway Station had previously been warned of the possibility of the balloon descending on the railway, so, when he saw it travelling in that direction, he stopped the traffic before the actual landing took place, and he then stood by the switch " to cut off the current in the event of anything happening." Nothing did happen, however, in spite of the car coming down between the two live rails, rolling first into one rail and then into the Fig. 11 : Deflating. other, while the tail sat across the live and wheel rails. The balloon and the car curtsied up and down, and we had to Fig. 12: Maj. Dalziel, General Maitland and Griffith Brewer. 1535
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
