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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0045.PDF
JANUARY 20, 1921 and have been confiscated. The German Government has refused to surrender spare pieces for airships, on the ground that they were manufactured and are intended for commercial airships. Air-Commodore Masterman, whose report supplements that of Marshal Foch, concludes by stating that the Germans, since the beginning of December, have displayed "systematic indications of opposing and resisting the claims of the Allies, and have shown a firm determination, by continually employing tactics that will involve delay, not to fulfil the Peace Treaty." THAT aviation will be a prominent factor in the everyday life of the civilised world is referred to by Professor F. K. Moulton, the well-known scientist of the University of Chicago. In dealing with the wonders of the future the other day before members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, at Chicago, he dismissed the permanence of aviation as a foregone conclusion, in his estimate of future scientific possibilities. Starting with the rather minus estimate of the intelligence of man today which he placed on a par with that of a toad as compared with what it will probably be in future years, the Professor was on fairly safe ground in suggesting that the present human mind could not comprehend the mental superiority of our successors a few million years hence. Continuing, he acclaimed : "It is merely foolish to talk of making an aeroplane as safe as a tramcar, because that is simply a matter of a few years. Greater things and newer sciences and discoveries which will make the wonders of this age fade into simplicity will probably come out of the distant future. Forces," he declared, " will be discovered which will make electricity and radium pale." WE'RE glad to know we shan't after all have to hang about those few million years for our Government to get on a hustle aerially. SIR PERCY SCOTT'S latest pronouncement in connection with the " Capital Ships or " controversy, is as follows :— " In trying to arrive at the utility of the super-Dreadnoughts we must bear in mind that the earliest date on which the first one could be completed is the summer of 1923, and we must consider what improvements will possibly be made in the new weapons during that time. One thing that I think we can make sure of is that all seagirt countries will secure themselves against attack by building submarines and aeroplanes, and that they will devise a torpedo carrying a charge of T.N.T. sufficient to blow the bottom out of our £9,000,000 battle- ships." Apropos this discussion in which the vital importance o* aircraft has not so far been taken sufficiently into considera- tion, " N.O. (retired) " in a letter bearing upon the general aspect strikes a new note, well worthy of giving serious thought to those who know what the internal combustion engine, outside the realm of the air, did during the War. " N.O." sarcastically concludes his views with the words : " No, sir, battleships may be doomed, but the end is not yet. Coastal motor boats are today sounding the death-knell of the big ship, and so the Admiralty are closing down the C.M.B. base at Osea Island ! " Now that parachuting seems to be getting active again new record claims should not be accepted too readily. By way of instance, a parachute jump from an aeroplane flying at 100 m.p.h. by M. Jean Orrs at Nice the other day, was thus put forward as a new record. This, however, has been quickly laid to rest by Major T. Orde Lees, writing from the office of E. R. Calthrop's Aerial Patents, Ltd., Eldon House, Eldon Street. Major Orde Lees writes :—" I do not want to rob Monsieur Orrs, whom I know quite well, of his laurels, but in October, 1918, I jumped from an English machine at Isle of Grain, officially timed to be flying at T30 miles an hour over the ground and 100 miles an hour air speed as shown in attached cutting. " Owing to the high speed of the wind I purposely dropped into the water. The height was less than 400 feet, which is very low for parachuting, and can only be attempted with parachutes having some device for positive-opening, like the Orrs' parachute and the Guardian Angel parachute. "Again, at Dayton, Ohio, on July 11, 1919, I dropped at only 250 feet from a machine flying at 120 miles an hour with a similar parachute." " BUT the most remarkable jump of that kind," continues the Major, " was made by Miss Sylva Boyden, the English air- girl, at Copenhagen, on October 3, 1920, when she jumped from a German machine with a German pilot flying at 190 miles an hour over the ground. The wind at the time was 90 miles an hour in the air and 60 miles an hour on the ground. This is easily a record for speed." THERE are those—short-sighted things—who insist that " H.P." and others who have helped to make aviation an every- day affair should be put away as being, by their work, a menace to future generations. But really the Editor of the " Poet's Corner " of the H.P. Bulletin may easily find himself arraigned for encouraging serious breaches of the peace if he should persist in further encouraging those " poetical " effusions which have recently formed part of the Bulletin. Ellup! Order of the British Empire THE King has given orders for the following promotion in, and appointment to, the Order of the British Empire for services in connection with the War (to be dated January 1, 1920).'— (C.B.E.) Commander w Henry Ernest Spry, Esq., Chief Establishment Officer, Aircraft Production Department, Ministry of Munitions. Sadi Lecointe Decorated M. LECOINTE, the well-known French pilot, has beencreated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Aero Club de France Grand Prix ENTRIES closed for the above on January 15, when the engagement of ten machines had been notified to the Club. These, with probable pilots, were: 1. Nieuport (Sadi Lecointe) ; 2. Breguet, type 20 (Roget) ; 3. Breguet, type 18 ; 4. Caudron, triple motor, type 39 ; 5. Farman, single motor (Jean Bernard or Drouin) ; 6. Farman (Goliath) (Ferdinand d'Or or Coupet) ; 7. Bleriot (de Romanet) ; 8. B16riot (Casale) ; 9. Potez (Douchy) ; 10. De Marcay (Benoit). The Farman (5) is a special machine for the contest, and rumour credits it with very great carrying capacity combined with a big turn of speed. The new Spad-Herbemont commercial machine (No. 8) down to be piloted by Jean Casale last week, was tested by this clever pilot before the Service Technique. The machine carries five passengers at a cruising speed of about 124 m.p.h.(?), and with a range of 6 hours' non-stop flight. The weight empty is given as 1,000 kg. and the loaded weight as 2,000 kg., the load carried being equal to the empty weight of the machine. The wing area is about 465 sq. ft., giving a wing loading of just over q\ lbs. per sq. ft. The engine fitted is a Salmson type Z9, of 250 h.p., so that the power loading is 17.6 Ibs./h.p. During the tests the machine with full load climbed to 3,500 metres in 47 mins. Across Australia by Air A GOOD performance is announced from Melbourne. Mr. C. J. Degaris, with a pilot, on a " D.H. 4 " left Brisbane on January 16, at 4.30 a.m., and arrived at Melbourne on the 17th at 8 p.m., having made three landings on the way. The actual flying time for the r,ioo miles covered was 10i hours. Fokker Machines for London-Berlin Service IN the early part of this year it is authoritatively stated that a regular air-service is to be inaugurated between London and Amsterdam, with connections to Hamburg, Copenhagen, and Berlin with a fleet of Fokker commercial monoplanes which are now being built in the works of the Fokker Company at Amsterdam. The service will, by means of the German interior air lines, connect up with all the principal German cities ; while the route to Copenhagen will be extended by a seaplane service to connect with Sweden. The type of machine to be used is that which recently flew over to this country to Waddon Aerodrome, and was described and illustrated in FLIGHT at the time. These Dutch-built machines are all to be equipped with Siddeley •' Puma " engines. More Air Training Centres for France ' .:.».' Now that the French authorities have drawn up their system of reserve-pilots, the scheme is being elaborated so that those joining up shall have every facility for thorough training. Five centres are at once to be established situated at Orly .(Seine), Angers, Orleans, Clermont-Ferrand and Bordeaux. These will be under the control of the Navigation Aerienne, the machines being supplied by the Government and the hangars and aerodromes either by the State or by the local associations of pilots and aero-clubs. The civil pilots who join up will each have one hour's flying per month free at one or other of the centres. Rhdne-engined Caudron G-3 machines will be employed. 45
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