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Aviation History
1923
1923 - 0070.PDF
to promote general knowledge, it is to be feared that certain sections of the Press failed to grasp the really significant passages, and gave much publicity to things which should have been referred to incidentally only, if at all. Thus it is scarcely helpful to make a great shout about the" statement by General Brancker that some day we shall, by flying at great altitudes, be able to travel at 300 miles per hour. The " un- informed " (in a technical sense) sections of the general public are likely to assume that these figures refer to the immediate future, and when nothing happens (at least within the short-lived memory of the public) the momentary interest, or even enthu- siasm, is likely to be followed by apathy, if not by actual distrust and hostility. We are not presuming to blame General Brancker. He was referring to a future achievement for which the present appears to hold out hopes, but if some means could be found to prevent the sensational expressions and " scare," headlines which certain sections of the Press invari- ably adopt when the subject is aviation, we feel that a great step would be made towards that informed public opinion which, we entirely agree with the Secretary of State for Air, is one of the first tasks with which the supporters of aviation are faced. • • •* " Sea 1 ..This week we commence publication of the papers read before the Air Confer- ence by placing before our readers the paper read by Mr. C. R. Fairey, Chairman of the Fairey Aviation Co., and also Chairman of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors. Mr. Fairey's paper is of more than usual interest, not only because it deals with a subject which, although it is perhaps not generally appreciated, is of vital importance to the British Empire, but also, and even more so, on account of the point of view from which Mr. Fairey has chosen to treat his subject. We have had many papers on seaplanes, most of which have been published in FLIGHT, but we say without hesitation that we have never had a paper of more general interest than that read by Mr. Fairey before the Air Conference. Whereas other authors have dealt with the design, the construction and what might be termed the theoretical and engineering side of the subject, Mr. Fairey has taken up the practical, or operational, aspect, treated, in other words, the seaplane from the user's point of view, and has stated admirably and clearly the difficulties connected with handling and using seaplanes. This is a side of the question which has, we fear, been rather overlooked in the past, and _ we are quite certain that Mr. Fairey.'s paper will have done a tremendous amount of good by helping not only the non-technical, but even specialists to a broader and more comprehensive understanding of the prob- lems, advantages, and disadvantages of the seaplane. There is only one slight criticism which we should like to offer. Perhaps Mr. Fairey did not give quite so much prominence as he might have done to the very great possibilities of the amphibian. For the <•> <$> U.S. Representative of F.I .A. THE National Aeronautic Association of U.S.A. is now the sole aeronautic authority in the United States representing the Federation Aeronautic Internationale, this authority having been granted at a m eeting of the F.I.A. on January 2 last. The headquarters of the Association are at 26, Jackson Place, Washington, D.C., and the President is Howard E. Coffin. U.S. Air Mail Wins Collier Trophy. THE Contest Committee of the National Aeronautic Association of U.S .A. have awarded the Collier Aeronautical Trophy, for the g reatest achievement demonstrated in the 70 FEBRUARY 8, 1923. long air routes of the future, except those purely over the sea, or entirely over land, the amphibian, in spite of its present incomplete development, may con- ceivably play a very important part, and it is a type which should be developed alongside of the sea- plane. With the opinion expressed by Mr. Fairey that for the smaller sizes the float seaplane would appear to be the most economical, while for large machines the flying boat seems to be the most promising type, we are in entire agreement, as* also with the statement that, whereas the land machine appears to be nearing the limit of its size, the same is not the case with the flying boat. In fact, this view has been expressed in FLIGHT more than once, and we are extremely glad to have the* confirmation of an authority such as Mr. Fairey. Last year the subject of seaplanes was omitted entirely from the Air Conference pro- gramme. This year the type has had an extremely -••* able champion, and we do not doubt that a great deal of good will have been done for the cause of marine aircraft. In this issue of FLIGHT we publieh an Metal account of a set of all-metal wings builtConstruction . . . , , ,. , & . ,, in America to take the place of the standard wooden wings of a flying boat. The weight of the standard wings was 1-682 lb./sq. ft., whereas the metal wings came out at the very low figure of 1-088 lb./sq. ft. The construction is unusual in that - tubes (mild steel) are used for the spar flanges and diagonal ties. So far as can be gathered, the wings have withstood sand tests successfully, and after the tests were passed as fit for actual flying tests, after, of course, having been conditioned. These wings afford a very interesting comparison with the French methods of metal construction recently described in FLIGHT, and with the methods of metal construction in vogue in this country, and in Germany. In France Duralumin is the metal mostly used, owing to the cost of steel. It is used in various sections, mostly simple rectangular section tubes, but sometimes in the form of built-up box sections or open channel sections. In Germany we have the Junkers tubular con- struction, also in Duralumin, and the Dornier con- struction, which is mixed, steel being used for highly- stressed members and Duralumin for the rest. Dornier uses half-tubes,' or D sections, for his spar flanges and channel sections for the diagonal ties. In this country we are not using Duralumin at all, and most of the metal work done has been with rolled sections of very thin steel sheet, joined by a consider- able number of rivets. The question naturally arises : Who is right ? We think it may very well be f> that the future will show a combination of the various methods, or at any rate of the best of them, to be the solution. In the meantime work is progressing, and the next year or two should provide informative data on what is at present a vexed question. actual use of aviation in America for the year 1922, to the personnel of the U.S. Air Mail Service The Committee in their deliberations brought out the facts that the Air Mail flew 1,727,265 miles, and of all trips scheduled 94.39 per cent, were carried out on time—the machines leaving and arriving as per schedule. This included 7,887 trips, of which 2,433 were conducted in rain, fog, or snow. During this service 1,224,723 lbs. of mail were carried, most of which meant a gain of one business day by the sender and receiver. It may be of interest to note that most of the equipment used by the Air Mail Service are remodelled L>H-4 Army machines built during the War.
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