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Aviation History
1924
1924 - 0068.PDF
JANUARY 31, 1924 To be Married The engagement is announced of Mr. C. T. FREEMAN, D.S.C., A.F.C., late Major R.N.A.S. and R.A.F., only son of Mr. and Mrs. P. B. F. Freeman, of Southgate, and MARGARET LEONORA, second daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. J. E. WATSON, of Potters Bar. Items. Lieut.-Aviateur Willy Coppens, Air Attache at the Belgian) Embassy, has returned to London from Belgium. Captain Silvio Scaroni, Air Attache at the Italian Embassy, has returned to London from the Continent. H H H H NEW LEGS FOR OLD WE take it there are few of our readers who have not heard the story of Marcel Desoutter's crash in his Bleriot at Hendon in 1913, which crush resulted in an above-the-knee amputation of the leg ; how, after his recovery, he brought his engineering, and mechanical knowledge into use and designed and built himself an artificial leg of metal—light in weight and scientific in operation—to replace the heavy, painful, common-or-garden wooden leg ; how, in a few months' time, he was walking about with ease and comfort with but little outward sign that anything was amiss—not only walking, but flying again. Since that time the Desoutter Artificial Leg—from the start a beautiful piece of work—has been developed and improved, and it can justly claim to be the last word in artificial limb construction. This being the case, it would be thought that the many rendered in varying degrees limb less owing to the War would thus be able to obtain some considerable relief to their suffering. Unfortunately, however, owing to the comparatively high cost of this device, the H 0 The New Under-Secretary for Air Visits Croydon MR. WILLIAM LEACH, the new Under-Secretary for Air, has lost no time in obtaining first-hand experience qf civil aviation, as carried out from Croydon Aerodrome, for, on Monday, January 28, he not only paid a visit to the aero drome, but he also went up for a flight of about half-an-hour's duration. He went up in the Instone D.H.34 (Napier " Lion ") " City of Glasgow," piloted by Capt. F. L. Barnard (of King's Cup fame), and had as fellow passengers Brig.-Gen. Festing (Controller of Licences and Aerodromes), Col. Bristow (Technical Adviser to the Instone Air Line) and Maj. Greer (I.A.L., General Manager). The machine was taken to a point some 40 miles outside the aerodrome, and during the return trip, Mr. Leach was given the opportunity of observing the practical working of the guiding of an aeroplare into port by means of wireless. Afterwards, in expressing his entire satisfaction with his experiences, Mr. Leach remarked : " I want civil aviation to progress, but a greater hope is that in the future we shall have aviation for war purposes killed. As Under-Secretary I shall be more concerned, perhaps with the civil side, and attending to it will undoubtedly be a congenial task." Dopes and Fabric THE paper under above title, read by Dr. J. E. Rams- bottom, of the Royal Aircraft Establishment, before the Royal Aeronautical Society on January 24, was a most weighty one, but as the subject, although of the greatest importance, is scarcely one of general interest, we do not propose to refer in detal to the paper here. In the very nature, of the subject, it is not possible usefully to condense it, so that all who wish to study the subject in detail should" make a point of obtaining a copy of the Society's Journal, a forthcoming issue of which will contain the lecture in full. The lecturer stated that the best results, as far as tautness was concerned, had been obtained with closely- woven highly-calendered fabric, indicating that the adhesion was satisfactory, even when the dope penetration was small. The initial tension at which the fabric was stretched on the' framework was important, and it had been found that slack planes in service could often be traced to the practice of covering the planes with fabric some considerable time before the dope was applied, the fabric in the meantime losing practically all its tension. The lecturer stated that in practice it was probable that the tensions obtained by hand-stretching rarely exceeded 2 lb. per in. warp, and 1 lb. per in. weft. As the contractile power of dope might reach 7 lb. per inch, he thought it safe to assume that greater tension could be put in the fabric without distorting the framework. Dr. Rams- Ministry of Pensions could not, at first, see its way to supply the Desoutter limb to all ranks of pensioners, and only the more fortunately situated ones, blessed with the necessary financial means, were able to avail themselves of this boon. Thanks, however, to the unceasing agitation on the part of many good persons—notably Capt. H. H. C. Baird, D.S.O., himself a satisfied user of the Desoutter limb, a special com mittee of enquiry was set up to investigate the matter, with the result that the Desoutter Light Metal Limb can now be supplied to all ranks. , As there appear to be many ex-Service men, who have lost legs, who are unaware of this opportunity now available, we gladly draw attention to the facts of the case in our columns, and also would refer to a useful pamphlet written by Capt. Baird, containing full particulars of the Desoutter Artificial Leg, procedure for obtaining same, etc., which may be obtained on receipt of 2d. for postage from Capt. H. H. C. Baird, Bridge, near Canterbury. HI H bottom, in making a comparison between nitro and acetyl dopes, stated that fabric doped with the former was less sensitive to changes in humidity. As regards fire risks in the air, there appeared to be little difference between the doping schemes, while in crashes fires had been known to occur with aeroplanes constructed entirely of metal, and also- with those treated with fireproof dope, thus indicating that the danger of fire after a crash could not be eliminated by using fireproof materials. The Structure of Rigid Airships THE paper on " Some Problems in Connection with the Structure of Rigid Airships," read before the Institution of Aeronautical Engineers, on January 25, by Lieut.-Col. V. C. Richmond, O.B.E., B.Sc, A.R.C.S., A.F.R.Ae.S., proved to be a most interesting one, the more so in view of the plans for resuming airship work in this country at an early date. We regret we have not the space to publish the paper in full, and would advise all interested in the subject to obtain the forthcoming issue of the Proceedings of the Institution, in which the paper and illustrations will be published. The lecturer arrived at the conclusion that structurally a lower fineness ratio than hitherto used was an advantage, and thought that the trend of future design wouid undoubtedly be in that direction. In this connection it is of interest to note that the German airship Bodensee was of much lower ratio than the War type Zeppelins. He also thought that a reduction in the number of longitudinals was advantageous, and stated that there was every indication that it would be possible to achieve this modification. Future airships would probably have an external cross-section of 13 sides or so, and the longitudinal girders would only be subjected to very light lateral loads due to the outer cover. Czechoslovakia's Aviation Budget THAT Czechoslovakia means to push ahead as far as aviation is concerned is borne out by the fart that the 1924 Budget provides 163,330,000 kr. (£1,090,000 roughly) for aeronautical purposes—an increase of 26,000,000 kr. over last year's estimate. Esthonia, Too ! ESTHONIA is also alive to the importance of aviation, for their Budget provides for 10 million Esthonian marks as a subsidy to the Esthonian Air Traffic Co—" Aeronaut." The company has the monopoly of air traffic in Esthonia, and undertakes to organise whatever air lines are required by the Ministry of Communications. At present it is operat ing the Revel-Riga and Revel-Helsingfors lines. 68
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