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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0608.PDF
a sporting chance this year. In a short speech made by Commander James Bird during the visit to the Southampton Works, he strongly emphasised the fact that the British machines would not attain the speeds with which some machines had been credited in certain quarters, such as 270 m.p.h., but he did feel confident, in spite of the undoubtedly excellent qualities of the American defenders, that the British machines would stand a chance. It was not, Com- mander Bird said, going to be a "walk-over" by any means, but, barring accidents, he felt that the British machines would put up a very good fight. This tallies precisely with our own feelings on the subject, and we are quite sure that, whether the Cup comes back to this country or not, the per- formances put up by the British machines will be such as to be a credit to the British aircraft industry. A fact which may play a very important part in the decision of the race will be the question of corner- ing. The course over which the Schneider Cup Race is to be flown is a triangular one of 50 kms. (31 • 1 miles), and is to be covered seven times, so that some 19 or 20 turns will have to be made. With the high speeds attained by these modern racing machines the physical effect on the pilots in cornering may be very serious, and we believe that it is almost impossible to take machines around sharp corners at more than 200 m.p.h. without the pilot feeling giddy and dazed owing to the fact that, in a steeply-banked turn, centrifugal force tends to drain the blood from the pilot's head. If, therefore, 200 m.p.h., or some such figure, represents the maximum speed at which the machine can safely be taken round corners, there will not be a very great advantage in having machines which will do over 250 m.p.h., since the machines will have to be slowed down some time before reaching the corners, and will have to accelerate again after rounding the corners, especially as probably the average time taken for each leg of the course will be only from two to three minutes. It is therefore quite possible that a machine with a top speed in straight flight of 240 m.p.h. will do quite as well round the corners as will one having a top speed of 250 m.p.h., although, naturally, the faster machine should, with its lower resistance, be able to accelerate more quickly. This, however, works both ways, and the more efficient machine would take longer to slow down for the turn than would the less efficient machine, and to all appearances it would seem possible that actual top speed is not going to mean everything in the race. Taking all these various factors into considera- tion, we feel confident that, even if the American machines should be a trifle faster than our own, the actual speeds round such a short triangular course should be about the same, and if that is so, the race looks like being a close one. That our thoughts will be with the British repre- sentatives a great deal during the next month they may be assured, and may the hope that one or the other will bring home the cup, materialise. SEPTEMBER 24, 1925 ( In a short speech made on the occasion foUows °* ^e press visit to the Felixstowe Air Records '' Station to inspect the Gloster-Napier III, Mr. David Longden mentioned a fact which is, we are afraid, only too often overlooked in this country. " I would incidentally add," Mr. Longden said, " that a British victory in the race would prove a matter of great importance also to the prosperity of the industry, for trade follows records." The italics are ours, and the sentence deserves to become the slogan of the British aircraft industry. The lamentable absence of any British world's record is a sad reflection on the way we manage things in this country, and seems to indicate that the fact, for it is undoubtedly a profound truth, is not generally appreciated in this country. Mr. Longden has always realised the vital importance of records, and his firm was for years the only one to go seriously into the design and construction of racing machines. Had other firms had the same outlook there would have been no need to abandon during the last two years the only international speed race to be held in this country, the Aerial Derby, and public interest, as well as international interest, in British aviation and British machines would have been considerably greater than it can be assumed to be at present. Mr. Longden thus deserves well of the British aviation community for calling attention to the importance of records, and it is sincerely to be hoped that our renewed effort this year in connection with the Schneider Cup Race will be found to mark a growing realisation of our duties as an air power. Establishing world's records is a costly business, and cannot be effectively done without government assist- ance. If the truth of this statement be doubted, we have a very concrete and very striking example in France during the last two years or so. It is but a few years ago that the United States had managed to secure nearly all the world's records worth having, and France suddenly realised that her prestige was slipping away. The French Under-Secretary of State for Air, M. Laurent Eynac, who was always a strong believer in the utility of world's records, and who expressed the opinion once that world's records were " the publicity of a nation's aircraft industry," succeeded in obtaining sanction for substantial money prizes to be awarded to French constructors who built machines that brought back to France any of the records lost to America. What has been the result ? It has been that to-day France again holds nearly all the world's records that count,[such as the speed record, the duration record, the speed record over 1,500 and 2,000 km., etc. The British Air Ministry has made an excellent start this year by ordering two racing machines for development work. Let us hope that this form of practical support will be continued and extended in the future. If that is done there is not the slightest doubt that British designers and constructors will prove equal to the task of producing machines capable of securing for Great Britain some of those records which are held by others. Soviet Russia's Air Fleet STEADY progress is, according to The Times correspondent, being made in the building up of a formidable air fleet in Russia. While it is true that much of Russia's air strength is on paper or in the extravagant speeches of Soviet politicians, Soviet Russia is nevertheless making every effort to create a very powerful air fleet. In July, 1925,ithey had 987 aero- planes and seaplanes on its active list. Of these 625 were observation machines, 296 were fighters, and 66 heavy bombers. The Soviet Air Fleet is organised in squadrons of 12 machines each, including four reserve machines. The whole fleet in July numbered 98 squadrons, few of which were up to establishment, stationed mostly in European Russia— 32 in the Ukraine, 17 in the Caucasus, 17 in the Province of Moscow, 9 in Leningrad District and 5 in the Volga. 608
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