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Aviation History
1927
1927 - 0086.PDF
FEBRUARY 10, 1927 The exhaust noise was negligible. >One improvement would be slow-revolving,low-geared propellers instead of the small, swift propellers. The petrol pump in the " Hercules" fuselage, incidentally, was only temporarilypositioned there, and would be altogether deleted in future types. On the matter of chairs he found no agreement whatever. Male passengershad approved of headrests and females had not. It crushed their hats. He would like suggestions from Air-Commodore Weir. A chair in whichone could sleep comfortably was a necessity. Mr. Handley Page thought it was a fine thing when different bodiesinterested in aviation could all gather like this. It was a movement that wanted developing. They would have to try and convert some peoplewith money in order to obtain a larger building for these discussions. Of the various points in connection with air comfort he thought that noisewas the chief trouble, but he did not agree that it was largely composed of propeller noise. Noise was not essentially because propellers were geared.Money was very necessary to make research into the whole problem, and then inevitably the trouble would be put right. To some extent the remedyJay in further refinement of mechanical engineering. He thought the long exhaust pipes leading far behind the cabins was not the cause of most noise.They were quite satisfactory. The comfort of seating depended on more room. Designers were too narrow in their consideration of a passenger'srequirements ; 6 ft. by 3 ft. by 2 ft. was not enough. We wanted air to breathe and that relied on space. Bumps were eliminated, he thought,with big machines. He recalled a big machine, completed at the end of the war, which was going to make a flight to Berlin. It was so steady inthe air that the pilot actually left his cockpit and walked amongst the passengers, much to their alarm. There was a widespread idea prevailing,largely through the great cry of the press, that the size of machines and metal construction were going to solve all aeronautical problems. Theywere erroneously regarded as the only two paths to progress. It was totally wrong. He did wish the press would not emphasise this so much.With a greater number of engines there was inevitably greater chance of partial breakdown, so that we wanted some limit to the number used.Reliability was the next important issue. Every aeroplane should be under perfect controllability at any speed and when stalled. That was the chieffactor towards achieving reliability. He thought that night flying should be encouraged, and that the future of aviation would depend on the successof night flying. It saved time. He found that to run over to Paris in the day more or less wasted that day, whereas to go at night left one the wholeday clear. Professor Low thanked the Chairman for the opportunity of speaking,and pointed out that as he had done no long-distance flying he could regard himself purely as one of the public, and therefore express their opinionperhaps. He realised that finance was at the root of most of the necessities for air comfort. He had found that in open cockpits the conditions weremuch more comfortable than in enclosed cabins. He had emerged from a cabin dirty, deafened and sick ; and the same from a sporting car. But,apart from the uncomfortable conditions in aircraft travel and their reaction on passengers, there was the psychological aspect to be considered. Noisewas not necessarily objectionable. Noise could be unobtrusive. If noise came as people expected it to come it did not affect them. If it came withan unexpected nature it did affect them. With three engines the noise was unpleasant because it varied. A steady rhythm was not at all objectionable.He thought that speed would add considerably to comfort. It would cause a machine to ride bumps. We ought to make a study of jerks. If we gota jerk which rose one, say, | in. in a length of travel of £ in., it was obviously uncomfortable, but if we rose $ in. in a length of, say, 100 ft. that would notbe too bad. We ought to differentiate between the noise that was pleasant and that which was not. Large machines would solve the problem to agreat extent. Mr. North said that we must not expect too much from large machines.He thought that engines had passed their economic size. Mr. Chorlton said he could not speak with much experience of aircraft,but he thought the noise in duralumin machines was not so bad as was suggested. A quieter engine would mean that the power output in relationto weight would be lower. He did not like the long exhaust pipe ranging down the whole length of the fuselage. It caused intermittent throbbing.But the whole trouble would be solved eventually by turbines. He did not see that the expense of making research into the noise trouble was worthwhile to-day with the flights averaging only three hours' duration. He thought that damping devices, so largely adopted by the railways, should betried. Engine mountings were not coupled to the fuselages except by hard and fast bolts and nuts. With regard to bumps he thought that a higherwing loading would help to overcome them. Captain Leverton said that as it was understood that people were sickso much in the air the problem then arose how and where are they to be sick ? Accommodation for the purpose was totally inadequate. Lookat the comfort for being sick given you on ships. There was required a long rail to stagger along by and more room at the tail, instead of one miserableplace that could only contain one wretched being. Many things conduced towards upsetting people. For instance, when cabin walls moved it wasnot exactly reassuring, particularly when they moved on their own altogether. Air Vice-Marsha! Sir Vyell Vyvyan said that passengers liked three-enginedmachines, but the troubie was in rilling such large liners. For the sake of economy it was necessary in winter, anyhow, to have single engines. Theposition on Imperial Airways now was that they could run to a profit in summer (with the subsidy, of course), but not in winter. The number ofpassengers was going up and the expenses going down. He thought that airships would cut out aeroplanes on long-distance routes, but there wouldbe more scope for aeroplanes by serving auxiliary lines to the airship lines. He emphasised the fact that they would make Imperial Airways pay so longas they had the subsidy, but it must not decrease gradually, as it was doing, and it must certainly not stop altogether. Major Brackley said that they were helping pilots to find the smoothestpassages by meteorological study communicated by wireless. They could not seek the calmer high altitudes owing to the petrol capacity. Perhaps therewould be a lighter fuel one day. Mr. Grey thought that bumps were solely remedied by the pilots.Captain de Havilland said that the silencing of the cabins by insulation should be considered rather than silencing the engines.Captain Tymms said that the Air Ministry had made investigations into materials suitable for insulation purposes, and had found that hair felt,generally considered as the best insulation material, was no good whatever. These investigations and results were at the disposal of anyone. Colonel O'Gorman, summing up the evening's discussion, praised theastuteness shown by the different speakers on the subject. He agreed with them all that security was the dominating question to be considered. Hethought that the psychological aspect was very important. It was exceedingly necessary, failing any improvement in the present troubles, todistract the passengers' attention. Keep them amused and interested. Space, that is, large machines, would help to do that. He knew frompersonal experience that the general freedom on airships was the sole reason that gave passengers more comfort in them. Pilots would not fly out ofsight of land with less than three engines. Altitude was one solution for avoiding bumps. The Royal Air Force Memorial Fund THE usual meeting of the Grants Sub-Committee of the Fund was held at Iddesleigh House on February 3. Lieut- Commander H. E. Perrin was in the Chair, and the other mem- bers of the committee present were ;—Mrs. L. M. K. Pratt- Barlow, O.B.E., Squadron-Leader Douglas Iron, O.B.E. The Committee considered in all 9 cases, and made grants to the amount of £40. The next meeting was fixed for February 24, at 2.30 p.m. Imperial Airways Items IMPERIAL Airways, Ltd., are issuing books of Airways tickets at reduced rates—a book of 10 tickets costing the price of nine. A new service for business men between Croydon and Ostend will be inaugurated during the Ostend season. One of the Imperial Airways pilots, Capt. R. H. Mclntosh, has just completed eight years of continuous flying between London and Paris, having carried some 8,000 passengers during that period ! Another I.A.L. pilot, Capt. W. G. R. Hinchliffe, accom- plished a flight, on February 4, carrying press photographs, from Cherbourg to London—a distance of 150 miles—in 76 mins. He was flying a land machine, and steered a direct compass course. Blackburns in Greece : Our photograph shows one of the five Black- burn " Velos " sea- planes recently tested by Major H. S. Travers, D.S.C., before delivery to the Greek Govern- ment. It is the pro- duction of the National Aircraft Factory near Athens, organised by the Blackburn Aero- plane Co., and is a development of the Blackburn "Dart" and " Swift" machines, being a 2-seater torpedo - carrying sea- plane, fitted with a Napier "Lion." 74
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