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Aviation History
1927
1927 - 0255.PDF
APRIL 14, 1927 Pinedo's Misfortune AFTER having succeeded in accomplishing nearly two out of the three stages of his wonderful round-Atlantic flight, the Marchese de Pinedo has received an unfortunate check to the splendid progress he made up to his arrival in the United States, for his Savoia S.55 seaplane has been destroyed by fire. As reported last week, he arrived at San Antonio, Tex., on April 2, and he set out again on April 4. Just as he approached Elephant Butte he almost ran out of petrol, and he only just managed to land there —the only spot where there was any water. The Marquis experienced some difficulty in taking off the next day owing to engine trouble, but eventually he arrived, on April 6, at Roosevelt Dam, Arizona, where he alighted to refuel before proceeding to San Diego. He was all ready to start, and was standing on the shore waiting to embark, when there was an explosion on the seaplane, which suddenly burst into flames. The crew, who had been going over the engines, escaped by jumping overboard, but the sea- plane was completely destroj^ed. It is reported that the disaster was caused by a youth, who was in a boat along- side the machine, dropping a lighted match into the petrol- covered water. He was larking with another boy over a cigarette, and stated that it was entirely an accident, for which he was sorry. The U.S. War Department immediately offered the Marchese de Pinedo a U.S. Army aeroplane with which to complete his flight. It was decided that a newSavoia machine should be sent out to Pinedo from Italy, and Sig. Balbo, Italian Under-Secretary of State for Air, hasalready selected a new S.55, which will be dispatched from Genoa on April 25. Meanwhile, Pinedo and his companionsare being conveyed to San Diego, thence to New York, by U.S. Navy machines. By the time he gets to New York thenew Savoia will have arrived. The Service African Flights THE R.A.F. flight, of four Fairey 3 F's, under Air Com-modore C. R. Samson, which flew from Cairo to Kisumu, and the South African flight, of four D.H.9's, under Maj. Meintjes,which flew from Pretoria to Kisumu, have completed their operations—with great success—with the manoeuvres atNairobi. On April 10, therefore, both flights left Nairobi for Tabora, Tanganyika, en route for the Cape.The American Atlantic Attempts THE two attempts to fly from New York to Paris byCommander Byrd and Noel Davis, respectively, will probably be made next month. Byrd's flight has been financed byMr. Rodman Wanamaker, who has been interested in this problem since 1914, and the machine will be a 3-enginedFokker. The Davis flight is being organised by the American Legion, and Davis has already made successful trial flightson his Pathfinder machine, " American Legion," at Bristol, Delaware. INST.Ae.E. HOUSE DINNER AT the Engineers' Club the Institution of AeronauticalEngineers held their house dinner on April 8, at which Capt. F. Courtney, the test pilot, gave his postponed lecture on the" Autogiro." The Chairman was Capt. Lamplugh, who said that this would be the last house dinner given by the Institu-tion as a separate entity before its amalgamation with the R.Ae. Society. Indicative of this union was the presence ofsome members of the R.Ae. Society, including Lord Thomson, Major Mayo and Mr. North. Capt. Courtney said that the development of the " Auto-giro " had been impeded by the attitude of so many to regard the " Autogiro " as a sort of curio. Actually, it was amachine that overcame the difficulties associated with the ordinary aeroplane ; that was to say, that it overcame thestall, descended in a confined space very slowly, and with further minor improvements it would also ascend with a shortrun. The revolving wings maintained a high speed when the machine was stationary. On the question of performance the" inexperts " had taken a very pessimistic and disparaging view of the machine. They almost regarded it as helpless.But there was nothing to stop it comparing with the perform- ance of the ordinary aeroplane. The wings now worked atmore efficient angles. There was less efficiency originally, but this had improved. There was an impression, he said,that it could sit in the air, and it was therefore an admirable machine for accurate bombing; but that was hardlytrue. Its effectiveness at slow speeds corresponded to the increase of horse-power of the engines installed. For military purposes the machine came under criticism, too. Actually, it could manoeuvre in a normal manner, but acrobatics was a different question at the moment. Essentially, there were unknown load factors on the structure that constituted a disadvantage, its vulnerability would improve in the future type, which would be very simplified. Its ineptitude for military purposes was through the difficulty of firing through the wings, •he revolving wing covered a wide range of fire. Some means ^•'•ire necessary to avoid hitting them when firing. The recent f-'lure of the " Autogiro " in the air was not a surprise to him. Jt would have been remarkable if it had not failed at some ti ae. It was particular to all inventions since the beginning0 flying. Further investigations of the structure were being made by the Air Ministry, but he thought they were making natters rather difficult by their wandering through abstruse mathematics. He did not think that the future development: le " Autogiro " was a question of abstruse mathematics 229 at all ; it was merely a matter of ordinary mechanicalinvestigation. LORD THOMSON opened the discussion and compared the diffidence anddisparagement shown towards the " Autogiro " by some people to the similar experience of Brcnnan and his experiments. He said that we had to convincethe scientists that it was scientifically sound. We had to make a brave light for aviation and not be trammelled by any inferiority complex. MAJOR H. E. WIMPERIS said that the " Autogiro " was the most importantinvention in the last ten years. He thought that the future of private flying, which depended on the ordinary man regarding flying as customary, wouldnot come with the straight wing. The revolving wing was a most remarkable invention which, at the present period of investigation, defied mathematicacalculations. According to these it should land twice as fast as it does. When it crashed recently it fell not much faster than the rate of an ordinarydescent. It beat the slow descent of the parachute. It was incomprehensible. At the present he had stopped further experimental flying on the machineuntil the weakness of the central bearing, which was the cause of the recent crash, was investigated. He thought that if the " Autogiro " made goodit would have a very wide effect on private flying. MR. BERTRAM, Deputy Director for Civil Aviation, asked whether it waspossible to have a machine with a parachute effect as a whole, as the individual use of the parachute in the passenger's cabin was not very practicable. MAJOR MAVO asked what possibility there was of adapting the multi-engine principle to the " Autogiro," which he thought was essential for the safety of aircraft. He quoted the confidence he felt in the three-engineprinciple since his recent flight in the " Hercules " to Cairo. MR. NORTH mentioned his long and pleasant association with CaptainCourtney, and he thought that the invention he was now engaged on was one of the two inventions of the decade. He did not think that it woulddetract from the merits of the idea if the " Autogiro " did not prove a future practical machine. He uttered a warning against the prevalent notion thatthe future of aviation entirely rested on the question of safety. It was of equal importance that we could prove to the public the saving of time andmoney in travelling by air.' CAPTAIN COURTNEY, replying to the discussion, said that in criticising thedifficulties that he thought were being made by the tendency for the mathe- maticians to tackle the problems of the " Autogiro " through abstruse mathe-matics he was not casting any reflection on all that Major Wimperis and his staff had done for the development. Major Wimperis had been solelyresponsible for the realisation of the potential value of the machine, and on him had rested the decision as to whether the public money of this countryshould be expended on the experiments. The country owed him a great debt for all that he had done and was doing. Describing his recent crashas an instance revealing the parachute effect of the machine, he said that one blade broke off when he was about 100 ft. high, and it seemed a long time beforehe hit the ground. Actually, it was longer than he thought. He was being pitched about considerably, and he got a glimpse of the ground twice : oncewhen he thought it was 50 ft. below and again when he gauged it as 20 ft, below, but the time that elapsed before he crashed proved that he wasconsiderably wrong inihis guesses. The question of using more than one engine was quite simple—if it was necessary. Owing to the slow forward speed ofthe " Autogiro " when landing the cross wind effect was greater, and it was therefore necessary tohave a wide undercarriage, so that it could accommodatemultiple-engines. As to what the machine was actually capable of, Captain Courtney gave an admirable illustration by comparing the plight of a passengersuddenly left to his own resources in the " Autogiro " and then in an ordinary aeroplane. In the former case, if he merely held the " stick " back and didnothing more he would land quite safely, but in the latter case he would come to grief.
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