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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1590.PDF
d FLIGHT. JUNE 17, 1937. Correspondence The Editor does not hold himself responsible Jor the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters intended for publication in these columns MR. MANNING'S AIRSHIPS. HAVING been absent in South America lor eighteen months I was interested to rind, on my return, that Flight still pays some attention to the question of airships. When I was in the Sierras de Cordoba a speech by Sii Samuel Hoare came through very clearly on the wireless. He informed the public that aeroplanes could cover only one-fifth of the surface of the oceans. Air mail letters to friends at home enquiring whether there were any indications of an intention to provide the type of aircraft capable of dealing with the remaining four-fifths of the watery globe were answered in an emphatic negative, so it is refreshing to lind, on perusing your back numbers, that discussion on the abilities of airships for various duties is still being carried on. Mr. W. O. Manning s article on April 22 was of special interest. Most people will heartily agree on the importance of starting a new race of airship pilots before it is too late. Efforts to do so in the past by means of an airship club, organised on the lines of the light aeroplane clubs, has received every discouragement in official quarters, but now that we have only one fully qualified and up-to-date airstnp THE LADDER OF FAME : Bristol Blenheim medium bombers of No. 114 (B.) Squadron at Wyton. The degree of accuracy attained by this unit after only a few weeks' practice is ap parent in this view of an echelon formation. The Blenheims are probably the fastest machines in service anywhere in the world. pilot remaining in the British Empire it seems that the matter might receive further consideration. Mr. W. O. Manning still forsees the use of the same type of airship that was used twenty years ago, and which is so vulnerable to incendiary attack. There seems no reason why this should be the case. Hydrogen is a useful and innocuous gas, so long as oxygen is kept from it ; a layer of inert gas between it and the atmosphere is easily provided, and experiments have established the effective ness of this method. A simi lar use of inert gas, if only in the neighbourhood of the gas valves, would probably have prevented the Hindenburg disaster—but that is another question. Before we in this country can consider the use of large airships we must have trained men with which to man them, and, as at sea, the best training is obtained in small ships. If ever we are to have air craft capable of covering all the oceans steps must be taken to deal with the air ship question in all its bear ings, and the sooner the better. F. L. M. BOOTHBY. [The writer of the above letter, Capt. F. L. M. Boothby, C.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., R.N. (ret.), is a pioneer aeroplane and airship pilot. He was A. V. Roe's partner in 1908, and later went over to airship design. He commanded airship stations during the war, and was a member of the Rigid Airship Design Com mittee.—ED. 1 "INDICATOR" STILL UNDER FIRE. I N the course of this controversy Mr. Robertson stated that the acceleration resulting from executing a turn from flying up wind with an air speed of 60 m.p.h. to the down wind direction in a 60 m.p.h. wind is provided by the engine. Mr. McLaren disproves tins and shows that the force necessary to produce the acceleration from o to 120 m.p.h. is produced by the wind as the machine banks against it. Having got the matter straightened out, your contributor " Indicator " comes along and refuses to admit that he accelerates under such conditions. Let him say that the earth accelerates in relation to him if he likes (for he must admit one or the other), then the forces acting on him will be the same. He says that an accelerometer would not record any accelera tion. An accelerometer obviously would record it if it were suitably held in the machine in such an attitude as to recoid acceleration in the direction with which we are concerned. " Indicator " says also that if the acceleration in a tight turn were present, it would be greater than that resulting during a catapult launch. So it probably was in the case he mentions, but he prefers to call it centrifugal force and say that he did not notice a violent negative acceleration. London. W.13. G. H. STEPHENSON. [Correspondence is continued on the next page.]
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