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Aviation History
1942
1942 - 1814.PDF
238 FLIGHT AUGUST 27TH, 1942 Correspondence The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters. ASTRO-NAVIGATION Time Error of 3 min. 55.91 sec. T HE kindergarten simplicity of Lt. Col. Mieville's exposition of the science of astro-navigation would deserve high praise buLfor the fact, unfortunately ior him, that the earth revolves upon its axis once every 23 hours 56 minutes 4.09 seconds and not as stated once every 24 hours of " chronometer " time. Col. Mieville draws no distinction in his article between solar and sidereal time and some of his statements as they stand are thus both misleading and inaccurate, which is a pity because lie makes a good take ofl. Thereafter he progressively loses himself at the rate. of approximately one degree of longitude every day. C. B. COLLINS. GYROSCOPIC CONTROL First Aircraft Stabiliser in 1909 A CERTAIN amount of publicity has been given to the ques tion of gyroscopic control of aircraft in view of the extension of patents granted to Mr. F. W. Meredith and Mr. P. Cooke by Mr. Justice Simonds recently. In summing up, the learned judge stated that the invention was of such value and importance and in particular that the introduction of such apparatus as the inventors' device really made the cross ing of the Atlantic a routine matter instead of an adventure. I would hasten here to acknowledge very definitely the con tributions to gyroscopic control of aircraft given by Messrs. Meredith and Cooke. I am sure also that they would be the first to admit that the Sperry Automatic Pilot was conceived in principle prior to their inventions and that Atlantic flying has been, in practically every case, and most certainly up to the outbreak of war, carried out on Sperry gyropilots. Perhaps a brief history of the development of the Sperry Gyropilot would not be amiss as this stage. The Sperry Company in America took up the development of an automatic pilot for aircraft at a very early date, and U.S. patents relating to this subject were granted as far back as igr2. Actually the first gyroscopic stabiliser for use in an aircraft was made and installed by Sperry in 1909. In 1914 the Sperry Aeroplane Stabiliser won the first prize at the "Concourse par l'Union pour la Securite en Aeroplane." Four gyroscopes were used at that time for obtaining aileron and elevator control. During the years igr6-r925 numerous patents, both American, and British, were taken out. In January, 1923, the Sperry Company interested the Air Minis try in the development and the Air Ministry eventually con sidered thjs important and novel enough to acquire the inven tions. Among the conditions of purchase was that two complete aircraft provided with the new Sperry Automatic Pilot should be delivered and should satisfactorily carry out performance tests to be imposed by the Air Ministry. In ^24 Sperry delivered the two machines with the automatic pilots, and in 1925 the Air Ministry concluded its agreement with the Sperry Company for the purchase of the invention and the two aircraft and patent rights. It is clear, therefore, that the'detail information concerning the inventions was given to the Air Ministry in 1923, and that the gyroscopic control in automatic stabilising systems for air craft was then lecognised. I do not in any way inter that the principles used by Messrs. Meredith and Cooke are similar to those used for the Sperry Automatic Pilots, but I do wish to make the point that the pioneering work on gyro stabilising of aircraft was carried out by the Sperry Company. In 1929 certain patents which Sperry had sold to the Air Ministry were repurchased from them by Sperry, who in 1932 filed U.S. patents covering the type of automatic pilot which was similar to that in general use to-day. The very famous flights of Mr. Wiley Post in the Winnie Mae, and Mr. Howard Hughes around the world, were done with early Sperry automatic pilots. Atlantic flying by passenger-carrying air craft which, prior to the outbreak of war, was coming into its own, through pioneering work of Imperial Airways, Ltd. (carried out to-day by British Overseas Airways Corporation) ::nd that of the Pan-American.Airways, was all accomplished with the aid of Sperry automatic pilots. The history of trans oceanic and long-distance flying is closely allied to the pioneer ing work of the Sperry Company in this field. (For the Sperry Gyroscope Company, Ltd.), J. VIVIAN HOLMAN, Manager, Aeronautical Department. INTERNATIONAL AIR POLICE Britain and U.S.A. Must Lead T HERE must be many readers of Flight who were gratified by the publication of Lord Brabazon's Wilbur Wright Memorial Lecture and, subsequently, of the article by Group Capt. Fulljames. It is probably early but not futile to dis cuss the idea of an international air police force, and I wish you would now devote equal attention to full reviews of the Seversky and Ziff advocates for air power, which have fcai- so much attention in the lay press. These books would app, to demonstrate beyond a peradventure that ultimate mater:.! power is vested in the -air. Failing conversion of the entire world to Theocracy when every man-made law could be automatically abrogated, and the use of police forces, armies, navies and air forces would be a forgotten bad dream, when the sword would really have been beaten info a ploughshare, and when every man would live peaceably with his neighbour with none to make them afraid . . . failing all this, some precaution such as your con tributors envisage will have to operate for the instant deter rence of the wrong-doer. It could, it is true, take the form of an air police force rather like that prophetically, if fancifully, imagined by Rudyard Kipling in his famous story to which Lord Brabazcn referred. But just how difficult would be the establishment of such a force will be realised by the reflection that, despite the boasted enlightenment of the modern world, the organisa tion of education and the growth of knowledge of every kind, it is still as good as impossible to obtain unity of thought, aim or method by the community as a whole upon any simple social project the major concern of that community, or even of one isolated family or a group of people in that community. Individual self-interest predominates all the time and wrecks efficient and sensible action. How much more impossible is it then to expect to achieve unity of aim in the complex problems, religious, racial, political and economic, which beset larger groups of people involved in nations or empires. Inevitably, if nothing else, dissension due to economic nationalism, working through the present world economic system, would defeat the successful working of any international air police force, as it did of the now defunct League of Nations. We are not so far, perhaps, from the Kingdom of God ar^ earth as Lord Brabazon would have us believe, but near cr far, until we can find for humanity an alternative motive for living wherein service will come before self, certain it is there will be no peace. The "lesser breeds without the Law" will always be liable to run amok. Armed, however, with the world's ultimate weapon for good or ill—air power—one righteous nation or empire can wield it for good and thus save the world from the only-too-well-imaginable horrors of a still future Armageddon. m So we must come back to the Pax Britannica, or shall we say, the Pax Atlantica. Let us have no further truck with international leagues, founded on air power or otherwise, to ensure peace. They have been tried and they have failed. Let us not: hurriedly surrender sovereignty or risk further failures in international concert, for Hitlers go and come rather than come and go. Moreover, the ally of to-day may be the foe or neutral of to-morrow. Let us complete our amalgama tion with the U.S.A. and rely upon our own strong right arm of air power. This is plain commonsense and inexorable logic. To lead is our job and destiny, in conjunction with our blood brothers •* of the U.S.A. and all men of good will in the non-Axis coun- -1 tries who care to join us. Whose job if not ours? So . . . we should aim at emerging from this war so strong in air power that peace will be secure until the advent of the millennium. H. J. J-
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