FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0284.PDF
course, many other difficulties which could be enume- rated, and it is, perhaps, significant that they all appear to be connected with establishing communica- tion between seaplane and station ship, and not with the machines themselves. Given a good design of machine, with possibly three engines, any two of which were able to fly the machine, the chance of a forced descent between station ships is probably extremely small. We do not suggest that the diffi- culties are insuperable, but it is no manner of good closing one's eyes to them, and we do feel that at present our knowledge of the subject and our practical experience are not such as to warrant launching out straight away with such an extensive scheme. If a series of experiments on a lesser scale could be carried out first, for instance, over the North Sea, with two station ships suitably placed, it seems to us that a great deal of valuable experience would be gained at relatively small cost and with practically no risk to personnel or material. It should not be a difficult matter, in view of the present idleness of a lot of shipping, to obtain on loan or hire a couple of vessels which could be converted for the purpose and which, although possibly not as perfect as specially designed station ships, would still be sufficiently serviceable to provide experience upon which a more ambitious route could be based. The subject is an extremely fascinating one, and, if proved practicable, would appear to have certain not inconsiderable advantages over trans-oceanic airship services. For example, it might reasonably be expected that the cruising speed of the seaplanes, especially if they were found capable of flying night and day, would be very materially greater than that of an airship. Also, there is in some respect an advantage in dividing up the load among a number of smaller units. If an airship is lost it means, apart from a large and possibly valuable cargo, a very serious financial loss of the capital represented by the airship. .With 30 or 40 MAY 14, 1925 seaplanes operating a similar route the loss of one machine would be. nothing like as serious. But we would like to emphasise our opinion that there are too many unknown factors for the scheme to be undertaken in its entirety at once, although we are all in favour of experiments being carried out on a smaller scale. • • • rv.. The glider meeting at present being8 held at Rossitten, on the Baltic, and the forthcoming meetings in the Rhon and at Vauville (at which " gliders " are the main feature) once more call attention to a sport which, unfortunately, was very short-lived in this country. Looking at the photographs from Rossi tten which we publish this week, who can doubt that the Germans are deriving a great deal of pleasure and healthy exercise from this sport ? Even if it is granted—and we are not pre- pared to agree that this is so—that nothing much can be learned from gliding, and that it is not and cannot be of any commercial value, few will surely deny that it can provide unique sport. It might have been thought that gliding would appeal particularly to the British temperament, and that once Itford Hill had given us a start we should have carried on. Unfor- tunately, Maneyrol took his Peyret up and remained aloft so long that people received the impression that . " there is nothing in gliding," and the sport was allowed to drop. We believe that even at this late hour it might still be worth while to revive gliding in this country. One of the machines illustrated this week shows a small biplane with watertight hull, which alights without difficulty on the sea after a flight. Does not that type promise excellent sport at our summer resorts ? We think it does, and there must be many places on the south coast where the cliffs would give sufficient up currents to enable machines to make fairly long flights. Who will be bold enough to start the ball rolling ? 0 H The Fairey " Fremantle " : A lon£-ran£e twin-float seaplane with Rolls.-Rovce " Condor "engine. This machinecarries a crew of five. The main petrol tanks are housed in the rtoatsTwhich are exceptionally large, giving the machine a cruising range of approximately 1,100 miles. The top speed is about 100 m.p.h. and the cruisingspeed'80 m.p.h. A feature of the machine is its large wireless cabin, which is situated aft of the pilot's cockpit. 284
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
