Possible ways to give airplane pilots a better view
Item
-
Title (Dublin Core)
-
Possible ways to give airplane pilots a better view
-
Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
-
Wanted: The Eyes of a Bird
-
extracted text (Extract Text)
-
THE airplane of to-day is sur-
prisingly like a bird. But
the creature has one striking
defect—it is nearly blind.
Put the observer where he can
be the eyes of the craft, and you
must place the propeller where
it will revolve through the very
space occupied by the fuselage.
That means cutting the airplane
body in two and holding the
parts together by nothing more
than the thin spine that forms the
axis of the propeller. Sight is
gained at the expense of strength.
And if we try to gain strength
through outside framing inclos-
ing the propeller and connected
with some part of the machine,
the clean, efficient outline of the
airplane is broken.
On the other hand, it might
be thought that in the French
airplane shown here the propeller
is so hidden in the cleft fuselage
that it must lose power. That is
a mistaken idea, since it is only
the outer ends of the blades that
really drive the machine.
An American inventor, Gal-
laudet, has made a rather better
job of the problem by halving
the fuselage nearer the tail,
where it is narrower and needs
no bracing, and placing the pro-
peller directly behind the wings.
But the best solution may come
from the optician. He may be
able to invent an artificial “eye”
placed in front. It is possible
that the periscope may be per-
fected for this purpose.
-
Language (Dublin Core)
-
eng
-
Date Issued (Dublin Core)
-
1919-05
-
pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
-
66
-
Rights (Dublin Core)
-
Public domain (Google digitized)
-
Archived by (Dublin Core)
-
Davide Donà
-
Marco Bortolami (editor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 94, n. 5, 1919
Screenshot (674).png