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Title (Dublin Core)
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How airplanes were used during World War I and their possibles improvements and uses in peacetime
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Article Title and/or Image Caption (Dublin Core)
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What of Tomorrow's Flying? Is the airplane safe? Can you fly where and when you like? What's the cost?
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extracted text (Extract Text)
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WHEN the manufacturers of
airplanes turn to the public for
support, they are met with
conservative skeptical questions: “Is
flying safe? What about these acci-
dents?” The manufacturers reply
with statistics to prove that flying is
no more dangerous than automobiling,
that the blacksmiths and carpenters
who built the first flimsy machines
have been supplanted by engineers
who test the wood, steel, and wing
fabric used in construction, and that all
the resources of modern science are
tapped to build an airplane that is
safe,
When bombs were dzopped on Paris,
London, Mannheim, Freiburg, and
Constantinople, and whole flocks of
raiding airplanes performed thelr grue-
some death-dealing mission with clock-
like precision, who can doubt any
longer? As for safety, diplomats and
generals, whose lives no nation could
afford to risk, were transported with
ease and despatch through the air.
The world has literally been bombed
into conviction. “The war has en-
larged our mental horizon,” as one
British technical periodical put it.
Peace-Time and War-Time Flying
The men who guided the bombing
and fighting planes over the battle-
front were in a far more precarious
position than any peace-time flyer will
be. They were literally flung into the
air and ordered to perform what was
expected of them. There were no
prepared landing grounds. And yet,
despite this handicap, war-time flying
‘was safer than most of us suppose.
Major-General George O. Squier,
in a paper read before the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers,
stated that of all the flying casualties
only two per cent were due to anti-
aircraft fire from the ground or from
enemy machines in the air and eight
per cent to faulty construction. And
the other ninety? Traceable directly,
he assures us, to negligence, in-
competence, or ignorance on the part
of the fiyers. If pilots are properly
trained how much safer will peace-
time flying become!
Moreover, the campaign in the air
over the Italian front must have con-
vinced any skeptic of the airplane's
safety. Among the mountain ranges
where Italian and Austrian aviators
fought there was nothing that remotely
resembled a smooth, safe landing
green. And yet, neither Italians nor
Austrians hesitated to fight or to fly
over each other's territory on bombing
expeditions.
The last piece of convincing evidence
was presented when the fighting pilots
literally flew to the other extreme; in
other words, when they supported the
charging infantry by skimming over
the ground and pouring a hail of
machine-gun bullets on the enemy in
his trenches. What if engines had
failed then? There would have been
only a shell-torn No-Man's-Land on
which to alight. Yet we have still to
learn of any wholesale calamities that
befell these low-flying machines.
And then, the night flyers —what
shall be said of them? They knew
only the direction in which they were
to fly in order to bomb an ammunition
dump or a munitions factory—nothing
of the ground in the terrible darkness
below. If perilous missions such as
these can be carried out in safety, who
shall say that when all the earth is at
peace, when cities are ready to de-
spatch and receive the winged messen-
gers of the air, flying can never take
its place in our mercantile life?
The truth is that the airplane today
is in much the position of the steam-
ship and the locomotive a century ago.
Prejudice alone must be overcome.
Elaborate and complicated wharves
had to be created before the steamship
could become of mercantile impor-
tance. Rails had to be laid, stations
built, round-houses and repair-shops
erected, before the steam locomotive
could play its part in the transporta-
tion of passengers and freight. Simi-
larly, a great organization must be
developed before the flying-machine
shall be able to realize the dream of
those who would span the Atlantic in
a day or wing their way in a few hours
from New York to Chicago.
Needs of the Airplane
The flying-machine traverses the
pellucid air unhampered by hills or
poor roads. But that is not enough.
Before commercial passenger-carrying
airplanes appear in large numbers,
before airplane touring shall become as
common as motoring, the face of the
earth must be prepared. Although
the fiying-machine is a thing of the air,
it must start from the ground and it
must alight on the ground.
Here and there are a few army
aviation fields. More, much more,
must be done. Every civilized coun:
try must survey itself with a critical
eye and note what localities are best
suited to serve for landing and alight-
ing. Between New York and Chicago,
for example, prepared aviation fields
should be found at intervals of not less
than one hundred miles.
Now, to dot a whole country with
hundreds, even thousands, of aviation
fields is a task of such magnitude that
only a government can accomplish it.
Mindful of this, the United States
Army has already addressed itself to
the task. Chambers of Commerce all
over the country have been asked to
study the country around their com-
munities and to indicate those local
ities that seem best fitted for land-
ing fields. The Government knows
exactly what it wants. It has sent
Chambers of Commerce plans of
aviation fields and of the sheds and
repair-shops to be built.
The preparation of the ground
will make the flying-machine abso-
lutely safe. Automobile engines
now stall in the middle of the road.
Flying-machine engines also stall |
in the air. The passengers of a
touring car have only to step out
on solid ground and walk if the
engine should fail them; but, in a
similar predicament, the man in
the air must glide down to the
ground.
The Higher You Are, the Safer
Paradoxically enough, the higher
you are in a flying-machine the
Safer you are. When an engine
balks at a height of a mile or so,
you cast your eye about for a
smooth piece of turf. You may
glide from three to five miles by
skilful handling of your craft. Is
it not obvious that with Govern-
ment_airdromes everywhere you
will be sure to find an alighting
place? :
The flatter the angle at which a
fiyer alights, the safer for him.
Hence the field must be open from
all sides. 11 it is fringed by trees
and buildings the flyer must
plunge down too steeply for safety;
it will be difficult for him to
flatten out at the right moment.
The difficulty of landing at high
speed has probably been greatly
exaggerated. We have only to
consider that fighting flyers in
their high-powered machines
landed safely at sixty miles an
hour. If the ground can be ap-
proached at a very flat angle the
pilot has less to fear from impact
with the solid earth at high speed
than from the momentum that
must be expected in taxiing over
the ground.
‘The flying-machine needs brakes
of some kind. Why not apply the
usual band-brakes to the wheels?
Because a machine that is held
back below its center of gravity
will somersault at high speed.
Perhaps the solution is to be found
in some method of forcing the tail
down with tremendous leverage while
the brake is applied. A horizontally
mounted propeller at the end of the
tail might answer the purpose—a pro-
peller which, during flight, may be
held parallel to the fuselage, so that
the head resistance is not increased.
It is even conceivable that the self-
starter of the engine may be used to
drive the horizontal propeller during
the short period when its services will
be required.
It may be urged that this problem of
holding the tail down while the brakes
are applied is not easily solved. It
entails, for instance, the use of a
device to prevent an increase in the
angle of incidence of the wings, so
that the machine may not rise from
the ground in the effort to check it.
When landing and launching grounds
are to be found everywhere, it will be
possible to design the small inexpensive
airplane—the machine that can be
kept in a kind of garage and trundled
out as readily as if it were the cheapest
of Detroit automobiles. Capacious
fuel-tanks will be unnecessary. It
will be possible to refill the tank every
hundred miles, if need be. Because
no extraordinary feats will be de-
manded of it, the engine need not be
of the enormous power demanded by
the fighting flyer.
Government Aviation Maps
Maps, too, must be issued by the
Government—maps to indicate the
best route between two given points.
‘This means the careful exploration of
the entire country from the air pilot's
point of view. Enormous as the task
may seem, it is far more easily ac-
complished than may be suspected.
The army dirigibles have only to be
pressed into service—craft that may
fly as low as they please and photo-
graph at leisure the territory below.
Miracles in photographic map-mak-
ing were performed during the war.
Similar miracles must be performed to
chart the country for the pilot of the
future. His map must indicate the
meteorological characteristics of the
region over which he flies—must tell
him the direction in which the pre-
vailing winds blow, what invisible
atmospheric perils are to be avoided,
how high to fly over a given region,
and the hundred and one facts that he
must know in order to reach his
destination quickly and safely.
We talk a good deal about the
weather nowadays; we will talk far
more about it when a whole people
takes to the air. The Weather Bureau
must prepare to extend its activities.
Its local reports and maps must be
even more practical than they are
now; they must tell a man exactly
how he must fly to any given point
within a radius of one hundred miles.
At present the Weather Bureau con-
cerns itself but little with the influence
of the ground; but it is precisely the
influence of the ground that makes |
flying favorable or unfavorable in a |
given region. An invisible surf of air |
is dashed up against every mountain. |
A lake, a grove, a collection of build- |
ings, in a word, every protuberance, |
has its effect in foreing air-currents in |
this direction or that. And all these in- |
visible disturbances the Weather Bu- |
reau must visualize for the airman.
Fog will be the only peril to be
feared. But even fog will lose much
of its terror when the Government has
carried out its plan of establishing
radio beacons all over the country, to |
extend its airplane mail service.
Radio Beacons Will Help
What is a radio beacon? Simply a
station from which wireless waves are
sent in all directions, to be picked up
by the flyer lost in a fog or groping his |
way through the night. Part of its
radio equipment is the direction-finder
—a mere loop of wire that can be
swung in any direction on a vertical
axis. When the loop is turned in the
direction of the oncoming waves the
beacons’ signals are received most
clearly; when it is turned at right
angles nothing is received. “I am
Louisville,” “I am Toledo,” “I am
Easton,” beacon after beagon will
literally shout at regular mtervals-with
the aid of automatic sending devices.
And hundreds of pilots in the air will
hear and guide their machines un-
erringly toward the particular beacon
that is their destination.
The commercial - companies will
surely equip their large passenger-
carrying planes with such radio con-
veniences. But what of the business
man or the tourist who flies alone in a
machine unprovided with such aids?
Balloons will guide him—great captive
balloons floating high above the fog
and illuminated at night. Every land-
ing field will thus literally rear its
head above the clouds. The flyer
sees the light and heads for it. He has
but to spiral down around the cable
that holds the balloon captive to reach
the ground below in safety. Ground
lights will make his landing safe.
In his “Night Mail” Rudyard
Kipling suggested a plan that may
also be realized in order to make flying
safe at night. He drew a picture of
searchlights throwing their gleams
vertically into the sky—impalpable,
luminous sign-posts that point the
way when the night is clear. What a
wonderful spectacle will be presented
to the man in the air as he flies from
Now York to St. Louis through the
night! His lane will be as plainly
marked-out for him as are his electric-
ally illuminated streets at-home. For
miles and miles he sees the long, stiff
pencils of light thrust upward from the
ground or great captive balloons each
bearing a powerful electric light. A |
country road at night would be danger-
ous in comparison with an air-lane so |
‘painstakingly marked.
The flying-machine is singularly
plastic, As we know it today, it was |
molded to meet the exigencies of war;
as we shall know it in the future, it will
be molded to meet the demands of
commerce. It is adaptable. "The man.
who fought at a height of twenty thou-
sand feet placed his reliance on an |
engine of enormous power, and on |
wings especially designed for fast
climbing. The commercial pilot will
be less exacting. What need is there |
for him to climb ten thousand feet in
six minutes? What need has he of an
extraordinarily high ceiling? He |
wants engine trustworthiness, and the
builder of engines is prepared to give |
it to him by making the power-plant
heavier and more durable than the |
army flyer demands.
The war, curiously enough, has
served to show us how the airplane |
may be used in a very practical way
for scientific purposes. To fly over |
the enemy's lines and make thousands
of photographs of positions is the exact
equivalent of mapping a jungle or a
wilderness which may be penetrated |
only at the risk of life and the suffering
of untold hardship. In a single day
the Coast and Geodetic Survey could |
thus perform more useful work than it
now accomplishes in months when it |
surveys remote islands in the Pacific or
the wilds of Alaska. |
Fire-Extinguishing Bombs
Already the Forest Service is plan-
ning to use the airplane to detect
forest fires and to extinguish them by
dropping upon them bombs contain-
ing fire-extinguishing chemicals. The
Coast Guard will find its task of
locating and blowing up derelicts at
sea reduced to a matter of hours
when it enlists the seaplane into its
service.
During the war the British dropped
food into towns beleaguered by the
Turks. Why may not bomb-carriers
supply colonies devoid of roads or rail-
ways with the material that they need?
The Sahara Desert, now painfully and
tediously traveled by camels, becomes
a kind of aerial navigable sea. The
German raider Wolf, aptly named,
used a seaplane to locate its prey on the
ocean. Who knows but the seaplane
may form part of the equipment of
every first-class steamer?
Exploring by Airplane
With what ease will the airplane
transport the explorer over mountain
ranges, swamps, jungles, and deserts!
The camera will enable the explorer to
bring back a far clearer, far more ac-
curate record of the country that he
has traversed than if he had explored
it on foot. In the uncharted districts
around the upper waters of the
Amazon river may be untouched re-
sources of rubber. Who knows but
the airplane may locate them? Not
only locate them, but indicate how
they may be approached by undis-
covered navigable streams? British
airmen have already thus begun to
explore the inaccessible regions of
Africa.
Regular passenger trips are now
made between London and Paris and
between Paris and Brussels. Rome
can be reached from London in twelve
and a half hours instead of in forty-
two as at present; and Marseilles in
eight instead of twenty-three. From
London to Constantinople the distance
is but twenty hours by airplane, com-
pared with seventy-two by rail. The
machines planned for this service are
vessels of moderate size equipped with
three hundred horsepower engines.
They ought to carry forty-four hun<
dred pounds of revenue-paying load
in addition to the pilot, mechanic,
and fuel. The cost per passenger mile
would be a little less than $2.75.
There is no reason why the peace
plane should not be far cheaper than
the fighting war plane. Remember
that the fighting machine had to be
extraordinarily light. It was not in-
tended to stay in the air more than two
or three hours. But a limited amount
of fuel was carried in order that its
climbing ability might not be im-
paired. Even the amount of am-
munition for its machine-gun was
limited.
The peace plane may be larger. This
means that strength may be attained
more easily and cheaply than in the
small gnat-like fighter. The acrobatic
performances of the fighting pilot—
his “vrilles,” his loops, his Immelmann
turns, his barrel rolls, his falling-leaf
drops —will play no part in the less
thrilling career of the commercial
pilot. Therefore outrageous demands
need not be made on the peace ma-
chine. All this tends to simplicity and
cheapness of construction without re-
ducing the factor of safety.
Perhaps, instead of the multi-engine
machine, we may have an airplane
that has an éngine used for flying and
an auxiliary source of power to be
utilized when the main plant fails.
Who knows but this auxiliary engine
may be driven by steam stored under
pressure—a_practice now, followed in
many factories where fireless super-
heated steam locomotives are used?
Certainly the multi-engine machine
would be far less economical than a
machine equipped with a single flying
motor supplemented by an wuxiliary
engine,
Will Commercial Flying Pay ?
Will commercial flying pay? People
asked themselves a hundred years ago:
Will railways pay? Flying will pay
simply because it is fast. Only the
other day the owner of great London
department-store flew to Brussels in
order to hold a conference with his
branch manager there. He saved
days in actual time and thousands in
‘money—so he later reported.
Whenever the object to be gained
is dependent on the saving of time, it
will pay to travel by air. It will be
expensive, to be sure, to convey one,
threo or five passengers a distance of
five hundred, a thousand, or fifteen
hundred miles. What if the fare is
two hundred dollars, five hundred
dollars, or even a thousand dollars, in
comparison with the profits to be
made in furthering an enterprise that
means a return of perhaps millions?
Who would not be willing to pay one
dollar to have an important letter
conveyed by air from New York to
Chicago in order to receive a reply
the following night at the cost of
another dollar?
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Contributor (Dublin Core)
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Waldemar Kaempffert (writer)
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Carl Dienstbach (writer)
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Language (Dublin Core)
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eng
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Date Issued (Dublin Core)
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1919-10
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pages (Bibliographic Ontology)
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47-50
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Rights (Dublin Core)
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Public Domain (Google digitized)
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Archived by (Dublin Core)
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Davide Donà
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Alberto Bordignon (Supervisor)
Popular Science Monthly, v. 95, n. 4, 1919
