AVIATION NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 132, 8 June 1925, Page 7

AVIATION NOTES

FLYING BATTLE CRUISERS

THRILLING EXPERIMENTS

THE FOOL-PROOF 'PLANE.

(FEOtf OBK OWN CORRESPOKDESiT.)

LONDON, 22nd April.

Experts^ stood on tho ground at Croydon Aerodrome and were amazed at the demonstrations given, by two aviators in keeping their machines under control after stalling. "Flight-Lieutenant Bulman took off from the aerodrome, and immediately pulled the nose of his machine up until'the aeroplane stood almost vertically on its tail. For several moments the machine remained, as it seemed, hanging in the sky abovo the spectators; and then, without any preliminary ievelling but or increasing of speed, it turned down wind without exhibiting a tendency to become uncontrollable.

Afterwards Mr. Ifokker, the Dutch designer, himself flew a Fokker-N apier commercial aeroplano with 450-h.p. Napier engine. With as many as eight passengers on board he performed similar ic-aU of steeple-angle flying. He reduced his air speed until, with a 55 m.p.h. wind against him, his great bluobodied monoplane was motionless relative to the ground. At one moment, indeed, it travelled backwards a short distance.

Those flights were given to demonstrate how the control of- aeroplanes flying at very low speeds lias been improved. In a ship, when steerage way is, lost, the worst that can happen is that the ship bumps against the quayside. In an aeroplane when steerage way is lost it may plunga to the ground at eighty miles an hour. With adequate control at low speeds the pilot is able to cheek the ten-' dency for the machine to plunge, and to • keep it on an even keel. Mr. Fokker appeared to have achieved the desired end by a carfeul refinement oE the normal conti'ols. In tho Avro machine, the same result was achieved by tho llaudley Page slotted control—a slot in the leading edge of tho wing which opens, when its corresponding aileron is depressed. FALLING THROUGH SPACE. "At a height of. 2200 ft Mr. Fokkor throttled the engine right.down," writes : Major 0. O. Turner, who was one of tho passengers. "The machine dropped its nose momentarily, and was then 'stalled,' its tail well down. It had lost its' Hying speed, but was still', as shown by the air . speed indicator, moving forward at a little more than. thirty miles per hour. Owing, however, to the head wind, it then had no forward motion in relation"' to the ground/ and was steadily and ' rather rapidly dropping, its speed of fall slightly retarded by the resistance o£ the great wings. Here it must bo explained that on a calm day its descent would have been a combination of glide ■ and vertical drop, and that the more gentle the gradient of. its .path the less : would have been the speed of vertical fall ' and the larger the space needed for the landing. T would'stall it more.' said Mr. Pokker, 'if the wind wero'not so ■ bumpy.' The impressive .part of the per- ■ formance, however, was.tho maintenance of a level keel while the machine was falling Hat with a rush through tho air. : Mr. Fokkcr'took his hands off the wheel ■ from timo to time, but usually the big • 'balanced' ailerons out at tho rear wing . lips could, bo seen in somewhat-.violent agitation, yet with satisfactory .effect. : The feeling of falling through'space in this manner was uncanny; arid although" familiar to most aeroplane pilots,' was ' one which does not come into the experience of the air-travelling public. It was not unpleasant,but it created uneasiness, a. quite unreasonable uneasiness, be it I Raid. A normal landing was made. Mr Fokker made two flights."; AIR'CLUBS. Pending, official decisions as to engines to be adopted as standard types for light aeroplanes, tho Air Ministry and tho lloyal Aero Club have just come to an agreement that, in order i^iat any further delay in the start of Hying may be avoided, tho machines to bo ordered .'at once, for use this summer by the clubs, shall bo. littlo two-seater D"c Havilland ""Moths." These neat .machines, the wings of which can be folded so that" they can bo towed along a road by "a motor-car, aro driven by a type of 60-li.p. air-cooled motor which has just emerged triumphantly from arduous tests. Carrying its pilot and passenger in comfortable seats one behind the.other the "■Moth," which has been described as the "motor-car of the air"—attains a cruising speed.of from 75 to 80 miles an hour. Club 3 have been approved officially already for six areas—London. Birmingham, Glasgow, Lancashire, Newcastle, and Yorkshire. AIR DEFENCE OF BRITAIN. It is reported that a full plan of campaign for any. emergency that mifht arise is now "rapidly, taking, shape- for the Homo Defence- Air Force." It has been worked out by Air Marshal Sir John Salmonrl, who took up tho task of organising Britain's air defences at tho beginning of tho year. The plan of defence makes for tho greatest possible de-gree-of cohesion and co-operation between air. tea, and land forces. Warships, anti-aircraft batteries, and ground battalions, with tho Homo Defence aeroplanes, will be co-ordinated to ensure that our laud is kept.inviolate against attack. There will be special animal manoeuvres between the three- services to losti.-r thi.s co-opei-atiou. -A "defuiisivc-offt.'nsive" scheme of action is being worked out. In this then? will bo a co-ordiuiitiou of giant multiplo-i-ng-ned bombing ;ierii|">lari L -s. able to sW-k out and destroy attacking craft'in their lairs, fast, and rapid-cliinbincr Ji,Tl,i et - s and scouts, leviathan coastal defence aeroplanes, long-rango' .reconnaissance machines, and small fighting craft used in conjunction with die Navy aircraft carriers. One feature ot the scheme will be mobility, so that machines can be transferred tjuickly from one aerodrome :.o another, iji this way mass attack cau be met by mass defence. Meantime ;i new British aeroplane has been built with a great deal of .secrecy. It is believed to be capable of a speed oE nearly five miles-a minute, and-will endeavour shortly to set up'a new world's air speed record. ALL-METAL AIRSHIPS.' ' According to '-The Daily Express," the ■trench navul authorities' now havo before them a. programme for the construction of nev.- types of criant high-flyim* airships,- capable of speeds greater than have been .attained before. They am also remain in the air for weeks at a time. There is, it is reported, a reversal of opinion in high quarters in France. Airships-experts are now being listened to rather than frowned upon. A now lightcr-than-air policy, influenced by ncent developments with airships, is i.lofinitely foreshadowed. According to data before the French Navy, squadrons of well-armed .airships, t-mbodyiug fresh features in design, and flying appreciably faster than any machines produced before, can be built at a tenth of the cost of" sea-cruisers' squadrons: and such aerial cruisers would ac-<:-..ij»i •Ji.--.ii far more than any surface c;.;i!L Hulls ait to bo sheathjed' in gki.eE

of featherweight metals, and to give greater speed they will ho freed from practically all projections. Instead of the captain and his engineers navigating from an external car, slung beneath the how, a control-cabin with outlook windows is to be tucked away, cunningly, inside an upward-projecting section of. one of tho stabilising fins which risu above the hull of the airship towards tho tail. A passageway is to run to a similar windowed compartment in a lower fin, thus giving outlook points below and above. Big crude-oil engines, developing thousands of horse-power, are to be located inside the airship along her keel. A top speed of 100 miles an hour will be possible, despite the size of these new craft._ Though invaluable, of course, for scouting, it is intended that such monster craft should play a definite part as battlo cruisers of tho air. New systems of armament, with special recoil mechanisms, aro being developed. From low, domed turrets, situated on tho top of their metal hulls, in fore, aft, and midship it is proposed that these airships should mount a type of longrange gun. Nor-will gun turrets represent the only striking power. Each airship is to carry a number of small, specially designed, arid enormously fast single-seater aeroplanes. These littlo machines will intercept and fight hostile aeroplanes.