“SAFETY”AEROPLANES.

Cromwell Argus, Volume L, Issue 2644, 13 October 1919, Page 7

“SAFETY”AEROPLANES.

A TWENTY MILE GLIDE. There a.re people who still think * that if the engine of an aeroplane I stops, or some other mishap occurs, the machine must drop like a stone to the earth. This is an erroneous impression. | Even before the war the British Government was building aeroplanes which were “stable.” The machine was so balanced and the wings so arranged that if the engine stopped when high in the air the machine naturally assumed a gliding position and gradually and easily glided to earth. The following test shows.how stable these aeroplanes were. A pilot climb-' cd to a sufficient height and then stopped his engine and took his hands off the controls, merely keeping his feet on the rudder-bar. He steered for an aerodrome twenty miles away, and except for keeping her straight he let the aeroplane do what she liked. She travelled the whole journey as steadily as a bicycle coasting down a long straight, and gentle hill. Of course the pilot had to take hold of the control-stick to land the machine in the aerodrome, but, except for that and the steering, the aeroplane made the whole twenty miles by herself. If a pilot gets into difficulties when “stunting” with a stable aeroplane all ho has to do is to stop the engine and leave the machine to itself. Whatever her position may tac at the time she will quickly right herself and begin to glide. The R.A.P. training* stations see to it that no pilot gets his “wings” until he has shown himself complete master of his machine. Eliminate the hazards of war and the risks a man runs in joining the Royal Air Force as a pilot are small indeed, and no more than fairly comparable with those of the man who follows the sea, mining, the railways, and such-like.