THE STRATOSPHERE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1937, Page 8

THE STRATOSPHERE

SAFE AIR TRAVEL

AMERICAN PREDICTION

(From "The Post's" Representative.) NEW YORK, January 8.

In two years according to aviation experts, the largest aeroplanes the world has seen will be making regular non-stop flights'between here and Los Angeles, travelling through the stratosphere, seven miles above the earth, flying at a speed hitherto unattained, and crossing the continent in eight hours. These' aeroplanes will have a wing spread of 150 feet and will carry fifty passengers.

The service will be known as "OverWeather" because, in the atmosphere in which ■ the aeroplanes will travel, wind, rain, and snow are unknown.

Now well under way, although hitherto kept secret, is the research work which is to be applied in the construction of the coming fleet of giant metal transport aeroplanes, of the type to be known as "Gamma." A famous pilot, who holds the speed record for crossing the United States —11 hours 5 minutes—is making test flights in the upper air.

The testing aeroplane is equipped with every modern device of aeronautical engineering. The preliminary flights are made in co-operation with the United States Weather Bureau, which sends up balloons to record temperature and other detail. These balloons release automatically, every four minutes, from a tiny radio set, signals indicating temperature.

In the observer's compartment of the "Gamma" is a panel on which there are 36 instruments. These record the engine's functioning and its reaction to atmosphere, which is much lighter than at sea level. A camera, suspended at the rear of the compartment, takes photography of the instrument panel every thousand feet.

At sea-level there is a pressure of 14.11b per square inch. At 34,000 feet above the earth there is a pressure of only 3.6751b per square inch. An aeroplane rising into the stratosphere will encounter a change of temperature ranging up to 150. degrees. How to establish and maintain a normal air pressure within the cabin so that the aeroplane will not explode itself from that inward pressure is one of the problems yet to be overcome. The first adventures of the testing aeroplane have, of course, been directed toward engine research. Supercharging equipment is also being tested under all conditions; fuel consumption must be determined, also speed differentials, so that a supercharging engine, necessary for stratosphere flights, can be perfected.

Storms and weather disturbances do not occur higher than 20,000 feet. The extremely dangerous flying areas in the lower air, such as over the Allegheny Mountains, are unknown. Expert photography records the terrain from the upper air. Pictures taken from 35,000 feet pick up ranges of mountains 250 miles away, and distinctly show the curvature of the earth.

Unlimited capital is available for the experiments, which aim to show that the hazard of air travelling will be reduced to vanishing point in the "OverWeather."

in this correspondent's opinion, an argument which will carry weight with ratepayers, many of whom have hud their confidence shaken by the council's decision in the matter of payment to tramway employees on Sunday duty, involving an additional outgoing of £6000 a year, and threatening to throw the undertaking on the rates.