AVIATION DEVELOPMENT

Evening Star, Issue 17154, 22 September 1919, Page 4

AVIATION DEVELOPMENT

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. Australian and N.Z. Gable Association. PARIS, September 19. Tho aviator Pohlct will attempt to fly from Paris to Melbourne. He is timed to start from Paris tm September 29. MAIL SERVICES, "NEW YORK, ■ September 19. The United States Assistant B-ostmaster-Goneral has gone.,to Havana to arrange tho details of ary aerial.mail service between the United' States and tho West Indies:, AVIATION PROBLEMS. CARRIAGE OP MAILS. So rapid was the development of- aviation during ibo war that many of tho problems which presented themselves for making flying safe, in the commercial, sense, were solved. One ;-of ■ the most- interesting problems- was that, of stability. In the early days of aviation a machine which heeled over beyond a certain angle, which dived -or climbed too 3teejily ; became uncontrollable, ■and crashed to the ground. The aeroplane of to-day will 'right iteolf from' any position, just ns a lifeboat will right Itself. In most cases the fatal aeroplane crash" which occurs in these days is due to tho fact that the pilot made a mistake when flying too low to allow tho machine room iu which to recover from iho imistake and right itself. Tho aeroplane of to-day flies much faster than any bird, and it can" fly iu stormy weather such-as no bird can face. It . flies greater distances than any bird, and it' rises to greater heights than any bird. But there are still problems to be solved before flying will be as safe for passengers as travelling by train or boat. The two .chief problems are those of making the aei-oplanes safe from fire and the improvement of the method of landing, particularly in a fog. Unless the pilot can see clearly tho ground below he cannot land with safety to himself, his ■passengers, and his machine.. What is wanted is a form of light which will pierce through the fog. ; , It is being generally recognised that the chief commercial use to which aviation will be put in the immediate future is that of the carriage of mails. The high cost -of flying will militate against the development of passenger services, except for _ those to whom a saving in time is more important than a. saving in money. But the development of aerial mail services will demand improvements in the methods of delivering tho mail bags to tho cities for which they are intended. Tho largest mails are for largo centres of population, where buildings are crowded, and aerodromes cannot bo established except on the outskirts. The cost of establishing a large aerodrome 111 the centre of a city would bo prohibitive. On the other hand, valuable time will be lost if the mails have to he collected by motor vans from aerodromes some miles away from the central post offices whei'e the letters are to bo sorted.

The perfection of the heliocopter, an invention intended to enable aeroplanes to lisa and descend vertically, may . ultimately solve the problem of enabling these machines to start their journeys from the centre of a city and to land their passengers there, as the' use of the heliocopter will greatly 'reduce the size and cost of aero: dromes; but in the meantime it looks as .if ‘ the .parachute will be used to drop mails and parcels from flying aeroplanes, which will descend low enough to ensure the

laden parachutes falling where they are awaited.. In .England and America mails and parcels are being dropped in this way, and the aviators have developed considerable shill in making the parachutes fall where they are wanted to drop. But the parachute will not solve the problem of the delivery .of outgoing mails to a flying aeroplane.' So far .no experiments in this direction have been tried; but it is possible that the captive balloon will he used to Bond mail bags into the air, so that they c!hi be ''detached by a pilot in a poising aeroplane. rt The woble-m- of creating extensive aerodromes "in the large centres of population will not be abandoned because the cost of ground would be, prohibitive.. Mr Holt Thomas, who is the head of one of the largest aircraft manufacturing companies in England, has put forward the interesting suggestion that' .London will 'eventually have, a large central aerodrome in Hyde Park or St. James’s Park. To achieve this it will not be necessary to deprive the public of some of the area of open space they enjoy, but to roof in with glass a large area of these parks. The glass roof will Become the aerodrome from which hundreds of machines will start 'daily from London, and underneath the roof the trees and flowers will grow,. and the public will enjoy the open air, for the roof will bo lofty, and the sides will be open, to all the breezes that blow.—-London correspondent of the ‘Age.’