MILE FLY FOR HALFPENNY

Evening Star, Issue 18262, 30 April 1923, Page 4

MILE FLY FOR HALFPENNY

A WINGED MOTOR CYCLE. “Flying for all I” Not flying for the few. Such has been the dream _of air enthusiasts for thirteen years, writes Mr Harry Harper in the 1 Daily Mail.’ And now, at last, to-day they see themselves nearing their goal. For little winged machines are being evolved, and will soon bo in _ flight, which are to speed along the aerial highways, carrying their owner-driver in luxurious ease, at a cost in fuel of only about one halfpenny a mile! That is what we are coming to. And it presages—those competent to judge declare—a popular buying and using of small, simple, winged machines which will bo the first phase of that great “ air ago ” in which fifing becomes universal. Little aero engines, which are marvels of lightness, are now being built to install in the best and most stable types of motorless glider, and so convert wind-soarings into purposeful aerial journeyings. It is, one should make clear, the wonderfully efficient wings developed for engine-less soarinz, and the evolution of machines offering extraordinarily small resistanco_ to their own progress through the air, which now brings us to the threshold of tills era of cheaper flying. Developing no moro power than the engine of a big motor bicycle, these little “pocket air motors,” as they have been called, are to bear an air rider in sustained flight. In France, for example, they have just produced a special two-cylinder “aircycle ” engine which, giving from six to seven horse-power, weighs only about 171 b. It is calculated, by the_ way, that, once he is well aloft, the driver of a motorglider will not require mere than about five horse-power to keep him in movement, travelling m any direction be desires, and without losing altitude. The “ motor cycle with wings,” built for popular aerial touring, will, when it can be perfected, standardised, and produced in quality, cost, experts estimate, little if any more than high-powered motor cycles for touring on the roads. And the power cycle that flies, judging from experience of _ aeroplanes, will have a long working life, and will also have the unique advantage that, speeding through a medium as resilient as the air, it will be running up no tyre bills for its owner. By the use of pivoted wings, and other technical devices, not only will the powerdriven ah' cycle be given a stability when aloft which is automatic, but ascents from, and landings in, any quite small open space will become possible. We shall be approaching, indeed, that day—yearned for by a famous airman—when wo can take out a little apparatus from the garage in which wc house a car, unfold its wings, and soar- skyward from the confines of an ordinary garden!