GUIDING AIRMEN

Greymouth Evening Star, 18 December 1934, Page 10

GUIDING AIRMEN

GREAT INVENTIONS DESCRIBED. Writing in their book, “Through Atlantic Clouds,” Clifford W. Collinson, F.R.G.S., and Captain F. McDermott, F.R.G.SL, discuss the difficulties in connection with long distance ocean flights, with particular reference to the Atlantic, and explain the most modern devices for guiding a plane. “A feasible development,” they say, “seems to be that of stationing on a ship such as the Westfalen (which is maintained in the South Atlantic by the Lufthansa Company, Germany, as a floating base for their planes on the ocean crossing) a permanent plane which could be shot up to meet the mail seaplane in order to refuel it in mid-air, in much the same way as an express engine takes up water from the track when travelling at 70 miles an hour. “It will naturally occur to the reader that the finding of a small ship like the Westfalen in' an immense- ocean must be a most difficult feat. As a matter of fact, navigation in air is now becoming- so mechanical that, given all the latest devices, the pilot has very little to do other than to see that such devices are in working order and to attend to his wireless.

“By means of narrow wireless beams a plane can be led to any desired place even in the thickest of fogs. So long as the pilot keeps along the beam the indicator gives no sign, but immediately he strays from the ‘narrow path’ a signal makes him ; aware of the fact. By this means not only can an aeroplane be brought to the aerodrome, but it can also be made to land in any desired direction and at. any reasonable angle, thus removing most of the terrors of landing in fog. “The ‘robot pilot’ is another invention which has greatly simplified the control of aircraft on long journeys. The key to this mysterious and apparently magical device is a gyroscope which is set with its axis on the correct.course. “Any deviation from this course or the original altitude upon which the .journey was started brings into operations jets of compressed air which move the piston of a servo motor. This in turn works a dummy rudder bar to which can be linked the ordinary rudder wires. Thus, no sooner does the aeroplane make any movement except that of flying directly forward, than the corresponding correctional movement is made. “Owing to acceleration due to differences of climate and other causes, the ‘robot pilot’ is likely to ei‘r slightly, and if left to ‘himself’ needs correcting about every quarter of an hour. Even this, however, can be rendered unnecessary by another marvellous device —the ‘robot navigator.’ By an electrically controlled slide valve from a Holmes tele-com-pass every deviation of a degree or more from the correct line of flight is made to operate on the ‘robot pilot’ in such a way that the machine is again brought back on her course. “From all this it would appear that the long-promised trans-Atlantic air service cannot be very far away, and every nerve is being -strained by more than one nation to obtain the necessary concessions and build the necessary machines.”