Manawatu Daily Times TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1925. Foolproof Fliers.

Manawatu Times, Volume XLIX, Issue 2672, 5 May 1925, Page 4

Manawatu Daily Times TUESDAY, MAY 5, 1925. Foolproof Fliers.

A cable message last week described the latest safety device in aeroplanes, and demonstrations were reported in which machines remained practically motionless m mid-air. Xews by the mail just to hand shows that experiments have been proceeding for some time in automatic stabilisation, and it was confidently predicted that when the latest devices arc perfeced travellers in the air will be as safe as their brethren on land or sea—if not safer. The Air Ministry staff' has had charge of the research, which has apparently been developing along the lines of the Flcttncr "rotor.” .It will bo recalled that the famous German scientist produced a sail-less ship by using revolving cylinders to turn the force of the wind into motive power. The aeroplane designers hope to use revolving' cylinders to increase the power of the wind, and create a lifting surface that is as efficient while the machine hangs motionless in the air as when the present-day aeroplane is moving forward at a speed of 150 miles an hour. This will mean a complete revolution in the whole field of civilian and war' flying. It will make possible the comstruction of a machine that cannot, become out of control owing to a bad flying mistake on the part of the pilot, or. storm and gale conditions, and the process of “stalling” a machine which proved fatal in so many Air Force accidents last year will be impossible. It will mean the introduction of an automatic stabiliser somewhat on the principle of the gyroscope, which will be efficient at any angle at which an aeroplane is tilted, and the production of a machine that possesses greater lifting power than has yet been dreamed of, a machine, in fact, that in this respect will be equal of any airship. Fantastic Claims.

Some extravagant claims are made for the new principle. For instance it Is seriously suggested that passengers will be able to transfer from one machine to another while they arc poised over the air junction of Paris or Berlin, and will be able to travel by the Atlantic aeroplanes from New York to London and transfer there to the Cairo express without landing on the ground. In war, too, commanders of armies and navies will find that the new aeroplane will force them to alter all their plans and tactics. The admiral will perch aloft over a battle area and move his ships about on the waters below, by wireless, like so many chessmen on a chessboard. The machine that can hover will be the army commander’s ideal artillery spotting aeroplane. He will also And that bombs dropped from an aeroplane motionless in the skies will hit their mark with the frequency of the shell fired from a thirteen-inch gun. A hundred machines, dropping a thousand bombs with such accuracy, will be able to destroy completely a town, and with the, use of gas render a wiiola division. o£ troops in effective!