HEAVIER-THAN-AIR FLIGHT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 8 (Supplement)

HEAVIER-THAN-AIR FLIGHT.

I WAR YEARS' DEVELOPMENT. LIGHT PLANE FORERUNNER. BY C. G. DE SI. The years just preceding the war, and, above all, the war years themselves, saw tremendous advances in aeronautics. German machines, in the early stages, were superior to those of Britain and the Allies; but beforo long the tables were reversed. Thereafter tho constant battle of development left the superiority in Allied hands. There took place both an increase and a decrease in the size of planes. Safety of flying and ease of handling improved. Motors were lightened and power developed. " Had peace continued," said an expert in 1918, " the aeroplane and dirigible balloon would to-day have been little further advanced in design and in performance than they were after six months of war. Practice would have lagged wearily behind for lack of public support. . . But aircraft has become an essential in war. . . To-day, in consequence, three and a-half years of war has developed the science of aeronautics to a stage which would have occupied a decade of peaceful years." The Curtis flying-boat of. 1912, from which have come all the big flying-boats of to-day, was tho first American contribution to development since the Wrights' efforts. The forerunner of modern fighting seaplanes was the Short seaplane of 1912, and tho original of high-speed aeroplanes the Deperdussen of 1913, with 14-cylinder Gnome engine, which was streamlined and very small, and attained a speed of 130 m.p.h. Classed as tho parent of all high-speed war-Hying biplanes, the Sopwith Tabloid of 1913, invented by an Australian, startled the aeronautical world by doing 94 m.p.h.,, and yet going as slowly as 39 m.p.h. Of distinctly Farman inspiration, the Vickers Gun aeroplane, 1914, with the 100 h.p. Gnome, and a speed of 70 m.p.h., was the first . genuino gun-carrying biplane. The forerunner of all German wartime tractor biplanes, said by Jane to be obvious descendants of the Breguets and Avros of 1910, was the Albatross of 1914, with 6-cylindcr vertical watercooled Mercedes engine of 100 h.p. The 8.E.2.C., 1914, nicknamed " Stability Jane," could fly herself, the pilot having only to keep her on her course. She did all that the Taube of 1912 professed to do, with less waste of power. Of multi-engined planes, tho Twin Caudron, 1912, with two 110 h.p. Le Rhone engines, was the first to fly with success. Closely following came the huge Handlcy-Page biplane of 1916, which at first had two Rolls-Royce engines of 250 h.p. each. During the war both its power and size were increased, and in 1916 one of these machines took a pilot and 20 passengers to a height of 7000 ft. In 1917 another flew froin London to Greece and then bombed Constantinople. ' Also outstanding among early multi-engined types was the famous Caproni threeengined 100 h.p. triplane of 1917. Other notable productions of war years were the Bristol Fighter of 1917, and later tho Bristol Bullet, designed by Captain Barnwell, a pioneer of flying in Scotland, whobuilt a machine of his own in 1909. (To be Continued.)