AVIATION NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19616, 21 October 1925, Page 12

AVIATION NOTES.

PARACHUTES FOB AEROPLANES. NEW MACHINE GUN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. September 3. The death of three flying officers as a. consequence of a collision in the air again draws attention to the urgent need for equipping all aeroplanes with parachutes. The Irving parachute, which has been chosen as standard equipment by the Air Ministry, serves as a cushion during flight, and is rapid and automatic in action in an emergency. Most of the parachutes already issued to" the Air Force are being used to train pilots in parachute work, though it may he that am appliance which works so easily would be put to better use if at once fitted to machines as an emergency precaution, irrespective of the pilot’s parachute experience. “The Air Ministry lias already stated in the House of Commons.” said an official in an interview, “that it is the policy of the Ministry to equip all aeroplanes with parachutes. The decision to do this, however, is a comparative!v recent one, and some tiyic must necessarily elapse before if can bo completely carried out. Meanwhile, the manufacturers are being pressed to expedite the delivery of supplies. The number of flying accidents at Home and abroad since the beginning of the present year is 26, and the number of deaths 33. During last year there were 38 accidents, which involved 5G deaths. The Air Ministry hopes to reduce the figures still further.” BULLET SPRAY. A remarkable form of single-seater aeroplane gun mounting, which sprays bullets as the sprinkling nozzle of a hose sprays water, is being considered by air tacticians with a view to fitting it to home defence aircraft. The original idea for this gnn mounting emanated from a pilot in fhe R.F.C. A sheaf of three machine guns, with their barrels lying parallel, is arranged on the aeroplane. While thev are being fired, the guns automatically open and close, like the legs of a t.ipod stand. The range of movement is email. The effect is to send an alternately expanding and contracting core of bullets towards the target, and so, it is claimed, to increase the chances of a hit when the shooting conditions are difficult. The original Eman mount was fitted to the top plane of a machine in order to avoid the complications of sychronising the guns for firing between the airscrew blades, SAFETY FIRST. Safety, comfort, and reliability were the true essentials in civil aviation, said Mr 11. V. Southwell, speaking at the British Association Conference, and until these could be guaranteed it would have attractions only for the few. High speed, besides being very costly, militated against all three; the lower we could afford to make the top speed of an aeroplane the lower would be its landing speed, on which primarily safety depended. An air speed of anything over 80 miles an hour would suffice to achieve a saving of time over other forma of transport; and, once established as economic and reliable, the aeroplane or airship would have hardly a competitor. Was not research, therefore, justified in its policy of placing safety first, in seeking to satisfy rather than create a demand? The wildest of sll aeronautical predictions was that which prophesied the giant aeroplane. Without asserting that we had reached a limit in size, materials, or now types of engines, he nevertheless declared that it was idle to talk gaily of size as an advantage which nothing but our ignorance withheld from our grasp to-day. As this country had embarked on a definite programme of two large ships, surely common sense suggested that we ought, for the next two years, to leave the design staffs in peace to do their beat. Silence on their part while their plans developed was a mark of health.