AIR TRAVEL

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 54, Issue 3895, 28 April 1937, Page 9

AIR TRAVEL

MARVELS OF THE FUTURE. ADDRESS BY NOTED DESIGNER. LARGER MACHINES AND GREATER SPEEDS. The visit to New, Zealand of the Pan-American Airways Sikorsky clipper plane lends interest to what the designer, Mr I. I. Sikorsky, of that craft, has tp. say about the future of air travel. It wasi at a joint meeting of the Engineering Societies, New York City, held recently, that he delivered the following address:— Modern technique offers possibilities for the construction of aircraft of considerable size. For example, it is believed that a 1,000,000-pound aeroplane, carrying 1000 passengers could be produced before 1950. It is doubtful, however, whether this size will prolve practical at this or even at a reasonably more remote date. The characteristics of air travel, with its high speed, necessitate frequent departures in order to make the passenger and mail service really valuable and useful. Therefore, it appears probable that a larger number of aircraft of reasonable dimensions would do a better job, and that the size of the aircraft will be controlled by economic factors and traffic requirements rather than by engineering possibilities. However, it is most probable that the airliner of the near future will be much larger than the present average ships.

LARGER AIRCRAFT. The efficiency of an air transport as a useful load-carrier depends not only on the payload capacity in units of weight, but at present just as much on the useful volume available for passengers and load. In this respect the larger aircraft has considerable advantages because, briefly, the resistance of the body which carries passengers and load increases less than in proportion to the square of linear measurements, while the useful volume increases more than in proportion to the cube of the same dimension. Therefore, the larger aeroplane is proportionally much more efficient with respect to power necessary to move at a given speed and the space necessary to accommodate a passenger. While with some other items the above considerations would not be correct, yet in genera] the larger plane would be the more efficient one. Furthermore, the larger transport would still need practically the same flying crew, radio, navigation, and other equipment while carrying a larger payload. All these and several other considerations point to an bircrajft, if not of giant size, at least considerably larger than modern ships. It is most certain that planes of 100,00101 b. and more will be flying or at least under construction during the coming five years, and just as certain that the introduction of such ships will contribute greatly to the coming vast expansion of air transportation. The three existing basic types of aircraft, namely, the land plane flying boat and amphibian, will all remain in their respective geographic fields of operation. With reference to their efficiency, while the land plane is and will remain the most efficient and least expensive of the three, the difference in speed and operating efficiency will become less pronounced in ships of larger size. Therefore the flying boat will remain a very important factor of transportation, offering in large dizes an efficiency and speed very closely approaching that of a corresponding land plane and in many cases offering substantial operating advantages. With reference tci speed, the following general ideas can be expressed. At the present time an operating speed of 225 miles an hour for leading land transports and 175 miles an hour for long-range flying-boats has been approached, and in some cases exceeded. This means that the airliner is three to four times faster than the best train, while the flyingboat is five to six times faster than the latest steamship. While this speed appears to justify air travel, yet the coming years will bring further increase in operating speed. Doubts have been expressed about the necessity for this, as can be seen from the following quotations taken from an editorial in the Bridgeport “TimesStar”: — “Professor X has invented a rocket plane in which he believes he will be able to cross the Atlantic in less than half an hour. Suppose for instance that some such plane as this could be made available for use, what good would it do us ? So far we have had pretty bad results. It will take perhaps another century or two for us to get into harmony with the speed of modern communications. And this rocket plane would only intensify our troubles. We simply couldnt live up to it. Can’t our inventors go fishing, or something, jfoa- a few decades, until we get settled ? ” MAXIMUM POSSIBLE SPEED. It isl hard to agree with such an opinion. Speed is, indeed, very important, and a certain further increase is desirable and possible, but it must be followed by progress with respect to other performance characteristics,

such as flying in rough air, economy of operation, sufficient room on board, comfort and other items. Substantial progress along these lines may be expected in the near future. For special types of military and commercial aircraft where greatest speed is of extreme importance, a large increase may still be expected as the result of continual research engineering work along conventional lines, as well as by the use of new methods such asi suction or pressure jets, by locating the engines inside the wings ol" body, and coloring them artificially or by some other novel feature.

It appears probable that the speed of 525 miles an hour considered to be a possible maximum speed for aircraft, could be approached within the coming five years, providing a considerable amount d)f expensive research work can be done.

Wjith respect to jet propulsion or rocket-driven aircraft neither of them appear to be round the corner. It is now possible to design and build airliners capable of being operated in non-stop flights across the longest practical trans-oceanic air routes. This also opens the way to military possibilities of great importance. It is expected that during the coming five years pioneering work will be done and actual airline operations established at reasonably high altitudes, such as 20,000 or 25,00(0 feet. At this altitude it will be possible to obtain the major benefits of high flying, namely almost continuously clear weather and a substantial increase in operating speed. A certain super-charging of the cabin would be necessary, but the less of pressure fbr any reason would not be fatal if the plane has provision for supplying oxygen for that emergency. •

EXPLOITATION OF STRATOSPHERE. Stratosphere flying at 50,00’0 or 60,000 feet altitude or, even higher will probably be studied during these five years, and might prove to be very interesting from the scientific, as well as the military, point of view. It is questionable whether any substantial part of the regular air-line travel will be done at this altitude in the not-too-remo'te future. While it is possible from an engineering standpoint, yet it appears that various difficulties, maintenance complications, as well as increased cost and hazards, would be greater - than the practical advantages of this type of operation.

Flying along established airlines is now a routine way of travelling across every continent and between most of the major cities. Before the end of five years the same will become true with respect to major trans-oceanic routes of the world. It is probable that some of the transport or excursion airlines will even run across the Polar regions. This great development of all existing branches of aircraft will result in a further and most interesting and encouraging expansion of activities connected with aircraft industry, operation and science.