TWENTY YEARS HENCE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 7569, 23 May 1914, Page 6

TWENTY YEARS HENCE.

WHEN A WEEK WILL BE THE LIMIT OF A VOYAGE. (By CLAUDE GRAHAME WHITE in the “Daily Graphic.”) A few months ago I was dining with a friend who, while interested in aviation, thought that the limits of the practical uses of the heavior-thau-air machine hud been almost reached. ion will never,” lie declared, “ ro matter what engine-power you have, got a greater speed out of an aeroplane than 100 miles an hour. The resistance ol tho air is too great.” We disagreed. “ 1 firmly believe,” 1 told him, “ that in under a quarter of a century there will be no part of tho globe inaccessible to the aeroplane, and that no journey, whatever the distance, will occupy more than eight or nine days.” Ho laughed at me. That, ho declared, was tfie dream of an enthusiastic aviator, which by no conceivable stretch of scientific imagination could ever come true.

That evening is recalled to my mind now because Mr. Rudyard Kipling^has recently told us that," The time is hear when men will receive their normal impressions of a new country suddenly and in. plan, not slowly and in perspective: when the most extreme distances will be brought within the compass of one week’s—ono hundred and sixty-eight hours’ —-travel; when the word ‘inaccessible,’ as applied to any given spot on the surface of the globe will cease to have any meaning.” I am entirely with Mr. Kipling. My friend who argued so vehemently a short few months ago is already confounded. An aeroplane lias done one hundred and forty miles In tho hour —more than two miles a minute. So it requires no gift of prophecy to say that within twenty years we shall bo able to cross the Atlantic in fifteen hours. In 1934, that is to say, it will bo possible to leave London on Friday afternoon in a luxurious aerial Pullman, where one can eat and sleep in comfort, and reach New York the following morning. One would leave America on Sunday afternoon and be in town on Monday morning, with no more inconvenience than going to Paris or Scotland for the week-end now. AERIAL MAURETANIAS. In twenty years’ time the man or woman who has not travelled by air will be in exactly the same position as one who lias never been in a train to-day. The aeroplane industry will, I think, take longer and quicker ‘strides than the railway. With an engine of 160 h.p. to-day a speed of 140 miles an hour has been ,done. The highest-powered aeroplane engine to-day is only about 200 h.p. When wo get, as we must very soon, engines similar to those in marine use, of thousands of horse-power, the possibilities aro almost beyond one’s imagination. There is no doubt that we shall havo aerial vessels of the heavier-than-air typo of the size of the Mauretania, carrying 3,000 and 4,000 passengers. They will cross tho Atlantic in a day with the safety and certainty of an express train. 1 hope to cross to New York in this way myself one day. It will come far sooner than the majority of people think. There is, indeed, nothing to stand in tho way of the vast development of the aeroplane from every point of view. Its advance, moreover, must of necessity bring about enormous changes in conditions of life all over the world. The senseless criticism against that it will remove England’s isolation the ’construction of a Channel tunnel, and her groat security, applies ten thousand-fold to the aeroplane.

THE AIR THE FIRST LINE OF -WARFARE. Even as things arc to-day Franco, could bring 1,000 men an hour into England by air if it were necessary. Twenty years honey France will be able to transport an army of 100,000 men and guns across the Channel with twenty-five airships in an hour. Germany will be in practically the same position, though I believe she will b© forced to discard the lighter-than-air type. Evety first-class Power will possess her fleet of great aerial battleships comparable to the Dreadnoughts of today, and while Navies must be maintained to a cei tain extent, the first arm both of offence and defence will undoubtedly be in the air I trust that England will realise this as speedily as other nations. The million which has just been granted for the air service was needed a year ago, as I then stated — which created a good deal of ridicule at the time. Each year now must see the Air Estimates increased, and there must be no false economy in the matter of retaining old types. Daily now improvements are being made; the construction is changing; and, most important of ail, higher-powered engines are coming into existence. Once we can get', as 1 say, engines of sufficient power, there is no limit to what may be accomplished. These changes must take time; but 1 am convinced it will be short. The first principle has been established. It is as safe in the air as on the ground today. The rest is merely a matter of natural evolution. It is absurd naturally to say there are no more problems to bo solved. There are; but they are not so difficult as was the initial one of actual flight.

I’KOBLE.MS THAT REMAIN. One of these problems concerns itself with wing urea. With greater weight you require a greater piano surface for raising and starting a machine from the ground. But once in the air, and flying at highspeed, the necessity for so much wing area disappears. A bullet travels through the air by its own momentum. It becomes the same with an aeroplane at very high speed. At two hundred miles an hour there is very little plane surface required. Thus it may bo necessary in the future to have wings or planes which, fully extended at the start of ajlight, may be telescoped in the air. Wind resistance- must he considered also, and to do away with this the “stream-line” form of body will have to be brought to perfection. “Streamlining ” is being adopted more and more in construction to-day; and the airship of the future will be very graceful in appearance and offer a minimum of resistance. All these things will make for the aeroplane of twenty years hence, when, as Mr. Kipling says, the most extreme distances of the world will be brought within the compass of one week’s travel.