SENDING MESSAGES FROM THE SKY.

Woodville Examiner, Volume XXVIII, Issue 4627, 7 May 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

SENDING MESSAGES FROM THE SKY.

Wireless telegraphy for communieiLing between an aeroplane in flight and its headquarters is now adopted for urgent reports. A light apparatus weighing 801 b. is carried on the machine for this purpose, and the necessary electric current is provided by a small petrol motor which develops 22 h.p. The aerial wire by means of which messages arc sent from the aeropalne is unwound from a reel situated beneath the landing chassis. It trails for a length of sixty to a hundred yards, and a weight is attached to the end of ’.lie copper cable so that it hangs below the machine when in flight. In the event of the aeroplane having to make a forced landing a winch 's provided so that the cable may be wound up out of the way. If there is not time to do this before the machine touches earth, the wire is severed by means of an aerial cutter fitted to the side of the winch, and it falls clear of the aeroplane kni? does not catch in trees' or entangle the propeller. The keyboard by means of which messages are sent from an aeroplane in flight is generally strapped on the knee of the aviator, so_ that he can manipulate it easily with his free hand. It is very difficult to send a message to an aeroplane when in mid-air, not that the wireless waves fail-to reach the machine, but that the noise of the engine is so terriffic that it _ makes the faint signals inaudible. Aviators flying many hundreds of feet in the air find it a comparatively simple matter, however, to keep in communication with observers on earth by means of wireless, and in this way messages have been sent over a distance of one hundred miles.