Air Wonder Stories, August 1929 — page 95: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

oe AIR WONDER STORIES AVIATION NEWS (Continued) Refueling in Air Opens New Possibilities B* the establishment this year of two new endurance records for- planes, made possible by refueling in the nir, the ponsibilitics of im- proved service of comm planes huve -been opened, Aviation executives are becoming -in- terested: in the idea, and also-in-the tests. that have eee made 10 ae ates makers pickup. of pay-load_ or Tam the ‘groun while in-moticn, Competition between afelines is becoming keen and the difference ofan hour that represents the time for refueling on the ground aren Tepresent the success. or failure of ‘an-air-line, Complete Weather Reports for Air-Rail Route WHEN the Transcontinental Air Transport q begins its forty-¢ight hour air- rail se: een New York and the Pacific Coast it: will’have a sober weather determin- ing bureau all- its own. re -will-be ten regu- lar meteorological: stations between the terminals at Col , Ohio-and Los Angeles and seventy- two additional observation stations slong -the —s and. on off-line points—to the n and sou so t mo unexpected change may come. Each of the. main stations will be manned by a trained meteorologist who will forward com- plete’ weather reports of “his area to other points along the line and to pilots before they leave for the next landing field. A com- plete. radio system will inform pilots-and other stations of any unexpected change. Four ques- tions will be anawered by the weather service: What weather conditions prevail at the denti- nation, what conditions will be encountered along the route, what and where changes will occur, and at what altitude most favorable flying conditions will be Air Train Seen as Possible Now ITH Sspepnents going forward in Ger bases hie’ proepetiy ak having Tat tase” planes, thé prospects - 0! ving “a seem ‘to become opened, In the German. tests two on three gliders were attached in‘a string after ‘the motored _pline which supplied the power. What~has been visioned is such a train, each: plane loaded with freight and having no. pilot except in the moto: plane, might set out acroas country and each of the gliders’ be -“‘unhitched”? at its destination to glide automatically to a landing field. Recent succesful . tests of the pilotless airplane have been made by the National Air Transport, _ac- cording to’ Reginald M, Cleveland in the New York Times. A plane was operated for thirty minutes continuously -withont assistance from the pilot except occasional pressure on the rudder bar, A vane is supported on the upper wing, in_the automatic’ device, and points into the ‘wind, A pendulum extending from the interior of the fuselage and: the vane, is. con- nected to two motors, one controlling the ailerons ‘and the other the-eleyvators, “A longi- tudinal or lateral motion of the plane causes a similar motion of the vane and dulom which actuates the motors and restores the stability, Aviation’s Past and Future “THE strongest and most important- organi- EL ration in America dealing with aviation is the Society of Automotive Engineers, | is not unlikely that acronautical engineering may -in the. future become the major a of the Society,” according to Prof, J. who is in. charge of- aeronautic-and research work in the fa of applied science and-engineering of the University of Toronto, Professor Parkin recently reviewed the prog- ress made by. aviation during the last 20 years in an_ address before the Canadian Section of the Spoiety He reminded his~ audience of Bleriot’s Aight across: the: Englsh Channel 20 yenrs ago ina small monoplane powered by a three-cylinder. 35-horsepower engine, During the same year, the first international nviation mect was held at heling Fanees at which the following records were established; Cur- tiss, 47 miles per hour; altitude, am, 508.5 feet; and Farman, 118 milea in 3 hours, _Correspon ng record’ today are 319.5 miles per hour, 38,800 fect, and 4,417. miles. General Radio Directional System to Chicago ECAUSE of the bed in the air route to Chicago caveed by Lake Michigan, it has been necessary to Install a radio range beacon at Goshen, Ind., and a marker pbeacon.at Chicago. There wili-béeno diree- tional’ beacon at Chicago, Planes west bound from Cleveland will follow the -weat beam-—from there until the east beam at Goshen is ploked up and then followed to ite gource. Goshen's west beam will then be followed and marker beacons at Lansing, Ohio and Calumet, Ind., will be picked up until the Chicago beacon is reached. Thus the complete New. York-Chicago radio beacon aystem will be completed, Human Element Causes Most Accidents A SURVEY by the Department of Commerce of the onuses of accidents to aircraft dur- ing the latter half of 1928 revealed that very few accidents are caused by structural. failure of the plane, In fact, durin eek pecies no such: structural failure occurred. | ‘15 per cent. of the accidents. were caused by. motor failure, while the failure of the human equation accounted for more th alf “of “the accidents, The figures seem to indicate that stricter rules are necessary for pilots, better training, and rigid ‘enforcement. of, all rules pertaining. to the pilots, The weather and super hazards also. showed a gratifying decrease from the Jast period studied, Inclined Runway for Plane A DEVICE to enable a plane to take-off irom an inclined runway has been made by C, Francis Jenkins, noted television inventor. Believing. that. planes ore capable of sustaining in. the air a © weight in they can take- off with, he has constructed the chute, at the top of which the plane stands when ready for the take-off. It slides down the chute and when it reaches the end it has a far_greater than that necessary for the take-off. in the Sh pehtons opinion, seamnate the neces- sity for large fields“ to suppl ie -necessary space for the usual take-off, tt operators erefore will not have to go‘ so far from the centers of population to find such afield, Jenkina is alsa the inventor of a method of reversing the motion of the propeller so that a plane may have a braking effect exerted on it after ing the ground, thereby reducing the space necessary for landing. Mitchell Denounces Coolidge Air Policy A THOROUGH denouncing of the air policy £% of the Coolidge administration is contained in Aeronautics in-an article by General William Mitchell, former commander of the Air Force of the A, E. F, and Director, Military- Aero- nanticn, U, S. Army, General Mitchell’s. in- dictment is directly chiefly against the policy of Raving -the development of aviation in: the coun- try “divided among theCommerce, Navy. and Army Departmenta instead- of centralized under an Aeronautics Department, ‘‘We_are entering an aeronautics_era,” says Mitchell, with air- planes constantly attaining new records for eight, speed, endurance. The supremacy of airerait time of war has’ been established, From “the Jessons of tests made in~1921 ‘on battleships he believes that “no ship can live on .the- surface of the waterin the face of aircraft,” And in Iand warfare their supremacy is also tnquestioned, “Three or four 4-tom phosgene or mustard gas bombs front airplanes jaunched 100 mies from New York and: hittin, on Manhattan Island will cauge absolute an immedinte evacuation of -the city.” “A Bridal Eve” The Bridal Eve. A Daughter of Evo, A Girl's Awak- ening, Laye’n Sweet Hour. ‘Twa Men and a Mald. 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