Aircraft : $b its development in war and peace and its commercial futureDavid, Evan John
History
Aircraft : $b its development in war and peace and its commercial future
David, Evan John
Aeronautics; Airplanes
General Menoher, director of military aeronautics, has announced that
the army will co-operate with the aero mail department in developing
municipal aerodromes in thirty-two different cities in the United
States, extending from coast to coast and from Canada to Mexico.
Meantime the aircraft manufacturers are contemplating establishing a
line of huge flying-boats between New York and Boston, carrying fifty
people each way. The distance of two hundred miles could be covered
in two hours, or less than half the time taken by train. Only four
machines will be used at the beginning, one leaving Boston early in the
morning and the other early in the afternoon. Two will leave New York
at the same time. Four more will be kept in reserve, and as the traffic
increases more will be added. The total investment will not require a
million dollars, and the aero mail between the two cities has already
set the pace for this passenger line.
The manufacturers also expect that every life-saving station along the
entire coast of the United States and its possessions will be equipped
with at least one seaplane with which to carry out a life-line to a
ship wrecked on the beach or to rescue any one in distress within
a hundred miles of the station, because these flying-boats can be
launched in any kind of weather and can travel faster than anything
that moves on the water.
The keenest aeronautic interest at the present time is centred in the
aerial crossing of the Atlantic Ocean between America and Europe.
Two possible routes are proposed for the flight. Both start from St.
John’s, Newfoundland, but one stretches from there to Ireland and the
other via the Azores to Portugal. The northern route is 1,860 miles
from land to land, and the other 1,195 miles to the Flores, which is
the nearest one of the Azores. From there to Ponta Delgada to Lisbon
is 850 more. The southern route is preferable because the first leg
is shortest from land to land. Also, less fog prevails in the south
in all seasons of the year. Captain Laureati has already flown in a
single-motored machine 920 miles without landing. The United States
Naval F-5 flying-boat has flown 1,250 miles. Undoubtedly a flying-boat,
equipped with four or more motors, could carry enough gasoline to cover
the 1,200 miles on the Atlantic without stopping. Indeed, only half
the number of motors need be running at one time if necessary, and
since the large bimotored machines make a hundred miles an hour the
flight could be negotiated within the twelve hours of day-light in the
summer-time.
Just before the war broke out Mr. Glenn Curtiss, the inventor of
the flying-boat, was building for Mr. Rodman Wanamaker the seaplane
_America_ with which Captain Porte was to try to fly across the
Atlantic. The beginnings of hostilities terminated the project. The
_America_, however, did cross the Atlantic, but in the hold of another
boat, and it performed very good service in British waters chasing Hun
submarines.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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