THE AIR AGE
Although facts disappointed many over-sanguine expectations that the
billions of dollars invested in aëronautics during the war would pay
direct dividends already in 1919, the year brought us a long step
nearer the age of universal flight. Meantime, commercial aviation
is still a long way from the stage at which bankers regard its
undertakings as good security for loans.
[Illustration: CHART OF THE NORTH ATLANTIC SHOWING COURSE OF THE FLIGHT]
[Illustration: THE MEN WHO WORKED WITHOUT GLORY TO MAKE THE FLIGHT
POSSIBLE]
Air routes have been opened up in most parts of the world. Captain
Ross-Smith has shown, by his magnificent journey from England to
Australia in a Vickers-Vimy aëroplane, that long-distance flights
over the most out-of-the-way lands and ocean tracts can be made
even under the present unsatisfactory conditions, before terminals,
landing grounds and wireless stations are provided for air pilots
and navigators. The Atlantic has been crossed four times, twice by
a dirigible, once by an aëroplane and once by a flying boat.
Aëroplanes have flown from England to India. Aircraft have been used
for commercial purposes in every part of Western Europe, in most
countries of North and South America, in Australia, India, Egypt and
South Africa. Important exhibitions of modern aircraft, similar to
automobile shows, have been held in London, New York, Paris, Amsterdam
and elsewhere.
To-day all the Great Powers can show commercial air services in full
operation. Of these the most important are perhaps the triangular
airways around London, Paris and Brussels. One French and two British
companies operate daily between London and Paris; British craft travel
backwards and forwards between London and Brussels three times a week;
and French machines fly between Paris and Brussels every day.
The London-Paris services have established a magnificent record for
efficiency and regularity. Valuable and urgent freight of every kind,
including furs, dresses, jewelry, documents, a bunch of keys, perfume,
a grand piano and even a consignment of lobsters, have been delivered
in safety. Forty pounds of assorted London newspapers are taken each
morning to Paris, where they are sold in the streets on the day of
publication instead of next morning, as was the case when they were
forwarded by train and packet-boat. Leading London papers, such as the
_Times_, the _Telegraph_, the _Morning Post_, the _Daily Mail_, and the
_Daily Express_, have regular contracts with one of the companies.
As for passengers, men of every occupation take advantage of the
opportunity to travel comfortably from London to Paris in two and
one-quarter hours. There is seldom a vacant seat on the larger
machines; although the fare is at present rather high, ranging from $75
to $105 for the single journey.
Moreover, the accommodation on two of the types of aëroplane now
used--the Handley-Page _W-8_ and the Airco _DH-18_--is more attractive
than that of a Pullman car. The Handley-Page _W-8_ carries fifteen to
twenty passengers with personal luggage, or two tons of freight. The
Airco _DH-18_ takes eight passengers, with their personal luggage.
The past year saw no specially important developments of commercial
aviation inside Great Britain itself. A week-end service between
Southampton and Havre was inaugurated, and passengers and mails were
flown from London to Leeds. The most important undertaking was perhaps
the delivery by air of newspapers. For a time the Manchester edition
of the _Daily Mail_ was taken by air for distribution in Carlisle,
Dundee and Aberdeen, the last-named place being reached in three and
one-quarter hours instead of the thirteen hours of train journey.
Evening newspapers were carried daily during the summer from London to
various resorts on the South coast.
The London-Leeds undertaking is the only regular service between
English towns that has lasted for long. Elsewhere the air rates proved
to be too high, and although there were plenty of aërodromes, the
promoters of aërial transport companies could not compete with the
all-embracing network of railways. During the great railway strike of
October, however, valuable transport work was done by aircraft. For
the rest, aëroplanes in England are chartered as aërial taxicabs for
special trips, and last summer one or two companies reaped a moderate
harvest by organizing pleasure trips at the seaside resorts. An airship
or two have taken tours around the battlefields of France and Flanders.
A few wealthy amateurs have bought aëroplanes for their private use.
Other European countries--France, Italy, Holland, Belgium,
Scandinavia, Spain and Portugal--have made rather less progress in
the manufacture and development of aëroplanes or dirigibles; but
their use of aircraft for commercial purposes was about the same
as that of Britain--newspaper distribution, some special journeys,
and many joyrides. French aviators have opened tentative airways to
Morocco, Senegal and Tunis. For regular passenger or goods services
in continental Europe the high cost of fuel and accessories makes the
rates too high. Also aërodromes and landing grounds are too few; and
seldom can aëroplanes compete on a large scale with railways over
comparatively short distances. Exceptions are the Paris-Lyons and
Madrid-Lisbon airways.
Germany, throughout what was for her a terrible year, made further
progress with her Zeppelin dirigibles. A number of return voyages
were made over the route Berlin-Munich-Vienna-Constantinople. The
latest type of Zeppelin is so efficient that no weather conditions,
except a strong cross-hangar wind, prevents the airship _Bodensee_
from making its daily flight of three hundred and ninety miles between
Friedrichshafen and Staalsen, thirteen miles from Berlin. The
passenger carrying Zeppelins, which prior to the war provided the only
important example of commercial aircraft, claim a remarkable record.
They have carried more than one hundred and forty thousand people,
and yet not one of the passengers has been killed or injured in an
accident; although some members of the crews lost their lives in the
early days of the pioneer Zeppelins.
The vast distances of the United States offer better opportunities for
aëroplane traffic than the comparatively small and closely-railwayed
countries of Western Europe. There is no doubt that, had the United
States government supported its aircraft companies to the same extent
as did the British government, commercial aviation in America would
have traveled along a smooth road. Even without this support it has
made excellent progress. Successful regular services are established
between Los Angeles and San Diego, and elsewhere in the West, and
in the East many passengers have been carried between New York and
Atlantic City, and around the coast of Florida. Plans are being laid
for various other airways, including one between Key West and Havana.
While no continuous service for aërial goods traffic exist in the
United States, aëroplanes are often chartered for special deliveries.
This is particularly the case in the oil countries of Texas and
Oklahoma, where newly-grown and important centers are off the beaten
railroad track. One company in Oklahoma regularly sends its employees'
pay by aëroplane from town to oilfield camp, thus assuring a quick and
safe delivery, free from the necessity of armed guards and the danger
of hold-ups. Other items worth noting in the United States' aërial
history of the past twelve months are that aëroplanes have performed
survey work and located forest fires, that thirty-two cities have
applied for commercial aërodromes for postal, passenger and express
purposes, and that an advertising agency is soliciting aërial business
that will include display work on dirigibles, balloons and aëroplanes,
the dropping of pamphlets from the air, and aërial photography.
Where the United States undoubtedly leads the way is in the ownership
and use of privately owned aëroplanes--a circumstance partly explained
by the great quantities of new money being spent. For a time some of
the American manufacturers were months behind their post-war orders,
and were selling everything that could fly. One famous company
disposed of hundreds of pleasure craft at $7,500 apiece. Many buyers,
impatient of delay, accepted immediate delivery of training machines,
rather than wait for the pleasure craft. Reputable agencies dealing
in second-hand aëroplanes bought from the United States and Canadian
governments, disposed of thousands of machines and could not obtain
enough to satisfy all their clients. An interesting development was the
idea of community aëroplanes, purchased and maintained jointly by small
groups of people living in the same residential district.
The United States postal authorities have satisfactorily
maintained aërial mail services over the route New
York-Washington-Cleveland-Chicago. After some preliminary fiascos
these became reliable, besides being very speedy, as compared with
train schedules. For June the Washington-New York air mail achieved
ninety-nine per cent. efficiency, and the Cleveland-Chicago route one
hundred per cent. The latter never missed a day in May and June, and
not a single forced landing occurred during the first seventy days. At
the close of 1919 the air mails showed a surplus of $19,000 of revenue
over working costs, on a basis of two cents charge for each ounce of
mail matter carried. Better results are expected now that specially
constructed machines, with freight capacities of one thousand pounds
and upward, are ready for use.
The British dominions and dependencies take a great interest in
aëronautics, and last year saw satisfactory beginnings in some of
them. In Australia, for example, a passenger and freight service links
Sydney and Port Darwin, over a distance of twenty-five hundred miles,
with intervening stations. Plans are ready for regular flights from
North to South of the continent, and also from East to West, across the
difficult country between New South Wales and Victoria on the one hand,
and Western Australia on the other.
Canada has found a highly successful use for aëroplanes in prospecting
the Labrador timber country. A group of machines returned from an
exploration with valuable photographs and maps of hundreds of thousands
of dollars' worth of forest land. Aërial fire patrols, also, have been
sent out over the forests. While no important air route for passenger
carrying is yet utilized in Canada, there is a certain amount of
private flying, and air journeys for business purposes are common.
Plans have been prepared for a regular service between Newfoundland and
cities on the mainland, thus saving many hours over the time schedules
perpetrated by the little Newfoundland railway.
In the South African Union, where the railway system by no means
corresponds with the vast distances, many passengers and mails are
carried by air from Johannesburg to Pretoria, Maritzburg, Durban and
Cape Town. Later, when the services over these routes are better
organized, they will doubtless be extended to important centers in
Rhodesia, the East Africas and what was German South-West Africa.
Aëroplanes in India take passengers over the route Calcutta-Simla in
twelve to fourteen hours of cool roominess, as compared with forty-two
hours of stuffy oppressiveness on a train. Other Indian air routes in
preparation are Calcutta-Bombay, Calcutta-Darjeeling and Calcutta-Puri.
The air fare in India averages about 11 cents a mile.
Aërodromes and landing grounds are already prepared between Egypt and
India, and several machines have made the journey from Cairo to Delhi,
via Damascus, the Syrian Desert, Bagdad, Bandar Abbas and Karachi.
Elsewhere in the East--the Malay Peninsula, Singapore, Borneo, Java
and China--similar routes are planned. The whole of Eastern Africa,
from Cairo to Cape Town, has been mapped out for the use of aircraft,
with landing grounds at short intervals.
So much for accomplishment during the past year. What the future and
the near-future have in store for aëronautics is problematical, and any
detailed analysis must be conjecture. The general trend of development
during the next two years may be forecast, however, with a fair degree
of accuracy.
Anybody who blends sane imagination with some knowledge of the history
of aëronautics must realize that what has been achieved is very little
in comparison with what can be achieved. It is unnecessary to make
trite comparisons with the first stages of steam locomotives or motor
cars.
Yet, it is folly to expect an air age now. Its coming will be delayed
by the necessity of slow, painstaking research, and by the fact that in
the countries which are encouraging aviation to the greatest degree,
capital is no longer fluid and plentiful, and money in substantial sums
cannot be risked on magnificent experiments. The cost of building
fleets of dirigibles and hosts of air terminals, for example, must be
enormous; and until it has been demonstrated beyond question that they
will be paying propositions, financiers and investors are unlikely to
be interested in their concrete possibilities on a large scale.
Unless some startling innovation--a much cheaper fuel for example,
or a successful helicopter--revolutionizes commercial aviation, its
near-future is unlikely to stray beyond the extension of airways over
distances of about five hundred to two thousand miles. These are
likely to be covered mostly by heavier-than-air craft, although, as in
Germany, dirigibles will have their place.
Extension of air traffic is especially probable in industrial and
agricultural countries of large area, such as the United States,
Canada, Australia, India and the South American republics. Another
projected development with immediate possibilities is the linking of
regions that are separated by a comparatively narrow expanse of water.
Obvious examples, in addition to Britain and France, are England and
Ireland, the Mediterranean coast of France and the Mediterranean coast
of Africa, and Florida and Cuba.
Traffic across the ocean or a great lake offers to air travel the best
time-saving inducement. To connect two places separated by one hundred
and fifty miles of water, an average steamship needs ten hours. A
passenger on it must spend at least one night away from home, while
transacting his business. An air passenger covers the same distance in
one and one-half to two hours, and can return on the same day. For such
transport the seaplane and the flying boat will have their chance.
Besides the carriage of passengers, mails and valuable freight,
aviation will have many additional functions. Maps may be made and
checked with absolute accuracy by means of aërial photography. Another
important function of the aëroplane and the aërial camera is to explore
and prospect undeveloped districts. In places remote from the ordinary
facilities of civilization aircraft may be used for the discovery of
fire, flood and lawlessness. Already the Canadian Northwest Mounted
Police have captured wrongdoers by means of aëroplane patrols.
Aircraft offer particular advantages as carriers in regions where the
natural obstacles on the ground prohibit railway or road transport. In
Alaska valuable metals and furs are brought to civilization on sleds
drawn by dogs, over paths that are circuitous and dangerous. They could
be taken in safety, and with an immense saving of time, by aëroplanes
fitted with skids suitable for landing on ice and snow. Again, copper
is transported from mines in the Andes by llamas, which are slow
and must jog over devious tracks. Aëroplanes could make the journey
directly and speedily, from mine to coast, without regard to precipice,
marsh or forest.
South America is likely to be a happy hunting-ground for aëronautical
pioneers. The mountain-range of the Andes, which for hundreds of
miles sharply divides America into two parts, gives aviation an
incontestable opportunity. The eastern section of South America
could be brought days nearer the western section by high-climbing
aircraft, which would provide a pleasant alternative to the roundabout,
uncomfortable journeying now necessary. The air mails between the two
great commercial centers of South America--Rio de Janeiro and Buenos
Ayres--should also save many days of valuable time. Many owners of
ranches and plantations in the Argentine, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil
are buying aëroplanes to bring their isolated, up-country properties in
closer contact with the towns.
Asia and Africa have similar geographical problems, to which air
traffic might find a ready solution. Each of these continents has
enormous areas that, because of the absence of good railways, are
either unproductive or much less productive than their resources
warrant. A few of many such cases are Turkestan, Central Arabia, parts
of China, Siberia, Thibet, and the whole of Central Africa. Most of
these are rich in minerals. Meanwhile, aëroplanes have flown between
the desert marts of Damascus and Bagdad in eight to ten hours. These
cities are not yet linked by railroad and a camel caravan over the
Syrian desert covers the same route in two weeks to a month. The same
conditions apply to the Gobi desert.
So far I have dealt with the future of commercial aëronautics almost
entirely in terms of heavier-than-air machines. These--land planes,
seaplanes and flying boats--have at present a useful radius of
non-stop flight confined to distances of under one thousand miles.
The limitation must remain until changes in the basic principles
of aëroplane construction are so altered as to give a much greater
speed in proportion to fuel consumption. One such change may be the
introduction of wings with variable camber. This, by permitting
variations in the angle of incidence, would make possible a quick
ascent at a steep inclination, and a very fast forward speed once the
required height had been attained. The benefits from variable camber
could be increased by the introduction of a propeller with a variable
pitch. Going still further in the same direction, we may find any day
that one of the attempts in various countries to design and construct a
successful helicopter has matured, producing a machine which, by reason
of a very powerful propeller on a moveable shaft that can be inclined
in any direction, will not only rise and descend vertically, but also
may be made to travel forward at a great speed and to perform such
acrobatic tricks as sudden halts, retreats and jumps.
All this, however, is surmise; and we are faced with the fact that
until the design of aëroplanes differs radically from its present form,
heavier-than-air flying apparatuses are limited as to maximum size by
certain structural principles too complicated for explanation in this
non-technical analysis. A further limitation is imposed by the space
needed by the largest machines for leaving the ground or landing.
Within these bounds it has been found that the maximum capacity for
passengers and freight does not greatly exceed one and one-half to two
tons for a non-stop journey of five hundred miles in still air. Lesser
distances do not increase the useful load appreciably, but greater
distances decrease it; until for a radius of about twenty-five hundred
miles the whole of the disposable lift is needed for fuel, and nothing
else may be carried.
For long journeys over land, therefore, the aëroplane must come to
earth for replenishment of fuel every five hundred miles. Even for this
distance it cannot take more than one and one-half to two tons beyond
the weight of fuel and crew. If heavier loads are to be transported,
more machines must be used. Finally there comes a point at which a
single airship, carrying a heavy freight over five hundred miles, is
more economical than several aëroplanes. For non-stop flights of over
one thousand miles the same considerations make the airship always more
economical than the aëroplane.
Over the ocean the flying boat can beat the dirigible in time and
cost up to five hundred miles. Even at one thousand miles it is a
commercial proposition, but it must then have all in its favor. For
longer distances the airship has no competitor. It may be deduced that
in years to come, when the world's airways are in general operation,
heavier-than-air machines will bring freight to the great airports,
there to be transferred to dirigibles and by them carried to the
earth's uttermost ends.
The time for this seeming Utopia is not yet, however, although a group
of airship interests in England are now planning airship services that
may eventually set London within two and a half days of New York, one
and a half days of Cairo, four of Rio de Janeiro, five and a half of
Cape Town and seven of Australia. But first must come bold expenditure,
very careful organization, many-sided research and improved invention.
Although no claim is made that present-day airships can compete for
reliability with railroad trains and ocean liners, there is no doubt
that a sufficient number of passengers are prepared to pay relatively
higher rates for the great saving in time taken for long distance
journeys, particularly over the ocean.
The demand would be mainly for the carriage of express freight and
mail matter and for passenger traffic to serve people who wish to get
from center to center in the shortest possible time. Another use for
large airships would be the carrying of freight of high intrinsic
value, such as valuable ores, from places otherwise inaccessible, or
not provided with other means of direct transport.
To meet the requirements of various purposes for which airships may be
utilized, dirigibles of four kinds are projected:
First, the airship of moderate size and high speed for carrying
express, mails and passengers.
Secondly, the air liner solely for passenger traffic, of a large size
and speed.
Thirdly, the large airship of comparatively slow speed, and great
carrying capacity, for general transport.
Fourthly, the small non-rigid airship for private purchase and upkeep
as an aërial yacht.
[Illustration: THE VICKERS AEROPLANE WORKS AT WEYBRIDGE, ENGLAND]
[Illustration: COMFORT CAN BE ENJOYED IN AIR TRAVEL TO-DAY]
The rigid airship is as yet only at the beginning of its development,
particularly as regards size and carrying capacity. The airship of
three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity, for immediate
use on the fast passenger services, carrying a load of passengers of
fifteen tons for a distance of forty-eight hundred miles, might be
built immediately, and could be housed in sheds at present available.
As the lift and speed efficiency of a rigid airship increases rapidly
in proportion to the vessel's size, it will be advantageous to use
the largest airships that can be economically operated. A rigid
dirigible able to carry fifty tons of passengers and freight for ten
thousand miles at a speed of eighty miles an hour is quite feasible;
and the design and construction of such an airship could be undertaken
immediately if it were justified by the demand for air transport.
The ships of three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity,
which can be housed and flown for commercial purposes as soon as
the required terminals and navigational facilities are ready, will
approximate to those described as being suitable for a transatlantic
service. If standardized for adaptation to all conditions and world
routes, they should be capable of a non-stop flight of about eighty
hours, at an average speed of sixty miles an hour.
To prevent wastage and reduce the running costs, several economical
devices for dealing with height equilibrium are needed. On long
flights the greatest problems are maintenance of the airship at a
constant height, and avoidance of the loss of gas consequent on
expansion when the ship rises as it loses weight by the consumption
of fuel. Owing to the great variation in temperature between day and
night, the ship becomes heavy at night owing to the lower temperature,
and light during the day, as a result of the higher temperature. A
discharge of ballast at nightfall, and of gas in the morning, is
needed to keep it in equilibrium. To obviate discharge of gas, and the
necessity of starting with a large weight of ballast, it is proposed to
run a proportion of the engines on hydrogen fuel, so that the hydrogen
can be consumed at such a rate that the loss of lift equals the loss of
weight of fuel consumed by the other engines, thus economically using
hydrogen which otherwise would be lost through the discharge of the gas
valves.
I make the supposition that hydrogen, and not helium, will be the
sustaining gas. For commercial aviation it has many advantages, for
helium is dearer and rarer, and has about twenty per cent. less
lift. Contrary to general belief, a flight in an airship filled with
hydrogen, subject to proper precautions, has no greater fire risk than
living near a gas factory. Helium is a necessity only for airships
used in war, as, unlike hydrogen, it is not ignited by incendiary
bullets from hostile aircraft. The United States has almost a monopoly
of the world's quantitative supply of helium, which fact should be a
tremendous asset in wartime.
The ballast difficulty can be met by apparatus to condense the water
of combustion from the exhaust gases of the engines. Experiments have
shown that it is practicable to recover water of slightly greater
weight than the gasoline fuel consumed, thus avoiding any variation
in lift due to gasoline consumption. Further, water ballast could be
picked up periodically from the sea by descending and taking in water
through a pump suspended from a flexible hose, or direct into tanks in
the gondolas through sea-valves.
Still further reduction of running costs may be effected by fuel
economy. This would be difficult with internal combustion engines of
the type in use at present, for greater thermal efficiency (the ratio
between the amount of heat contained in the fuel consumed and the
amount of useful work delivered by the engine) necessitates heavier
machinery. The reduction in gasoline consumption is thus offset by a
decrease in the disposable lift. It is probable that a saving on large
dirigibles might result from substituting for the internal combustion
method of generating power engines that burn cheap oils. Although such
engines are much heavier, and although the crude oils weigh a good
deal more than gasoline, the difference would be more than covered on
long flights, for gasoline is nearly four times dearer than crude oil.
Moreover, the weight of oil actually consumed would be about twenty
per cent. less than that of the gasoline burned by internal combustion
engines over the same distance.
The solution may be in the employment of steam. For the rather low
standards of horsepower on which dirigibles are driven, heavy steam
engines of the ordinary type, although much more reliable, would be
less economical than internal combustion engines, owing to the latter's
better thermal efficiency. Engineers are attempting to evolve a light
type of steam turbine that will overcome this drawback.
Of equal importance to fuel economy is a better system of airship
navigation. This is similar in principle to steamship navigation, but
it is made more complicated by the much greater drift of atmospheric
currents. Moreover, air currents can never be charted as exactly as
sea currents. An excellent meteorological organization, for reporting
motions of the air at given times, is therefore essential.
When flying over land a navigator can determine the drift of his vessel
by taking observation on a suitable fixed point on the earth's surface,
and adjusting his compass course accordingly. It is probable that a
gyroscopic compass will be the standard type for dirigibles. Many
aviators have experienced difficulties with the magnetic compass on
long flights; although it has served me well always, especially on my
transatlantic flight as Captain Alcock's navigator.
Over the sea no fixed point is available, so that the motion of the
wind must be checked periodically. One method is for the navigator to
make astronomical observations, and from them deduce his position on
the chart. Another may be the use of bombs which ignite on the water
and give out a dense smoke or a bright light, lasting for several
minutes. During the day the navigator sights on the smoke, and during
the night on the light, and thus discovers the wind's velocity and
direction. An invention that could simplify navigation would be some
form of ground-speed meter, showing at a glance the rate of progress
over the earth (as distinct from air speed), with either a following or
a contrary wind.
The most valuable means of airship navigation will be that of
directional wireless. Communication from two separate stations, which
could be either land terminals or stationary ships in the ocean, gives
the direction of the transmitted wireless waves and signals to the
dirigible its bearings. The position is then laid off on the chart, and
the course regulated accordingly. This method was used by the German
Zeppelins during the war.
Of equal importance to the structural and navigational equipment of
airships is the provision of suitable terminals for each route. These
would require, among other necessities, an aërodrome of about one
mile square; a double airship shed capable of housing two vessels;
a mooring-out tower; mechanical gear for transferring an airship
from the mooring tower to the shed; hydrogen generating and storage
plant; repair workshops and stores; meteorological offices; wireless
telegraphy installation; electrical night signaling and landing
arrangements; a station on the local railway from the main part of the
city; a hotel; a garage; and customs and booking offices.
The aërodrome must be a short distance from the city served by the
airship service. If possible it should be near a chemical works where
hydrogen could be produced as a by-product. The ground would be
preferably on a site remote from hills and other topographical features
likely to cause air disturbances.
The double sheds for housing vessels of the size specified, three
million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity, would have
two berths, the minimum dimensions of each of which must be eight
hundred and fifty feet long, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and one
hundred and fifteen feet high. Their contents should include hydrogen
filling mains and gear for slinging the airships from the roof when
deflated for overhaul. Special arrangements would be made for rapid
replenishment of the ships with gas, fuel, and water ballast.
If no industrial supply of hydrogen were provided by a nearby factory,
the aërodrome should have a generating plant capable of producing fifty
thousand cubic feet of hydrogen per hour. Gasometer storage, with a
capacity of about five hundred thousand cubic feet, is also a necessity.
The meteorological office would issue weather reports for the guidance
of airship navigators, and issue navigating instructions to them by
means of the wireless installation. The latter should have a range of
at least five thousand miles.
Each aërodrome would be provided with suitable electric light signals
to indicate the position of the landing ground to incoming ships at
night, as well as landing lights to point the way to the mooring tower.
Trolleys running on guide rails, with electrically driven gear, could
move a dirigible from the tower to the shed with a minimum of man power.
A suitable mooring tower constitutes an enormous saving of time
and labor. The Vickers Patent Mooring Gear, which has been tested
satisfactorily, can be worked by half a dozen men; whereas the old
method of rope pulling and dragging needs two to four hundred men for
landing an airship of three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet
capacity.
With existing methods, a rigid airship must be housed in a suitable
shed when not in flight. The danger and difficulty of removing the
ship from its shed, and returning it safely thereto after a journey,
restricts the number of actual flying days in the year to those on
which such operations can be performed without risk of damage, although
a modern rigid airship may be in the air with efficiency and perfect
safety in practically any state of the weather. The Patent Mooring Gear
renders the landing independent of the weather, while calling for the
attendance of only six men to actuate the various mechanical devices
employed.
In principle, the gear consists of a tall steel mast, of such a height
that when the ship is attached by the nose it rides on an even keel
at a height of upwards of one hundred feet. The mast has at the top
a platform or deck. The head of the tower is entirely enclosed and
contains the necessary apparatus for bringing a vessel to rest. This
top portion is designed to rotate, so that a ship, when moored, may
always lie directly head to wind.
Access to the upper deck of the masthead is obtained by means of an
elevator, which allows passengers to enter the ship in comfort. Behind
the deck is a compartment containing the landing gear. This consists of
an electrically driven winding engine, fitted with about one thousand
feet of the highest quality flexible steel wire rope, together with any
automatic coupling. In the compartment are also pipes for the supply to
the ship of hydrogen, gasoline, oil and water from the main reservoirs,
situated on the ground at the foot of the mast. The vessel itself is
fitted with apparatus complementary to that housed in the masthead.
From the nose projects the attachment which is gripped by the automatic
coupling, while in the bow is situated a storage drum and winch for six
hundred feet of wire rope.
On approaching the aërodrome, the ship wirelesses its intention to
land. The masthead mooring rope is then threaded through the automatic
coupling, and paid out until the free end reaches the ground below.
This end of the rope is attached by a shackle to the rear of a light
car, which is driven away from the mast in the direction from which the
ship is approaching, while the rope uncoils from the drum above. When
at a distance of seven hundred or eight hundred feet from the foot of
the mast the men in charge of the gear unshackle the rope, and spread
landing signs that indicate to the airship pilot their position on the
ground.
On arrival over the landing party, the ship's bow mooring rope is
released, and runs out from the bow attachment under the influence of
a weight of several hundred pounds in the form of sandbags. Two men of
the party on the ground below take charge of the rope, unshackle the
sandbags, and effect a junction with the mooring mast rope, which is in
the hands of the remaining men of the landing party. The rope ends are
coupled together by means of a self-locking coupling, which enables the
junction to be made within five seconds.
The dirigible is now connected with the head of the mooring mast by a
long length of steel wire rope. On receiving a signal from the ground
party, the men in charge of the winding gear in the masthead haul in.
As the rope tautens, ballast is discharged from the ship, which is
slowly hauled into connection with the automatic coupling already set
in the open position to receive the attachment on the nose. When once
this coupling is closed, the mooring ropes can be dispensed with, the
ship's rope being re-wound on to the storage drum in the bows.
After landing at the masthead, connection is made with the hydrogen,
gasoline, oil, and water mains, and fresh gas, fuel and water ballast
are placed on board, so that the ship may be kept in trim during the
discharge of cargo, and so the embarkation of passengers and stores be
effected.
When all is ready to leave the masthead for flight, the pulling of a
lever in the automatic coupling releases the ship. The latter then
draws astern and upward, under the influence of the prevailing wind,
until it is well clear of the landing station and can proceed on its
course.
The design of this apparatus is such that the landing of an airship
is as easy in a wind as in complete calm. With its help an airship
can land in any speed of wind in which it is safe to fly. Should the
wind be so high (over 60 or 70 miles per hour) that the vessel cannot
reach a given mast, it will always be possible to learn by wireless the
nearest station at which favorable conditions allow it to come down.
The release of the ship from the mast can take place in any wind-speed.
Owing to the comparatively local nature of a big storm (storms
are known not to cover districts greater than two hundred miles
in diameter) the vessel, after slipping its moorings, is able to
circumnavigate the disturbed area by making a small initial deviation
from the true course.
A part of the aërodrome should be given over to aëroplanes, used for
the bringing of mails and urgent freight from places distant from
the terminal. Heavier-than-air machines, in fact, will be the veins
leading to the great arteries of the world's air routes, operated by
dirigibles. A strong searchlight, for the guidance of aëroplane pilots
flying in fog, might be necessary. Given improved landing facilities,
means might be found for them to coast down the searchlight, if the
ground away from it were invisible. Another method of delivering mails,
before leaving for a landing ground away from the fog belt, is to drop
them, attached to a parachute. When the package reaches earth it can
be located by an electric bell, which rings on impact and continues
ringing.
The mail services of to-day, by railway and boat, can in many cases be
greatly speeded up if part of a long journey be covered by aëroplane. A
good instance is the route between Great Britain and South America. If
a merchant in London posts three letters to correspondents in New York,
Rio de Janeiro and Buenos Ayres respectively, he may have a reply from
New York before the Brazil man has had time to read his communication,
and four or five days before the man in the Argentine has received his.
An aërial short cut to Dakar--already several machines have flown there
from Paris--would lessen by six or seven days the transit time for
mailbags sent from England to Rio de Janeiro or Buenos Ayres.
As long as the internal combustion engine is used in aëronautics, and
mechanical failure is always a possibility to be reckoned with, the
cost of maintaining aëroplane routes, even if they be only auxiliary
to dirigible or steamship services, will be greatly swollen by the
need of maintaining frequent landing grounds. Every ten miles would
be an ideal interval for them; every twenty miles is a minimum for
first-rate insurance against risk. From a height of five thousand feet,
the probable average minimum elevation for commercial air navigation,
a pilot can without difficulty cover a distance of five miles while
planing down without the aid of motors. From ten thousand feet he can
cover ten miles under the same conditions; so that at this height he
would never be outside gliding distance of landing grounds prepared
every twenty miles.
Given these safeguards, the element of risk in present day aviation is
no greater than it was in the early days of railways and steamboats;
and little, if any, greater than in modern motoring. Many people,
possessing only a newspaper acquaintance with aërial affairs, still
believe mechanical flight to be perilous. In exactly the same manner
men shunned the infant steamboat, railway train, bicycle and motor-car.
Yet, proportionately, the aëroplane and the dirigible are responsible
for no more deaths than the train or the automobile. The seeming
discrepancy is because so much attention is paid to air fatalities.
Every week-end motor-car accidents cause scores of fatalities. Yet the
death in harness of a single aviator produces more comment than all of
these. Partly, no doubt, the intense horror with which humanity regards
death by falling from a great height is due to its novelty among human
experiences.
The airways of the world offer some pretty problems of international
politics, involving commerce, rights of landing, customs duties, air
smuggling, air traffic regulations and air laws. All these were dealt
with in the International Aërial Commission at the Peace Conference,
which agreed upon the following principles:
1. Recognition of the greatest possible freedom of aërial navigation,
as far as that freedom of navigation is reconcilable with the principle
of the sovereignty of each state in the air above its territory, with
the security of the state affected, and in conformity with a strict
enforcement of safety regulations.
2. Regulation under obligatory permits for pilots and other
aëronautical personnel to be recognized mutually by the signatory
states.
3. The establishment of international air rules, including signals,
lights, methods of avoiding collisions and regulations for landing.
4. The recognition of the special treatment of army, navy and state
machines when on duty for the state.
5. Recognition of the right to utilize all public aërodromes in other
states, under a charge to be uniform for the aircraft of all nations,
including the home nation.
6. Recognition of the right of crossing one country to another, with
the privilege of landing, but under the reservation of the right of the
state crossed to apply its local rules, and if necessary to force the
landing of the visiting machines on signal.
7. Recognition of the principle of mutual indemnity to cover damages
to persons or property due to aircraft--the state of the offending
machine to make reparation and then to recoup itself in any way it sees
fit.
8. Recognition of the necessity of a permanent international
aëronautical commission, in order to keep the development of the legal
side of aviation abreast of the development of the science itself.
9. Recognition of the obligation of each state to regulate its internal
legislation along the lines of the clauses of the international
agreement.
The main airways of the world are still hypothetical, but some of their
main terminals, in relation to the centers of industry and population
and the trade routes, will certainly be London, New York, San
Francisco, Tokio, Delhi, Colombo, Cairo, Cape Town, and Rio de Janeiro.
In particular London, New York, Cairo and Rio de Janeiro are fitted to
be great junctions for air traffic. London is the logical distribution
center for passengers and freight from North and South America bound
for Continental Europe or the East. The New York terminal should link
the transatlantic airways from Europe with the airways of North
America. Rio de Janeiro should perform the same function for South
America, and also be the center of seaplane traffic up the Amazon.
Cairo is destined to be the junction for the air routes between Europe,
Asia, Africa and Australia. From it dirigibles or aëroplanes may pass
to India (via Damascus and Bagdad), to Cape Town (via Nairobi), to
Australia (via Aden and Colombo, or Delhi and Singapore), and to London
(via Algiers or some point in Southern Italy). Cairo is also likely to
be an important base for seaplanes and flying boats plying up and down
the tremendous waterways of the Nile and the Great Lakes.
The British Empire is especially bound up with the airways of the
future. The geographical position of the Briton forces him to think in
Imperial terms. In 1776 Great Britain lost her most valuable colonies
largely because the Atlantic Ocean made adequate representation of
the colonial interest physically impossible. Since that day cables,
steamships and the wireless have helped to overcome the distances that
separate the overseas dominions from the British Isles. Aircraft and
well-organized British air routes should be the greatest step in the
consolidation of the far-flung Empire.
To this end British official experts mapped out the stages of the
aërial route to Australia from Egypt, via Damascus, Bagdad, Karachi,
Delhi, Calcutta, Singapore and Sumatra. Although the successive landing
grounds were not ready in time for Captain Ross-Smith's magnificent
flight from England to Australia, the information and advice collected
by the official surveyors were of inestimable value to him. It is
noteworthy that nearly the whole of the proposed airway from Egypt to
Australia is over British territory or the sea.
The same is true of the proposed route from Cairo to Cape Town. This
was planned out very carefully by three parties of military aviators,
who covered the whole length of civilized and uncivilized Africa in
their search for landing grounds. The absorption of German East Africa
by the South African Union makes an all British corridor for aircraft
from Cairo to Cape Town, by way of Egypt, the Sudan, British East
Africa, British Central Africa, German East Africa, Rhodesia, the
Transvaal and Cape Colony. There is an alternative water route over
the Nile, the Great Lakes, the Zambezi River and along the coast to
Cape Town. Being the junction of the airways to India, Australia and
South Africa, Egypt is destined to be the nerve center of an air-linked
British Empire, just as the Suez Canal has been its jugular vein.
But the laying out of great air routes to the East and South does not
complete Britain's plans. She must connect them up with London--a task
which is much more complicated from the standpoint of high politics,
because it involves routes over the territory of other nations. An
aëroplane can fly from London to Cairo via Gibraltar without passing
over foreign territory or foreign territorial waters. But the air
route would be long and the aërodrome bases great distances apart,
in comparison with the proposed land route of two thousand miles
across France, down the length of Italy and Greece and across the
Mediterranean to Cairo. Such a route necessitates an entente cordiale
with the nations of Western Europe, and is one of the reasons why Great
Britain can never contemplate easily a loosening of the bonds that now
hold together the Allies of Western Europe.
The French, for their part, are also thinking of air routes in terms
of their colonial possessions. For them the international situation
is much the same as for the London-Cairo airway. French pilots need
not fly over foreign territory to Algiers or Morocco. A long flight
across the Mediterranean, or skirting the west coast of Spain, is a
possibility. But Spanish territory is the logical corridor from France
to Africa. It was over Spain that a trip was made from Toulouse to
Casablanca, the eighteen hundred miles being covered in eleven hours of
actual flying. The ordinary postal service takes six days. For direct
aërial communication with Syria, also, France must have an entente with
several intervening countries.
Not only will the aëroplane connect France more closely with Africa; it
will likewise bind together the various sections of France's colonial
territory in Africa, The Sahara Desert will become a less formidable
obstacle to intercommunication. French pilots have made experimental
flights over parts of the Sahara in a search for the best routes and
landing places, as links in communication between Morocco and the Ivory
Coast.
When technical progress and perfected organization place the world's
main airways in operation, there will be enormous saving of time on
the longer routes. The estimated time for transatlantic flights from
London to New York by the three million, five hundred thousand cubic
feet dirigibles is two to two and one-half days, Other likely figures
for various services are as follows:
_London to India and Australia_:
London to Cairo 2,050 miles
Cairo to Colombo (via Aden) 3,400 miles
Colombo to Perth (Australia) 3,150 miles
At an average speed of sixty miles per hour, and with a stop of twelve
hours at each station for re-fueling, the times taken would be
London to Cairo 34 hours, or 1-1/2 days
London to Colombo 34 + 12 + 58 hours = 104 hours, or 4-1/2 days
By train and mail steamer, the journey to Ceylon at present takes
fifteen days, and to Australia over thirty days.
_Cairo to Cape Town_:
Cairo to British East Africa (Nairobi) 2,100 miles--35 hours
Nairobi to Cape Town 2,200 miles--37 hours
Total time from Cairo to Cape Town, allowing
for a break of twelve hours at Nairobi 84 hours
Owing to variation in the weather conditions, latitude in estimating
the time of arrival must be permitted in each case. Where, however,
there is a saving of several days in comparison with steamship travel,
the difference of a few hours matters little.
In years to come, with the development of airship transport to the
most distant centers of the world, it is conceivable that no important
city will be further from London than ten days' journey. The following
table, as applied to a London terminal, is by no means fantastic:
To New York 2--2-1/2 days
" San Francisco 4-1/2 days
" Cairo 1-1/2 days
" Colombo 4-1/2 days
" Perth 7 days
" Nairobi 3-1/2 days
" Cape Town 5-1/2 days
" Rio de Janeiro 4 days
As the maximum distance of direct flight between intermediate stations
is not more than three thousand, five hundred miles, it would be
practicable to run these services with the size of airship described
three million, five hundred thousand cubic feet capacity. The cost
of operation for regular services would be approximately as for the
Atlantic service--passengers at the rate of eight cents per mile,
and mails at the rate of six cents per ounce. With the development
of larger airships, carrying greater loads, the cost should be more
economical.
I admit that such a near-Utopia of an air age may not be seen by the
present decade, and that its attainment demands great results from
science, statesmanship and business organization. Yet even to come
within sight of world intercommunication as rapid as is indicated by
the signposts of present-day aëronautics would make possible an era of
greater prosperity, peace and friendliness. If people, their written
communications and their goods can be taken from continent to continent
as quickly, or nearly as quickly, as a cablegram, the twin evils of
state parochialism and international misunderstanding will less often
be dragged from the cupboard in which the world's racial skeletons are
kept. The airship and the aëroplane may well become a greater influence
towards internationalization than the signed covenant of the league of
nations.
Transcriber's Note:
Small capitals have been rendered in full capitals.
Italics are indicated by _underscores_.
Footnotes are placed at the end of chapters.
Apparent typographical errors have been corrected.