TWENTY YEARS HENCE
The air, our future highway--Crossing the
Atlantic--New York, for the week-end, by flying
Pullman--Mail-carrying by air--The organisation of
airways and air-stations.
It was in 1903 that the Wrights flew; and after this there were some
years of waiting: then, in 1909, the world became aware that the air was
conquered--not a conquest complete and absolute, but the first fruits of
man’s victory. And now another five years have elapsed, and men ascend
in gales of wind, fly between the capitals of Europe in a few hours, and
travel 1000 miles without alighting. Above all, flying has been rendered
safe: with a sound machine to-day, and a competent pilot, it is as safe
in the air as it is on the ground. So much for five years: but
aeroplanes are still small, and their engine-power is low; and airmen
may be likened perhaps to the first navigators of the sea. They paddled
tiny boats, and found they could control them; then longed for larger
craft, with which they might cross the ocean, and bear passengers from
land to land. And the aviator, weary of such planes as he must steer,
longs also for a finer craft--larger, more powerful, capable of carrying
heavy loads, and of crossing the Atlantic in a day.
The world’s demand is all for quicker transport; yet, either by land or
sea, the speed of travel has almost reached its limit. To save a minute
upon a time-table, even with express trains, is now a problem; while
with a liner upon the sea, should a knot or so be gained, it is only at
an expenditure which is costly both of money and of coal. But daily the
cry is heard--speed, more speed; time, which represents money, is
growing always more valuable. Men can speak to one another upon an
instant, by the use of the telephone, even when many miles apart; they
can flash messages across continents by cable, or through the air by
wireless waves; but when they themselves seek to travel, or when they
send their goods from place to place, they must rely still upon a train
or steamer, and the best speed that these can make. Larger sums of money
would be earned if passengers, letters, and merchandise could be moved
more quickly. Business men become irritable when on long journeys, even
in a 60-mile-an-hour dining-car train; and from merchants there is the
cry always that mail services should be more rapid, and the transport of
goods speeded up. In meeting this demand for high-speed transit lies the
vast future of the aeroplane. Along the highways of the air, thousands
of feet aloft--above mountains, forests, rivers, or seas--will pass the
high-speed traffic of the future. No rails or permanent way need be
built for the aeroplane; it provides its own. All the air service
requires, indeed, is a chain of landing stations.
Already, by aeroplane, a speed of 140 miles an hour has been
reached--more than two miles a minute; and this represents no limit.
Higher-powered engines are needed, and are now being built--although at
the present time a motor giving 200 h.p. is approximately the best that
can be obtained. What aeroplane constructors hope to procure, as soon as
engine makers can provide them, are motors yielding thousands of
horse-power--similar to those which are available for ships; and when
such engines _are_ produced, although large sums must be expended upon
their development, the possibilities of aviation will be almost beyond
belief. Aeroplanes will leap in size from that of a cockleshell to a
liner; we shall have huge aerial vessels which will carry hundreds of
passengers; and within twenty years--seated in comfortable, Pullman-car
saloons, 10,000 feet above the water--we shall be crossing the wide
Atlantic in less than twenty hours. Already, as shown by the photograph
on Plate XVI, it is possible to build a biplane which will carry a crew
of nine.
Air travel will have a luxury which is unknown by land or sea. Machines
will rush forward with a smooth, vibrationless ease, and only the
subdued hum from the power-plant, and the hissing of air past the
polished hull, will indicate the speeds that are attained. In 1934,
leaving London say on Friday in the afternoon, one will ascend in an
air-liner and eat and sleep on board, arriving at New York on Saturday
morning. Then, assuming you are a business man, and calls have been made
and your interviews done, you will leave New York on Sunday afternoon
and be in London again on Monday morning. There will be no more
inconvenience in visiting America in the future, than there is to-day in
going to Scotland or spending a week-end in Paris. Mr. Rudyard Kipling,
picturing the coming of this air age, has said:
“The time is near 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--one 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.”
Problems, of course, have still to be solved; but none are
insurmountable or so difficult as was the initial problem of making an
aeroplane fly. Granted in due course that greater engine-power will be
obtained, a problem outstanding concerns the wing area of a machine. For
bearing a heavy load, when a craft is ascending and its speed is low, a
large area is needed; but once the machine is well aloft, has ceased
climbing, and is driving straight ahead, then its surface may be
curtailed. A bullet rushes through the air by its own momentum; and with
an aeroplane, as the speed grows high, only a small wing area is
required. If a craft cannot curtail its surface, if it exposes when in
full flight just as much area as it used when climbing, then the power
of its motors is wasted and its efficiency impaired. What is wanted for
high-speed flight, and what time and experiment should provide, is a
method of reefing the planes of a machine. This would mean that, rising
from the ground with its maximum surface, a machine would telescope its
plane-ends gradually when a height had been reached, and continue so to
reduce them until there came a limit of speed. In this way, and with
multiple engines, a flying speed should be attained--even with large,
heavily laden craft--of quite 200 miles an hour. Wind resistance, of
course, will need to be considered, and “stream-lining” brought to its
perfection. In the future, indeed, sloped delicately and trimmed to
their finest lines, the hulls of high-speed craft should become pictures
of grace.
In the carrying of mails, and for bearing urgently-consigned goods,
there will be another field for reliable, fast-flying craft; and
already, in actual tests which have been made, the value of the air-mail
has been demonstrated. At Hendon, for instance, towards the end of 1911,
an experiment was performed in which the Post Office showed interest.
The object was to carry special letters and postcards, packed in
ordinary mail-bags, between the aerodrome and a landing ground at
Windsor; and in spite of bad weather, with treacherous winds and rain,
flights were made almost daily and at high rates of speed. Letters and
postcards borne thus through the air had reached, when the experiment
ended, a total of 130,000. But before a public service could be
installed machines would need, of course, to be reliable. They would be
required to start punctually to the minute and to fly day after day
without mishap, defying all weather save the worst of gales. And such
efficiency will in fact be reached: it is a question merely of time. The
aeroplanes used in this Hendon test were small and of low power; hence,
despite the courage and experience of their pilots, they were at the
mercy of gusty winds. But the air-mail of the future--large,
metal-built, and driven by many motors--will thrust its way, unscathed,
into the teeth of a gale of wind. Picture the start of such a craft, in
the days when there is, say, an air-service between London and St.
Petersburg. The mail-bags are borne swiftly to the aerodrome, and here
stands the machine. Its widespread sustaining planes are fashioned from
plates of metal--a metal light and yet amazingly strong; and between the
planes, with a wedge-shaped bow, lies the car or body of the machine,
with outlook windows along its front, and doors upon either side. Behind
the lifting wings there are metal propellers; and sternwards the craft
tapers until it ends with the control planes and rudder. In the hull,
just behind the fore-car, men of the postal service are busy with the
storage of mails; then, when her load is all aboard, appear the crew of
three who are to voyage through the air. First comes the air-mail
driver; he is in supreme control; and with him is a mechanic, a highly
skilled man, whose task it is to tend the motors and see that they, and
all the other working parts, are running smoothly during the hours that
the machine is in flight. The third man to enter the fore-car is an
official of the Post Office, who travels in charge of the mails.
The sliding door in the hull is closed; men step back away from the
machine; and upon her controlling platform the pilot, leaning forward
slightly, pulls over a lever. Instantly, as he does so, there comes a
throb and a hum; the engines wake to life and the big propellers,
flickering faster and faster, drive astern a screaming gale of wind.
Then, moving forward gracefully and with quickly gathering speed, the
air-mail rises and is lost to view.
In the engine-car, the floor of which vibrates very slightly with the
hum of the motors and the rush of the machine’s speed, stands the driver
upon a raised platform. Immediately before him, as the craft rises
slantingly, are the outlook windows; and convenient to hand and eye, as
he looks first ahead and then back to his controls, are the wheels,
levers, dials, and gauges by which he governs all the movements of his
swift-flying charge. Bending forward, he moves his steering-wheel; then
watches attentively the needle of the compass, which is fitted in an
upright stand just before him. Then from the compass dial he turns to a
map, which is stretched neatly upon a frame. Again he glances at the
compass; then straightens himself and turns to speak to the mechanic. He
has now adjusted the craft’s path, and she is flying accurately upon her
compass course. After this, with an even, monotonous throb of sound, and
a faint clamour from the wind around the hull, the craft rushes upon her
way; and while the driver is absorbed upon his platform the mechanic,
moving deftly here and there, tends the great, sleepily-humming motors.
Already, in the desire to build large, high-powered machines, some
remarkable craft have been produced; and one of the most striking is the
Sykorsky, a huge and highly successful Russian biplane. This machine
has flown to a height of 3000 feet with sixteen passengers, whose
combined weight was nearly a ton and a quarter. In its original form the
machine had four motors, each developing 100 horse-power, which were
mounted on the lower plane upon either side of the hull, one being
placed behind the other and all driving independent screws. But the rear
engines were afterwards brought alongside the front ones; and now, in
its most recent form, the machine employs three motors, giving a total
of nearly 1000 horse-power. The craft has a metal hull, and boasts a
cabin with windows.
The fitting of several motors, a principle tested in this biplane, has
been shown to be practical; and it has the obvious advantage that,
should one fail while in the air, the other or others will maintain a
craft in flight. In such a machine as would fly the Atlantic, for
example, it is proposed to fit four motors developing 800 h.p., and to
carry a couple of mechanics who would constantly be tending them. Thus,
should one engine develop trouble, its repair could be effected without
descent, and with no worse result than a temporary fall in speed. In
Fig. 104 is shown a method by which three Gnome motors may be fitted to
a biplane.
[Illustration: FIG. 104.--Multiple-engined craft.
A. First engine (a 50-h.p. Gnome); B. Second engine (which is on the
same shaft, but will run independently); C. Third Gnome engine, also an
independent unit; D. Four-bladed propeller (mounted higher than the
crank-shaft bearing the engines, and driven by a chain gearing).]
First probably for mails, and after this for passenger-carrying, will
aeroplanes of the future be employed; and they will find a scientific
use, too, in exploring remote corners of the earth, and in passing above
forests which are now impenetrable. Small, fast machines, much cheaper
than those of to-day, will be bought also for private use--many of them,
as suggested by Fig. 105, having room for only one man within their
hulls. Then there will be flying clubs; and to these, after their day’s
work, will come a city’s toilers. Through the cheapening of craft, as
time goes on, practically all members of the community will experience
the joys of flight. Thus, say on a summer’s evening, the doors of the
sheds will be pushed aside, and the machines wheeled out and overhauled;
then, one by one, these small, fast-moving craft will rise into the air
and dart here and there--circling, manœuvring, dipping, and diving. So,
one after another, either as pilots or passengers, will the members of
the club ascend; and before the sheds are closed and the aerodrome
deserted, each and all will have soared in flight, and tasted that
thrill and exultation which comes of a rush in a plane through the cool
of the evening air. But to-day, if we try to grasp such a notion as
this, our state of mind is very like that of our grandfathers had some
prophet dared tell them the day would dawn when, seated comfortably at
dinner in a car on wheels, men would be drawn by an engine at 60 miles
an hour: and yet the man or woman who has not, say twenty years hence,
made a journey through the air, will be in exactly the same position as
one who, at the present time, has never been by train.
[Illustration: FIG. 105.--The single-seated “air-car”--a suggested type.
A. Enclosed body; B. Driver’s position; C. Steering wheel; D.
Foot-controlled throttle lever for engine; E.E. The two
sustaining-planes; F. The motor; G. Propeller; H. Rudder; I.
Elevating-plane; J. Landing gear.]
We shall, with the coming of this air age, have to alter our notions
both of distance and of time. From the air-stations which will girdle
London, machines will be leaving hourly upon non-stop flights. All over
England, in fact, towns and cities will be linked by air. London and
Manchester, for example, will be then connected by a regular service,
and the journey made in less than two hours. Dotted across country, and
following the track of the main airways, will be a well-planned chain
of landing grounds; and here local passenger craft will descend, and
goods-carrying machines pause to set down their burdens. The national
air service, in all details of its operation, will need to be well
organised. Towns which are upon the air routes will set aside tracts of
land, and upon these will be provided the facilities of an air-station.
From London to York; from London to Chester; from London to Bristol;
from London to Portsmouth--thus, with their landing grounds en route,
will the airways radiate. And passing constantly along these routes will
be a volume of air-borne traffic--neat, privately owned planes; large
and speedy passenger machines; multi-winged craft for the transport of
goods; and here and there, flying swiftly and high, some slim-built war
machine. Upon the land in the day-time, to indicate the direction of the
airways, will be signs which may be read from high aloft; while at
night, from signal towers, will flash forth lights, differing in the
frequency and the colour of the beams they throw skyward, to guide the
airman on his path.
In this way, and in due time, will the air yield its benefits and
pleasures. It is towards this final conquest that we toil
to-day--braving dangers that are deadly, overcoming difficulties that
appear unsurmountable--ready to sacrifice our money and machines, and
even the lives of men. And in the end, repaying us for our perils and
our sorrows, the fairest of victories will be won. First Europe, and
then the globe, will be linked by flight, and nations so knit together
that they will grow to be next-door neighbours. This conquest of the air
will prove, ultimately, to be man’s greatest and most glorious triumph.
What railways have done for nations, airways will do for the world.
MORRISON & GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
4/15 2
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Transcriber's note:
The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up
paragraphs and so that they are as close as possible to the
text they illustrate.
Obvious spelling and punctuation errors were corrected but older
spellings of words were retained as is.