In a consideration of the final structure of the Coming Aeroplane, we
pass into the realm of pure prophecy, for the aerial liners and
dreadnaughts of the future are still snug in the brains of men like
Rudyard Kipling or H. G. Wells. My part in the consideration of what is
coming is here confined to the consideration of the immediate, or at
least the not far distant, future.
Biplanes will always be the standard machines in my opinion, because you
can get more supporting surface for the same weight.
Surfaces may be set one far out in front of the other, as Farman has
done, but with three surfaces the third requires a full set of struts
and wires and just as much weight as for two ordinary surfaces, and adds
only one half more surface, and the head resistance is also increased
once again. Surfaces no doubt will be made larger and machines much
bigger in every way will be built.
Telescoping wings may be a feature of the future machines, so that a
graduated area of wing surface can be readily obtained and changed for
slow or high speed.
The limousine, or enclosed-cabin body, will be a familiar sight in the
future machines built for passenger-carrying. These cabins will be
provided with comfortable seats.
AUTOMATIC STABILITY
In regard to the question of automatic stability, or some device to
balance the machine automatically, there seems to be no doubt that this
problem will be solved; in fact it is already solved both for balancing
laterally and keeping the machine from tipping sideways and also to
govern its fore and aft pitching.
These devices may be of value in learning to fly. But in the practical
use of the aeroplane you may see conditions arising which you wish to
counteract before they occur and for which you wish to prepare.
Automatic stabilisers will no doubt prove very good auxiliary devices,
and some aeroplanes will have automatic stabilisers on them before this
is printed, but the aviator will no doubt have to regulate the
regulators in the future as he operates the levers personally in the
present.
AVIATION LAWS TO COME
The making of good laws is not to be overlooked when considering the
future development of the aeroplane, for aviators must be protected from
themselves, and the public must be protected from the rashness or
inexperience of airmen. Almost all nations have already begun to
exercise control over their new territory, the air, and are realising
that it may become one of their most valued possessions and of an
importance equal to their domain over water. For a nation without any
seacoast may no longer be cut off from direct intercourse with the world
through the aerial craft which can enter and leave at will, as vessels
now do on the sea, with no chance of a neighbouring nation restricting
this very freedom.
Laws are rapidly being passed by states regulating and licensing
aviators and requiring lights to be carried, but it seems that the
federal government should be the power that should control the air just
as it does the sea and navigable rivers. For fliers flit about so that
the whole country seems but a mere playground for men of the air.
Already the California legislature has made several laws to protect the
aeroplane and the aviator, as well as to safeguard the larger public
that stays on the ground. Some of these laws may seem a little
premature, but everything about aeroplanes goes so fast, that there is
no wonder the laws instead of lagging behind conditions as they usually
do, should speed up a little ahead of them, for the progress of flight
is such that by the time the law gets on the statute books the
conditions may be calling for it. For instance, bills have been
introduced at Sacramento to regulate the licensing of aeroplanes, which
are to be classed as "motor vehicles," and to carry numbers and lights,
the same as automobiles. The idea of providing for lights seems a little
far-fetched at this time, as it will be a long time before there will be
much flying at night. Besides, such lights as the proposed law provides
would be unnecessary, for the reason that the aeroplane would not be
confined to an arbitrary path, but could choose its own course.
Therefore, a single light in front and another behind would be all that
would be required, instead of one pair in front, one behind and one on
each plane, as the bill suggests.
FUTURE COST OF THE AEROPLANE
The cost of the machine is high at the present time because there are
but few made. No doubt when the great numbers of people who are now
deeply interested in the subject get to the point of practical flight
and desire to take flights, they will want to own machines, and learn to
operate them. Then aeroplanes will be made in quantities and the price
will be reduced in accord with the number that are built and some day we
will be able to buy a good aeroplane for about the price we have to pay
now for a small automobile.
Cortlandt Field Bishop is credited with having said when some one asked
him if the manufacture of a cheap aeroplane, to cost $150, including the
motor, would not be a great business undertaking, "Well, a great
undertaking business should certainly come of it."
LANDING PLACES
The most serious problem of flying to-day is to find a good course to
fly over and suitable landing places. The day will soon come when every
city and town will have public landing and starting grounds. As a matter
of fact the park commissioners of New York City have already been
discussing the setting apart of landing places or isles of safety in the
public parks of the city, although some authorities declare that it
would not be well to encourage fliers to risk themselves and the people
below by flying over the houses. There should be routes of travel
established between cities over which an aviator will have a right to
fly, just as there are highways on the surface of the earth.
GOVERNMENT ENCOURAGEMENT
Perhaps the greatest factor which is needed to further the development
of the aeroplane today is the thorough appreciation by the National
Government of the benefits which the aeroplane may bring to its various
departments besides the military and postal service.
When railroads first became practical the government gave millions of
dollars besides large grants of land to enable them to extend and
develop to a successful state. Steamship building was helped in the same
way both by government aid and by the building of warships and
transports.
The French Government continues to lead the world in its encouragement
of aviation. During the month of December, 1911, according to most
reliable statistics, the War Department ordered no less than four
hundred new aeroplanes, divided between a dozen or more types, and asked
the government to appropriate the sum of $4,400,000 for aeronautics.
Italy, next to France, is the most active European government in
aviation, the Italian War Department having ordered fifty French
machines of various types, as well as twelve aeroplanes of a new type
produced in Austria. The Turkish government has decided to establish
schools for the "fourth arm" immediately, while Russia will also
increase its aviation programme. The latest government to take up
aviation is that of Australia, where an aviation school is about to open
for the instruction of army officers. Germany is not as active in
aviation as the other principal European governments, although it is
difficult to say exactly what is being done by the Germans, as they
purchase machines made in their own country only.
A most interesting programme was arranged by the British military
authorities for the trial of machines in competition in the summer of
1912, at Salisbury Plain, in order to determine the best types of
military aeroplane. The winning types in this contest will receive large
orders from the British government to supply the Army and Navy with
aerial equipment.
FIRST AVIATION REGIMENT
(Newspaper Despatch)
PARIS, Jan. 25, 1912. The first aviation regiment, 327 strong, was
organised here to-day. A flag will be presented to the battalion later
on.
Having already organised an aviation regiment, French army officers are
now agitating the question upon the basis of having no less than a
thousand aeroplanes ready at a moment's notice under the command of
superior officers and under perfect control of army pilots trained to
handle them. This training of officers is the most important part, for
it takes time to make good fliers. Machines may be turned out very
rapidly, but fliers become skilled to the point where they may be of use
in army work only by long practice and practical experience. Our
government has given an appropriation, small in comparison with what
France, Germany and England appropriated, and we have a few aeroplanes
in the signal corps of the Army now and three machines in the Navy, but
these are only the first steps in this important branch of our military
and naval development. We all hope for at least adequate equipment, an
equipment that will equal, if not surpass, that of the European powers.
After the development of the aeroplane for sport and commercial
purposes, its greatest field of growth is for purposes of war and here
we find that the aeroplane can be at once the most deadly weapon of
offensive warfare as yet developed by man, and an even more serviceable
agent for defensive measures, or for all those most important duties
related to scouting and obtaining and carrying information.
WHAT THE AEROPLANE CAN DO IN WAR
I feel confident that an aeroplane can be even now built which will be
able to lift a ton of dynamite or other high explosive, and that it can
be so constructed that it will be an aerial torpedo or winged
projectile, the engine charged with compressed air and set to run any
required distance, from one mile to ten miles. Such a machine can be
steered by wireless controlling apparatus just as submarine boats and
small airships are directed.
A hydroaeroplane can be made to fly at just a certain height over the
water by attaching it to a drag or a float which would prevent its
exceeding the desired limit of altitude. The machine so equipped might
be started in a circle and flown around in a circular course gradually
widening and widening, like a bird dog hunting a scent, until the object
aimed at is hit.
One of the most important uses of an aeroplane adapted to the uses of
the Navy will be its valuable assistance in enabling the manner of
formation of the enemy's ships in line of battle to be made known to the
commanding officer and the angle of approach to be estimated, in order
that our own ships may be so formed in line of battle as to meet the
brunt of the attack effectually.
An aeroplane launched from the deck of a battleship and ascending to the
height of a mile will give the observers on board a range of vision of
ninety-six miles in every direction and powerful glasses will reveal
many details that can be seen more clearly from above than when observed
from the same level. Submarines can be located with great ease when far
below the surface of the water. Even the bottom appears clearly in some
of the tropic seas, and fogs, which obscure all things to the enveloped
mariner bound to the surface of the sea, usually hang comparatively low
down and even a moderate altitude will enable an aerial observer or
pilot to see clearly above the banks of mist which shut down like a pall
upon the water.
The military aeroplane will be able to muffle its motor and for night
operations will be equipped with search-lights and able to approach an
enemy unseen and unheard from a high altitude, a direction in which
there are no pickets.
In the school machines of one of the Chicago schools the motors have
already been muffled to permit the teacher more readily giving his
instructions to his pupils. U. S. Army officers have also experimented
with mufflers on their motors.
Aeroplanes have been recently used by the Italian Army near Tripoli and
bombs were dropped which not only frightened the enemy but stampeded
their horses and caused panic among the soldiers. They were also of
great service in directing the fire of the guns from the ships which
were quite out of sight of their targets, a captive balloon and an
aeroplane signalling the effect of the shots and the angles at which to
train the guns. The aviators took steel bomb-shells with them and filled
them while flying, holding the caps in their teeth, and steering with
their knees while performing this operation. They did not dare to carry
the bombs loaded for fear of being blown to pieces themselves in case of
an accident when landing.
In the fall of 1911, extensive tests were made by the French military
authorities which showed how reliable aeroplanes can be. The aviators
flew at the command of officers and under the strictest orders; the
machines were required to land in ploughed fields and to start away
again with their full complement of passengers and extra weight of fuel.
All the machines were required to carry a weight of about five hundred
pounds and to rise to a certain height in a specified time with their
complete load. The machines were also dismounted and assembled in the
field and packed and transported from one place to another, to test the
ease with which this could be done.
These military tests were won by Charles Weymann, who was also the
winner of the Gordon Bennett International Aviation Cup for America last
year.
Mr. Weymann drove a special Nieuport machine, which was the most speedy
type of aeroplane built at that time, and was successful in landing and
starting from a ploughed field, which many thought impossible for a very
fast type of machine. It took the greatest skill to land such a speedy
machine on rough ground, for he had to glide down with absolute
accuracy, to land without a smash.
Among Army officers the keenest competition is developed, and it is only
by a spirit of rivalry and a desire to excel that the best qualities in
officers and men are brought out in times of peace. Of course in time of
war there is a need which calls for the best there is in a man.
The needs of the Army and Navy aviators have developed some special
features in machines built for their purposes. They want to be as far
out in front of the machine as possible so they can have an unobstructed
view, and so that if they should be so unfortunate as to be pitched out,
they will be quite clear of everything. This is especially true of naval
machines built to fly over the water. Military aeroplanes also should
have a standard method of control, so that any Army or Navy aviator can
operate any Army or Navy machine.