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AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
July 5, 2 Wig. 1 Price Ten Cents
ts Re 8 a, a
Photo Keystone View Co.
R-34 in a Test Flight as Photographed from an Enelish | ae Airplane 3,000 Feet in the Air
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL July 5, 1919
THE MARTIN NIGHT BOMBER
THE MOST IMPORTANT AERIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE WAR |
Officially it has surpassed the performance. of every é ‘competitor. i | : |
The forerunner of the wonderful
| AERIAL FREIGHTER and a a on TWELVE PASSENGER AIRPLANE Ge ' The skill and ability of the HOUSE OF MARTIN con- _
tinue to maintain Supremacy of Performance and Depend: . ability which they have held since 1009, , re
THE GLENN L. MARTIN COMPANY CLEVELAND
Contractors to the United States Government
7]
F
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eV T
v4 We \wly Doe.
Plodding slowly up the harbor under a lowering sky, which spat frequent dashes of rain, with a fleet of small craft on her flanks and astern, and flying boats buzzing ahead, behind and over her, the transport Zeppelin brought home Friday after- noon, June 27, the crews of the Navy's NC planes, six of whom were the first men in history to cross the Atlantic by the air route.
The rain dampened but could not quench the enthusiasm which had been stored up for the hour of their arrival. It cut down the air fleet, which it had been promised would greet the returning travelers, from a possible thirty-five planes and two dirigibles to ten planes, five of which made
viol) for the American F /919
-/- NC Fliers Warmly Greeted at Home
Sor ae All Report to Washington and Return sr lying Club Dinner
of his lips when, on the pier, he received from Admiral James H. Glennon, speaking as Secretary Daniels’s representative, the Nation’s congratula- tions and thanks. A few minutes later, over- whelmed by handclasps and words of appreciation, he turned aside long enough to say to newspaper men:
“ Well, I went over in a seaplane and came back in a Zeppelin. That’s some round trip.” And, becoming serious, he added:
“T regret that of the three planes that started only one arrived in England. Although we have had’a wonderful reception abroad, I now realize that. the real reception is just beginning. Now, I
gmmithsonian {p. tf
‘ 5 JUL "e j 0 i \ Op yas See iiprary There was one submarine chaser which had no place in the formation, but which focussed the eyes of the flyers from the moment she came into view. This was the Herreshoff, easily the center of senti- mental interest of the whole celebration, because it bore the wives of six of the aviators and the children of two of them. It had set out from the Navy dock at 96th Street and the North River at noon and cireled in the channel until the silver, cloud-like bulk of the C-4 against the somber sky revealed that the Zeppelin was approaching. Aboard the Herreshoff were the wives of Com- mander John H. Towers and H. C. Richardson, Lieut. Commanders Read and P. N. L. Bellinger,
Photo Underwood & Underwood.
Commanders and crews of the American NC planes, one of which, the NC-4, made the first trans-Atlantic flight, greeted in Washington by Secretary of
the Navy Josephus Daniels
Seated, left to right: Secretary Daniels and Assistant Secretary Franklin D. Roosevelt, with (directly behind them) Lieut. Commander Albert Cushing
only a brief stay over the harbor before being forced to return to their hangars, and one “blimp.” It denied the observers, massed on points of vantage ashore, the pleasure of more than the haziest glimpse of the ship’s great bulk, as it slid, ghost-like, through the mist to Pier 4 at Hoboken.
Welcome Touches Fliers
Nevertheless, all circumstances considered, it was a real welcome, which made up in heartiness what it lacked in volume. And the home-coming flyers were touched by it.
Lieut.-Commander A. C. Read, captain and navi- gator of the NC-4, the flying boat which flew every inch of the way from Rockaway Point to Ply- mouth, England, is a man of impassive face and marked self-control; but there was a slight quiver
Read of the NC-4 and Commander John H. Towers
must go and see the best woman in the world; and
as to my future plans, they will depend on the ©
United States Navy and Mrs. Read.” Sighted Through Mist
Adverse weather conditions held the Zeppelin down to slow speed, and it was nearly noon when she was seen dimly through the mist off Rockaway. The big Navy dirigible, C-4, was serving then as her escort, having left its hangar at Rockaway Naval Air Station at 11.30. She picked up the Zeppelin a few miles to the eastward.
Before the transport was out of sight at Rock- away, five flying boats from the station had put out to augment the guard of honor up the bay,
and a little later the cloud of torpedo-boat destroy- ers and submarine chasers detailed from the fleet ~
we do the home-comers honor had formed about the ship. :
Lieuts. James L. Breese, Jr., and Walter Hinton, with little Miss Margaret Richardson, aged eight, and Miss Frances Georges Breese, aged three. They and the wives of other officers of the flying boats’ crews were the Navy’s guests. Lieut. B. A. Mount, aide for aviation of the 3d Naval District had charge of arrangements.
Wives Heedless of Rain
Rain was falling when word reached the cabin, where the party was huddled for protection, that the Zeppelin soon should be sighted. Mrs. Read was first on deck. Regardless of the effects on a smart new feather hat and dainty brown shoes, she found a place in the lee of the pilot house, as eager and happy as a girl at her first party.
““T never was so excited,” she declared.
Mrs. Breese, who had followed her out, echoed
(Continued on page 16)
,
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ATRCRAFT JOURNAL
July 5, 1919
American System of Aircraft Employment
The three diagrams which are shown on the op- posite page give graphically the system employed by the Air Service, A. H. F., in the employment of its aircraft forces in aerial operations.
The top diagram represents a vertical section of the air as it would appear to one able to see every part of aviation on a good day during our operations of Sep- tember, October and November, 1918.
The notch in the horizontal line indicates the trench or dividing line between hostile territory, which is on the right of the vertical line pro- jected up above it, and friendly territory, which is on the left. On the ground the opposing infantries face each other on the trench lines.
Our 75 mm. and 155 mm. short artillery is shown with its average range of 5000 yd. into the enemy’s territory. This is the artillery with which the Divisions of troops were eyuipped. The 155 long artillery, assigned to the Army Corps, shot upward of 12,000 yd. into the enemy’s lines, whereas the Army artillery shot 25,000 yd. or more into the enemy’s lines.
Anti-Aircraft Guns
The anti-aircraft machine guns are shown close to the troops, and the anti-aireraft artillery 1mmedi- ately behind them. The heights at which the various aircraft operate are indicated in meters. All of the observation planes, liaison, com- mand, adjustment of artillery, and - attack airplanes operate immediate- ly in conjunction with the troops, while the low-flying pursuit planes, the medium altitude pursuit bar- rage, and the upper pursuit bar- rage protect these in their work. The special pursuit details, acting at great altitude, practically as high as they can get, work directly against the enemy’s reconnaissance machines. Our own Army recon- naissance, acting up to 20,000 ft., habitually went thirty or forty miles into the enemy’s terri- tory. The Army’s surveillance machines kept eruising over the front to report from their own position, by wireless, whatever they could see, so that it could be immediately attacked by our avia- tion elements. The pursuit and day bombardment elements, shown to the right of the diagram to- gether, indicate the independent or strategical aviation, which acts by itself directly against the enemy aviation and his ground troops. this class of aviation that the greatest development may be expected in the future, as it will be able to attack not only enemy air forces, but enemy ground troops and enemy naval formations.
Offensive Night Aviation
The middle diagram represents a cross section of an offensive operation at night. The various objectives were divided into three classes. First were the permanent targets such as railway sta- tions, bridges and munition plants. The second class were the fugitive targets, which. included
troop concentrations, convoys on roads, railway
trains in movement and troops on the march.
The last class of targets, the semi-permanent, were troops in bivouac, dumps of all kinds, am- munition depots, truck parks and semi-permanent
Ihe ig) ssn °
Tactics Used by the Army Air Service at the Front During the Great War
By Brigadier General William Mitchell
river crossings. To attack these objectives we
projected two kinds of night bombardment air- planes, namely, those carrying light weights, which could go very rapidly and maneuver well close to
Brig. Gen. Wm. Mitchell, Chief of Training and Operations Group
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations
VOL. Vv: JULY 5, 1919 No. 1
Subscription Price: Two Dollars Per Year, Single Copies, Ten Cents. Canada: Three Dollars. Foreign: Four Dollars. Copyright, 1919, by the Gardner-Moffat Company, Ine.
Issued Weekly, Entered as Second Class Matter, July 11, 1917, at the Post Office at New York, N. Y., under Act of March 3, 1879. The Gardner-Moffat Company, Inc.
Publisher Hartford Building, Union Square 22 East Seventeenth Street, New York Telephone, Stuyvesant 4552
| eS
the ground, and those carrying very heavy weights, which could be used to attack objects difficult to destroy. To pick up and report enemy fugitive targets , quickly, the night surveillance ships were used, and, in order to neutral- ize the enemy’s anti-aircraft and searchlights, direct attack was pro- jected on these so as to throw them — into confusion while our bombard- ment airplanes crossed these dan- gerous areas. Their airdromes were attacked by bombs and ma- chine guns so as to destroy as much of their aviation as possible.
The light bombardment airplanes were equipped with six or eight guns, and the same bombardment appliances as were carried by day bombardment airplanes. The heavy night bombardment airplanes had additional gun defenses to the rear.
The objectives which were pro- tected by anti-aireraft guns or searchlights were attacked by night pursuit planes. The surveillance airplanes were required to be ex- ceptionally fast, and the type that probably would be best adapted for this work would be threee place equipped with powerful radio.
Defensive Night Aviation
The lowest diagram indicates the employment of air forces and ground aids for defensive night aviation. The German night bom- bardment had become so effective during 1917 and 1918 that effective methods had to be adopted: to stop it. : American arrangements contem- plated listening posts near the line; behind these, the zone:in which anti- aircraft artillery worked; behind this, groups of searchlights fixed in position; behind these, pursuit pa- trols constantly in the air, and be- hind, these, again, a group of mobile searchlights might move along the roads at great speed to protect spe- cifie areas being attacked, a reserve of pursuit air- planes, and balloon barrages, i. e., a curtain of wires raised by balloons around specific objects that. it was desired to protect.
The method of operations was this: The listen~ ing post would hear a hostile airplane approach; it would “alert” the pursuit patrol which was as- signed to the area in its vicinity by means of sig- nals, and it would communicate its information to. the anti-aircraft artillery, searchlights and air- dromes. As soon as the direction of the hostile airplane was determined, information again would be sent to the pursuit patrols, anti-aircraft artil- lery and searchlights. As the hostile airplane crossed the line it would be taken under fire by the anti-aireraft artillery. The pursuit patrol would dive in that direction. As soon as the airplane had passed through the zone of the anti-aircraft artillery, it would be picked up by the searchlights. and held in their beams while the pursuit patrol dived squarely into the ship.
This method of defense had just begun to work toward the end of our operations. Now that the - war is over and officers who have seen active service in the air have an oportunity to give these problems study, a complete development of this, employment will be made.
July 5, 1919 AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
SPECIAL Pursuit DETAILS 6000M
ARMY _ RECONNAISSANCE 6500 M
UPPER PURSUIT BARRAGE
ADJUSTMENT 5500 1
ARMY ARTILLERY 5000 M =
ARry SURVEILLANCE
ae el, ll £ \
DIAGRAM OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF AERONAUTICS OF AN ARMY
09 M a PURSUIT PREPARED UNDER DIRECTION BRIG GEN WM MITCHELL BY INFORMATION. SECON AIR SERVICE 3RD ARMY any ae c= Jaa 5-119 ADJUSTMENT 155mm LonG, Ey ey 3500 4 = CORPS ARTILLERY SURVEILLANCE f e-Fp AND FUGITIVE TARGETS = a) ee a mw SANDER 3000 4 { : ey] 4090. M d ; ca MEplun PuRsuIT BARRAGE Ep BI 3000 n zi a 328) | Pursunt = : Corps PHOTO ADJUSTMENT 75mm and 2500 1 155mm SHORT 1500" z a “3 a ce. € tes Ss BALLOON 1200 N e. d & Low PURSUIT 600 N $ Lowtst Pursuit | 200 6 , 2 4 Oh case NIGHT RECONNAISSANCE ra) ah, 500M tee a8 cee, tt ~ BS See i SS Se ea INFANTRY LIAISON At SEL Pid Baro Command 100m Se a SG BOMBARDMENT OBJECTIVE ArRPLANE CooRIER eg s —F | TAGS OB a He KE Ae a coor presale ys = sap) > ATTACK FLIGHTS aS Sey 1004 ~ : [___ RAILWAY STATION —sSC*d
(te ak
xilometres 25 Kilometres
(or
FRIENDLY ZONE
eas ee
HEAVY BOMBARDMENT PLANES BOMBAROMENT ANO ‘SURVEILLANCE PURSUIT RECONNAISSANCE AIRDROMES AIROROMES: AIRDROMES
> BALLOON BARRAGE
RESERVE PLANES
PROJECTION OF FRONT
‘Y.
PURSUIT AIRDROMES
SEARCHLIGHT
Nig
PREPARED UNDER DIRECNON OF BRIG GEN WM MITCHELL
OFFENSIVE DIAGRAM
BY INFORMATION SECTION AIR SERVICE
HOSTLE ZONE
bana ah
LIGHT BOMBARDMENT PLANE
COLUMNS.
HT AVIATION
3np ARMY
Saatip
HEAVY AND {LIGHT BOMBARDMENT PLANES
yo a
Bivouac.
DEFENSIVE DIAGRAM NIGHT AVIATION
PREPARED UNDER DIRECTION OF BRIG.GEN WM MITCHELL BY INFORMATION SECTION AIR SERVICE 3RD ARMY —
THAT MAY MOVE
GROUP OF MOBILE SEARCHLIGHTS
FROM 2070 30
KILOMETERS IN A LINE
mate SURVEILLANCE
BOTH TELEPHONE AND ‘RADIO COMMUNICATION us
CLASSIFICATION: OF OBJECTIVES DERMANENT TARGETS
RAILWAY STATIONS AND. WORKS
BRIDGES AND INDUSTRIAL CENTERS:
FUGITIVE TARGETS, TROOP CONCENTRATIONS" ” -CONVOYS ON ROADS RAILWAY TRAINS. IN MOVEMENT TROOPS ON HOVENEN
SEMMPERMANENT: TARGETS TROOPS. IN BIVOUAC.,
oeraTs SEM PERMAHENT RIVER CROSSINGS
Heavy BOMeAROMENT PLANE,
4 1 ' ' i i 1 4 ' ! H 1 ‘ 4 1 i ! t 1 1 4 4 1 ‘ 1 ' 1 '
SINGLE PuRSUIT PATROLS, CROSSING FRONT
| SEARCHLIGHTS
Diagram of the Employment of Aeronautics of an Army
> 5S >
LIGHT BOMBARDMENT AIRPLANES ECUPPED WITH SiC ORTIGHT Cons ANDSAME BOMBING APPLIANCES AS DAY BOMGARDIENT AIRPLANES:
HEDVY GOMBAROHENT AIRPLANES SIMILAR TO PRESENT rnGh BOMBARDMENT AIRPLANES WITH ADDITIONAL GOH DEFENCES TO.THE REAR
1WGHT PURSUT To CONSIST PARTLY OF BEPLACE POSSIBLY SPAD-LORRAINE
ECTIVES WHICH ARE DEFENDED By ANTI-AIRCRAFT OR SEARCHLIGKTS wnt Be ATTACKED BY WIGHT PURSUTT
SURVEILLANCE AIRPLANES 10 BE EXEPTONALLY FAST PROBA TAREE PLACE CQUIPPED WITH POWERFUL be aa
HEAVY BOMBAROMENT PLANE.
t 4 ' 1 t 1 ‘ t t 1 ‘ 1 ‘ { ' ' 1 1 1 t 1 ' ' ‘ t n ‘ '
RAILWAY Station
HOSTILE NIGHT. PLANE.
i RADIO, TELEPHONE = PROJECTION OF . FRONT Fs A a ee ee
LISTENING POST
Prepared Under Direction Brig. Gen. Wm. Mitchell by Infor mation Section, Air Service, 8rd Army, January 5, 1919
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
July 5, 1919
The World’s Airplanes and Seaplanes
The Le Pere Fighter—Model C-11
Group 2, No. 3.—The Le Pere Fighter— Model C-11
The Le Pére fighter was designed by Captain G. Lepére, of the French air service, and is one of ' the most successful planes developed during the war. It is equipped with a Liberty “12” motor, and was designed for production in the United States. It was intended for use as a fighter or reconnaissance plane, and recent tests of per- formance and endurance show that it is well adapted for these requirements. The machine ex- hibits excellent fiying qualities with ready response to the controls. All stunt manceuvers can be read-
MAIN DIMENSIONS Span, 41 ft. 714 in. Overall length, 25 ft. 34g in. Overall height, 9 ft. 7 in. (standing on ground). Stagger, 2415/16 in. Gap, 605% in. Area of upper plane, 206.8 sq. ft. Area of lower plane, 208.6 sq. ft. Angle of incidence (both planes), 1 degree. Area of stabilizer, 17 sq. ft. Area of elevator, 33.4 sq. ft. Area of vertical fin, 3.4 sq. ft. Area of rudder, 13.1 sq. ft. Area of ailerons (both planes), 64.4 sq. ft.
LADO aaccce aA o dLis) 19 min. 15 see. 20,00 0R eer: ee os TU 41 min. Theoretical ceiling...... Bee as Ace rrns pret (0 tate Same Eile, yoooocsooodde0s pa 5075 Aft) 206, Wyre? Thomabinee. 550000000400 55050 TS lo fob itt. IPonynere MORVebnNes 65 ¢cactacocooddo0e ooo lds Masas
STRUCTURAL FEATURES
The wings of the Lepére fighter possess neither sweep-back nor dihedral. They are of conven- tional construction, the spars are of routed “I” section braced by the usual struts and wires. These wings are heavier than the average for a plane of this type, but they possess considerably more
Roar cs Fig. 1.
ily performed, and the overhead radiator installa- tion affords excellent vision; in fact, most pilots who have flown this ship comment on these excel- lent qualities.
POWER PLANT
Liberty 12-cylinder “ V ” type.
400 horse-power at 1700 r.p.m.
Weight, dry, 825 lbs.
Capacity of main fuel tank, 36 gals. Capacity of reserve fuel tank, 3744 gals. Capacity of oil tank, 54 gals.
Vacuum feed for fuel tanks.
Fig. 2. Side View of the Le Pere Two-Seater
MAIN WEIGHTS
WENO, CMMNOINZs vic 0 cag 6 00 mctdl ane ee ay Ps 2468 Ibs. HUT eli ann dino uit. MON At esr agit eatar 475 Ibs. DNamaokspaayyah hia ae ponies ramets tr ease een ii noel 352 Ibs. Biloppandip assem @ er... weyers rrl rite 360 Ibs. Total weight of machine......... 3669 lbs. PERFORMANCE Altitude (ft.) Speed (m.p.h.) Time ORE ecas Sates», 136 yen
CGLOXO 0 erent cet heat 2132 5 min. 3d see. OOO OS a cnerecaun ute 127 10 min. 35 sec.
Rear View of the Le Pere Two-Seater Fighter
| strength. The interplane struts are made of lam-
inated spruce, and are unique inasmuch as they eliminate the usual incidence wires. These struts have the disadvantage of extra weight, but reduce the head resistance and have the advantage of simplicity. The center section struts are of sim- ilar type, but go down through the fuselage and rest on the heavy beams which connect through the spars of the lower wing. :
The ailerons are connected by a streamline steel tube, and are controlled by means of steel tubes that run through the lower wing. The fuselage is
(Continued on page 18)
Fighter
July 5, 1919
ATRCRAET SPOURNAL
News of the Army and Navy Air Services
An Astonishing Statement (Prom War Department News Bureau.)
The War Department authorizes publication of the following information on the service plane resources of the Air Service (see editorial on page ‘S) & On March 1, 1916, the total resources in planes of the Aviation Section, Signal: Corps, was 13 air- planes, 4 hydroplanes, and one flying-boat.
On March 19, 1916, the first aero squadron went into Mexico with eight Curtiss JN-3 planes; a type now inferior to the primary training plane. After being in there two months, four more planes were shipped to them.
At the present time there are on hand in the United States 1,240 battle planes in serviceable condition; enough to make approximately 50 squadrons. Besides these there are in storage 862 battle planes that could be put into commission almost immediately.
The advanced training plane, of the type now used for forest patrol, could if necessary be used as an observation plane. Of these there are 653 in commission at the fields, and 156 in storage. A total of 52 squadrons of training planes could be assembled.
The resources of the Air Service in planes are as follows:
i; & a6 ig Pa eaS 2 = As i Sas ® % ay HS =) Den oS z a Se ) AS) ae RO E a2 a n aq a= as Be > OH 23 48 2 Se) a & Zo 2s Aa DH-4 observation day bombing 1,191 842 2,038 811-3 Spad Pursuit 27 Pie il Le Pere Service 8 18 2-3 Handley Page Bomber 4 20 24 1 S.B.5 Advanced training 46 57 103 4 JN6-H Advanced training 653 156 809 332 S4-C Advanced training 400 - 400 16 PRO EATS RV care cotter sis 2,239 1,075 3,414 136
There are in the United States today 1,394 flying officers. This number includes flying officers on Staff duty, etc.
SouTHERN DEPARTMENT Information on the number of planes available
in the Southern Department is given herewith.
This, however, is not an accurate indication of strength immediately available, due to the fact that while there are sufficient planes and pilots for the planes, there is not sufficient enlisted personnel to take care of them without transfer from other branches of the service or recall of men furloughed to the reserve.
There are on duty now about 73 men with a
' squadron of ten planes and two or three other
squadrons are being organized at various points in the Southern Department.
Following is a table of planes available, by types and fields, in the Southern Department, showing a total of 788 classed as active planes and 878 obsolescent. The 788 would be available for im- mediate use, and 878 could be used in addition if necessary.
Must Be Fit to Fly
The medical requirements which must be met by every candidate for a license as a pilot, navigator or engineer of aircraft engaged in pub- lie service, agreed upon by the International Aeronautical Convention, have been made public.
Isaac H. Jones and James B. Stanford signed the requirements on behalf of the United States;
Major Howard F. Wehrle, A. S. A.
Major Howard F. Wehrle entered the Curtiss School at Newport News, Va., April 2, 1916, and was a student of Steve MacGordon and Victor Carlstrom. He entered the federal service as First Lieutenant July 6, 1916, at Fort Monroe, Va., and was sent to Mineola, L. I. He stayed there four- teen months, and during that time was very active
- In construction work. He erected buildings and leased land for Aviation purposes, and was made
Captain in the Reserve Corps, April 14, 1917.
Major Wehrle went to Kelly Field in Septem- ber, 1917, to train recruits and get advanced fly- ing training. Then he went to Fort Worth, Texas. He was adjutant of the American Head- quarters in Fort Worth, and later was liaison officer while the R. F. C. was in Texas. He then became Commandant of the School of Aerial Gun- nery, Taliaferro Field, where the first class of American cadets were graduated from an Ameri- can gunnery school. Went over seas with Hand- ley Page Training Department Station, No. 1, Headquarters, Touquiere Airdome, Chichester, Sussex, England. He has had 600 hours in the air.
Great Britain was represented by Martin Flack and A. P. Bowdler; France by George Cuillain and Jules Levaire; Italy by Lieut. Col. Guideni, on behalf of di Nola and Mattoli, and Japan by K. Miura.
The medical requirements are designed to safe- guard aerial navigation by preventing men who are physically or mentally disqualified from ob- taining licenses to fly. They were worked out on behalf of the Aeronautical Commission of the Peace Conference by a technical sub-committee, in connection with the International Aeronautical Convention, which met in Paris in April.
Any state may increase the severity of the tests,
The text follows:
“1. Every candidate before obtaining a license as a pilot, navigator or engineer of aircraft en-
but none can reduce it.
gaged in public transport will present himself for examination by specially qualified men (flight surgeons) appointed by or acting under the authority of the contracting state.
Good Character Necessary
“92. Medical supervision, both for the selection and the maintenance of efficiency, shall be based upon the followimg requirements of mental and physical fitness:
“(a) Good family and personal history, with particular reference to nervous stability. Absence of any mental, moral or physical defect which will interfere with flying efficiency.
“(b) Minimum age for pilots and. navigators engaged in public transport shall be nineteen (19)
ears.
- “(e) General surgical examination: The aero- naut must neither suffer from any wound, injury or operation, nor possess any abnormality, con- genital or otherwise, which will interfere with the efficient and safe handling of aircraft.
“(d) General medical examination: The aero- naut must not suffer from any disease or disability which renders him liable suddenly to become in- competent in the management of aircraft. He must possess heart, lungs, kidneys and nervous system capable of withstanding the effects of altitude and also the effects of prolonged flight.
“(e) Hye examination: The aeronaut must pos-
‘sess a degree of visual acuity compatible with the
efficient performance of his duties. No pilot or navigator shall have more than two (2) dioptres of latent hypermetropia; muscle balance must be good and commensurate with refraction. He must have a good field of vision in each eye, and must possess normal ¢olor perception.
Hearing Must Be Good
“(f) Har examination: The middle ear-must be healthy. The aeronaut must possess a degree of auditory acuity compatible with the efficient per- formance of his duties.
“(e¢) The vestibular mechanism must be intact and neither unduly hypersensitive nor hyposensi- tive.
“(h) Nose and throat examination: The aero- naut must possess free nasal air entry on either side, and not suffer from serious acute or chronic affections of the upper respiratory tract.
“3. Hach contracting state shall for the present fix its own methods of examination until the details of tests and the minimal standard of requirements have been finally settled by the authorized medical representative of the I. C. A. N.
“4, The successful candidate will receive a ~ medical certificate of acceptance, which must be produced before the license can be issued.
Test Every Six Months
“5. In order to insure maintenance of efficiency, every aeronaut shall be re-examined periodically, at least every six months, and the findings attached to his original record. In case of illness or ac- cident, also, an aeronaut shall be re-examined and pronounced fit before resuming aerial duties. The date and result of each re-examination shall be recorded on the aéronaut’s flying certificate. _
“6. No aeronaut who, before the date of the present convention, has given proof of his flying ability shall so long as he retains such ability be necessarily disqualified because he fails to fulfill all of the above requirements.
“7, Hach contracting state may raise the condi- tions set forth above as it deems fit, but these minimal requirements shall be maintained inter- nationally.”
L. D. GARDNER. . .President and Editor
W. D. MOFFAT....... Vice-President We Toa SEAMAING ton ae De Treasurer
H. M. WILLIAMS. .
. . General Manager
A Very Misleading Statement
GAIN the War Department is giving out statements regarding the airplane equipment of this country which can be and have been misconstrued by those who know nothing about the
essential differences of the types of airplanes. Newspapers have stated ‘‘ that should an emergency arise to-day there would be available for instant duty—as soon as the fliers could be put down at the hangars a total of 1,240 ‘ battle planes ’ or enough for fifty squadrons. These
would give a greater concentration of air strength than was used by f
the American forces in the St. Mihiel drive, and that engagement still is cited as the peak of air offensives.’’
A more careful perusal of the official statement indicates the following startling situation regarding the air defence of this country. To-day, we have twenty-seven Spads or enough for only one pursuit squadron. Two-thirds of a ‘‘ Service ’’ Squadron could be assembled with Le Peres. As for bombing squadrons we have in commission four Handey Pages or enough for one-sixth of a bombing squadron. And yet the War Department proudly announces that ‘‘ at: the present time there are on hand in the United States 1,240 battle planes in a serviceable condition; enough to make approximately 50 squad- rons.”’
This statement is so open to misinterpretation that those who believe that the United States today is defenseless in the air should protest that the public be not further misled by the misnomer ‘‘ bat- tle planes.’’ If the Navy were to give out a statement that it had fifty fighting units available for instant service and that these units were composed of 97 per cent scout ships with the three per cent rep- resenting the battle ships, cruisers, destroyers and all other naval craft, the situation would parallel the present statement of the War Department.
In this issue, there is published three diagrams of American avi- ation employment and the clearest of all lessons to be drawn from them is the necessity of ‘‘ balance ’’ in the various types of squadrons used in aerial warfare. Against an enemy equipped with the latest pur- suit types of battleplanes the fifty squadrons of D. H.-4s would be wiped out so fast that the whole nation would shudder.
Of these D. H.-4’s, Captain E. V. Rickenbacker in his book ‘“ Fighting the Flying Cireus’’ says: ‘‘ From every side Fokkers were piquing upon the clumsy Liberty machines which, with their criminally constructed fuel tanks, offered so easy a target to the incendiary bullets of the enemy that their unfortunate pilots called this boasted achievement of our Aviation Department their ‘ flaming coffins.’ During that one brief fight over Grand Pre, I saw three of these crude machines go down in flames, an American pilot and an American gunner in each ‘ flaming coffin’ dying this frightful and needless death.’’
The public has confidence in the future of aviation and is willing to believe in the great possibilities of the Air Service, but the War Department publicity on aviation during the war was at times so astonishingly misleading that statements regarding the availability of aircraft for service are not generally given credence. It is to be
hoped that no more of this kind of publicity will be given out and
that when the War Department uses the term ‘‘ battle plane ’’ it will not do so to cover up the shocking condition that the Air Service now finds itself in for fighting planes. *
JOURNAL
Formerly Air Service Journal =
G. H. DICKINSON. ... .Managing Editor ALEXANDER KLEMIN. Aeronautic Editor LADISLAS D’ORCY. . . Aerostatic Editor GEORGE NEWBOLD. . Business Manager PETER VISCHER. . Advertising Manager
Mr. Grey’s Explanation
It is with great pleasure that we print the reply of Charles Grey of The Aeroplane to an editorial in the AircrarT JOURNAL criticizing his warning to British Transatlantic aviators regarding sabotage in case they came to the United States. His explanation of his attitude
is so fair and sportsmanlike that his numerous friends in this country
will be glad, as we are, to know that once more a misunderstanding has been cleared up. For our part, our admiration for Charles Grey, which has always been strong, has been increased greatly by, his splendid reply: June 12, 1919. The Editor, Aircrarr JOURNAL, 22 Hast Seventeenth Street, New York.
Dear Sir:
I note with much interest in your issue of May 24 some rather trenchant remarks on a note of mine in The Aeroplane warning trans-Atlantic com- petitors against “Sabotage” on your side of the Atlantic.
In your attack you say that I evidently do not know much about condi- tions in the United States nor American sporting characteristics. You also suggest that the article is intended to afford some excuse for the failure of the English contestants to make good. Further you suggest that what you are pleased to call my “ show of ill-temper” is due to the fact that the American Navy was about to make its attempt while English commercial concerns were striving for a 50,000 dollar prize. Also you state that I. W. W. propaganda has found fertile soil in piqued minds and that the alleged success of U. S. constructors and pilots has caused what you describe as “ this flow of venom.”
Will you permit me to explain to your readers that there is no venom in the article and that there was no pique in my mind when I wrote it. It was a perfectly plain straight warning against what was likely to happen. When- ever there is big money at stake there is also danger of “sabotage.” We know just as much about doping horses in this country to stop them from winning races, as you do in the States. “Sabotage” is a French expression, which indicates that “sabotage” is known even among our gallant Allies the French, but it is by no means a speciality of the French people. I have known cases of “sabotage” on aeroplanes in this @untry, when men have disliked their officers, and when men in a firm’s employ have had money on that firm’s machines in sporting events. I have known “sabotage” in France, when there has been competition for Government orders between French and British constructors during the war, and I have known “sabotage” between one
‘ French constructor and another in sporting events before the war.
And, unless you have got what we in England eall a “ Non-Conformist | Conscience” pretty badly developed, you are not going to pretend that “sabotage” and doping has not been known in America in connection with sporting events whether horse racing or motor racing, so why should you try and pretend that “sabotage” in an aeroplane event is unthinkable?
How little personal feeling there was in my article you may judge from what you have probably read in The Aeroplane since then about the defeat of the Atlantic by the American Navy, and I should like to take this op- portunity of congratulating all concerned with American aviation on having given us a fair and square licking at the game at which we fancied ourselves most.
Yours faithfully, CHARLES GREY, Editor, The Aeroplane.
Postal Mail
r NHE criticism of the safety of the postal mail service because of the burning of a mail pouch en route from New York to Chi- cago containing valuable vouchers is to be considered in the
light of another attack on the Postmaster General. So long as mail is transported by trains, ships and airplanes, there are going to be wrecks and destruction of mail.. The fact that thirty-five mail cars have been destroyed this year by fire as against one airplane pouch indicates that every form of transportation has its dangers.
July 5, 1919
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL 9
Notes on Technical Aeronautics
Metal Construction in Aircraft
The following abstract of a recent paper by Dr..
A. P. Thurston before the Royal Aeronautical So- ciety is of interest at the present moment:
It is quite evident from observations carried on at the Front that wood is a most unsatisfac- tory material for airplane construction. It splint- ers easily in a crash; is uncertain in strength and weight; was found to warp and crack in the vary- ing climate of France and Italy, where machines were kept in readiness on the open field in all sorts of weather, and were actually flown for hours at a time in blinding snowstorms and rain- storms; while the hot, soggy tropical climate of Turkey and Hgypt attacked the comparatively delicate structure and weakened it considerably.
On the other hand, metal does not splinter, it is much safer in a erash, the members hang to- gether and so protect the passengers; its properties are known to a fine degree and can be relied upon; the effect of varying temperatures is negligible; and it can be produced in immense quantities. Certain types of French all-metal machines have performed wonderfully and have withstood the
most trying tests, comprising both extreme .
weather conditions and violent maneuvers.
Many designers are under the impression that metal is too heavy to construct efficient flying ma- chines. Experiments have proved that any wooden part can be duplicated in metal with less weight and considerably more strength. As a matter of fact, one of the strongest machines yet made by any concern, and loaded until broken, is an all- metal machine constructed by Messrs. Vickers, and this machine is lighter than the standard wooden model.
The advantages of metal construction are not confined ta greater strength, lightness, reliability, and ultimate cheapness. Its use will enable many new developments to be made in the actual design of the machine, such as variable camber, variable incidence, ete., and some of the greatest construc- tional difficulties er countered will be obviated by this method.
Different metals are employed for this purpose, the more important being steel and duralumin. The latter is lighter than steel and has the ad- vantage in this respect, in as much as a section three times as thick can be used for the same weight. A prejudice appears in certain quarters against duralumin owing to the fear of corrosion. Duralumin, if properly varnished, is not affected by corrosion under ordinary service conditions. There are several processes for the manufacture of steel for aircraft construction. One process is by cold rolling and Blueing simple carbon steels, while a second process is by continuous quenching and annealing low and medium carbon steel strip.
Many metal spars have been produced, the most efficient being corrugated steel strips, riveted or welded into box or “x” shapes. Fig. 1 shows sev- eral typical wing spar sections. In deep wing sec- tions spars are made up in girder form. Consid- erable difficulty was originally experienced in the design of fittings, but present practise has elim- inated this. On some of the reconstructed models, the spars, longerons and struts were so designed that the original fittings could be utilized.
The solution of the strut problem is much sim- pler than the wing spar. Built up steel struts are rapidly replacing the steel tube struts with fair- ing on the back and front. A few of these types are shown in Figs. 2, 3, 4.
Rapid strides are being made at present in all- metal aircraft, especially the larger machines, and there is a very interesting outlook for this form of constrution in all aeronautical designing.
(C) Underwood &. Underwood.
Men of the British Royal Air Forces at work on the moorimgs on Roosevelt Field, Mineola, which are to hold the giant British airship R-34 on its arrival here.
The R-534, one of the largest units of the Airship Section, Royal Air Force, was launched March 14, UGID,, Gi the Glasgow works of William Beardmore and Co. Ltd. She is 665 ft. from nose to stern, 80 ft. at the.master diameter, about 90 ft. high, and has a gas capacity of 2,000,000 cu. ft. Filled with hydrogen, the R-34 has a gross lift of 60 tons, while the disposable lift, or useful load is 29 tons. The power plant consists of four Sunbeam “ Maori” engines, each of which develops 275 hp. at 2100 r.p.m. and drives a pusher airscrew. The forward car, which contains the navigation room, the two wing cars, and the after car each are equipped with one engine. The high speed is about 80 m.p.h.
(C) Underwood & Underwood.
Lieut. Col. Luecas (left) and Major Fuller, British Officers Who Are Here Preparing for Arrival of British Rigid Dirigible R-34
10 AIR‘
— C.
NAL
“The Motor that made the Spad possible”
T is significant that these
Government tests are even less exacting than the tests given His- pano-Suiza Aeronautical Engines by this Organization.
It is this policy—a_ standard higher than is governmentally necessary—which accounts for the remarkable record of this great engine.
Ca
Wight arin * Gircraf® Garp rporélion
New Brunswick, N. J.
i
1.
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
July o, LOLOe
Maintaining America’s Supremacy in the Air
What Is Meant by the Word * Superiority,’
9
and
What Constitutes the Functions of the Air Service
Prior to the European War there were but two great divisions of the defenses of a nation—those on the land and those on the sea. The conclusion of the War finds us with a third and important element which must enter into all plans for the future—the air defenses. Helpless, indeed, will be the nation which fails to realize the importance of providing security against air attack. Land troops are limited in their field of effective opera- tion by the physical and artificial aspects of the terrain. No more than a certain number of com- batant troops can be used effectively on a given front. The size of the sea fleet is determined by the strength of the fleets of the navies of other nations. America thus far has conceded mastery
By Lieut.-Col. Benj. F. Castle, J. M. A.
the adversary has? No, not unless our pilots are at least as well trained as those of the enemy. If ‘they are less skillful, they will only increase the size of the enemy’s “bag.” Does it mean more air- planes than the enemy possesses? No, unless they are as fast and as manoeuverable as those he pos- sesses. If they are inferior to his in these respects they*are valueless as fighting machines, for they will never be able to carry out an offensive role. Superiority of the air, then, means both better trained personnel and better machines available at the time when superiority is desired. The obvious means, then, of insuring air superiority for our nation when it shall be needed is to provide a nucleus of highly trained personnel and to develop
NEW YORK CITY’S AIR POLICE CORPS
New York is the first city in the world to introduce “ fly” cops in the highest sense of the word.
Two Curtiss JN-4D training planes, piloted by A. Livingston Allan and Joseph D. Bennett, heutenants in the Aerial Police Reserves recently carried Police Inspector John F. Dwyer of the New York Powce and Major Dinshah P. Ghadiali, governor of the Wanamaker Aviation School, from Sheepshead Bay
to Philadelphia.
The Aviation School of the Police Reserve was founded by Special Deputy Police Commissioner Rod- man Wanamaker with a view of training aviators for the government while the war was going on. It will be used in the future to train aviators for the Police Department.
“Tt will only be a short time until aerial traffic policemen will be on duty in the ar over New York City,’ said Commissioner Wanamaker, “to control and regulate traffic.”
The use of the machines was donated by J. P. Davies of the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corporation.
of the seas to Great Britain, but our future naval policy may change this condition. that Great Britain’s very existence is dependent upon her sea supremacy, but in view of the great extent of our own coast lines, and the wide distri- bution of stratgetie points over which our flag flies outside our continental boundaries, we realize that no power other than Great Britain must be able to threaten our security by the possession of a navy superior to our own.
Thus America has determined upon the relative strength of her naval forces. How shall she deter- mine the strength of her air fleet? “Upon the wis- dom of her present decision may depend the very life of our nation in the future, for who is there unwilling to admit that the full development of the strategic and tactical use of air forces is still in its infancy? The next war will see air armadas striving for the mastery of the air, and that mas- tery, once attacked, will be more decisive as a factor of victory than the mastery of the seas was for the Allies during the European War.
Our present. problem is to decide what the strength of the U. S. air defenses should be in time of peace to insure “superiority in the air” in the hour of need. What is meant by “ superior- ity in the air?” Does it mean more pilots than
We concede
aviation material continuously in time of peace, so as to keep abreast of every other nation in this respect.
What shall be the strength of the air force? Before replying to this question, the military man naturally reverts to the basis of all land army organization—the infantry divisions. An army is a great team built up about its infantry. He will therefore consider the number of infantry di- visions deemed sufficient to defend his country, work out the proportionate artillery strength, and from the resulting figures decide upon the neces- sary air force component of a well balanced army. So far so good. But has he considered the fact that the air force has, in addition to its duties as a component of the land army, its own independ- ent role in the air? Here we have touched the essential thing that must be thoroughly appre- ciated by those charged with the duty of determin- ing the size of the peace-time air force—the air force has an independent as well as a co-operative role to play in time of war.
The functions of the Air Service are more varied than those of any other arm. It has been called the “ Cavalry of the Clouds,” but this name is only indicative of one of its roles. pily be called the infantry of the air, or the artil-
It can equally hap- .
lery that flies. It photographs and observes for artillery, it maintains contact for and fights with infantry, it attacks the enemy’s air force and bombs his factories, storehouses, and lines of com- munication. What other branch of the land army has so comprehensive a role? None. Only an army as a whole can have it. There is the crux of the question. The air force by its role as well as by its sphere of operation is defined as a separate component of the national defense,—completely capable of independent action.
Tts Mission
What will be the mission of the Air Service in time of war? Its mission will be:
1. To function as a component part of the land army as:
(a) The air contact for infantry. Keeping the infantry informed of the enemy’s movements and location, and, of the movements and location of our troops. Fighting with the infantry by attacking hostile groups, machine gun nests, etc. Supplying the infantry with its life blood— food and ammunition—when the normal arteries of supply are severed in the course of battle.
(b) As the service of information for division, corps, and army commanders. Observing and instantly reporting, from balloons and airplanes, every visible move of the enemy; revealing his nocturnal works by means of aerial photographs interpreted by its skilled observers.
(c) As the fire directing agency for the field artillery. Locating targets and subsequently conducting the “ shoot” against them by report- ing the location of every shot-strike. ;
(d) As the fire directing agency for the Coast Artillery.
(e) As a weapon of offense and defense in the hands of corps and army commanders who make use of its extreme mobility to effect sudden and overwhelming concentrations against enemy air forces, ground troops, and strategic points in the zone of operations.
2. To provide protection for our long coast line and extensive coastwise traffic against attack by foreign submarines and aircraft.
3. To secure our naval bases against attack from the air.
4, Independently, to hasten the termination of the war by the accomplishment of its chief and most important mission, which is to seek out and destroy the very sources of enemy strength—his air forces, his oil wells, mines, munition factories, railroads, canals, and harbor works.
Is any arm of our national defense charged with a broader mission? Will the Air Service be pre- pared to carry out its mission if it is not organized in time of peace so that it can strike with instant effectiveness when national emergency demands its use?
Organization
Fresh from the lessons of the recent war, we have no uncertainty as to the kind of organization needed for an air force. The number and kinds of air units for a mobile army of a given size are fixed by our Tables of Organization. There is no military or historical precedent, however, for the establishment of the limits which should mark the peace-time strength of the independent component of the air force. The stronger we make this the greater will be our chance of impressing other nations with our impregnability, and of removing from hostile and covetous minds any hope of suc- cessful attack. America finds herself in a fortu- nate position at the present time. She has re- created her merchant marine and built up her Navy. She has built up an aircraft industry that is capable of insuring her mastery of the air, and she has the potential and actual wealth that makes it possible for her to continue them all and abso- lutely assure the peace of the western hemisphere if not of the world.
July 5, 1919
General Mitchell Cited
Following is Gen. John J. Pershing’s citation of Brig.-Gen. William Mitchell, now chief of the Training and Operations Group of the Army Air Service :
GENERAL HEADQUARTERS AMERICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCES, PERSONNEL Division, Decorations SECTION.
FRANCE, 27 May, 1919. Z By Courier.
From: The Adjutant-General, American EH. F.,
To: Brigadier-General William Mitchell, U. S. A. (Through the Adjutant-General of the Army.)
Subject: Distinguished Service Medal.
1. Under the provisions of Cablegram No. 2830, received from the War Department, March 1, 1919, the Commander-in-Chief, in the name of the President, has awarded the Distinguished Service Medal to you for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services as set forth below:
BRIGADIER-GENERAL WILLIAM MITCHELL, We Se AY :
For exceptionally meritorious and distin- guished services.
As Air Service Commander, first of the Zone of Advance, and later of the First Corps, by his tireless energy and keen perception he performed duties of great importance with marked ability. Subsequently as Commander, Air Service of the First Army, and, in addi- tion, after formation of the Second Army as Commander of Air Service of both armies, by his able direction of these’ vitally important services he proved to be a potent factor in the successes achieved during the operations’ of the American Armies.
2. You will be informed later in regard to the time and place of presentation of the Medal awarded you.
By Command of General Pershing.
(Signed) F. C. WHITLEY, Adjutant-General.
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
To Meet the R-34
The British dirigible R-34 is now expected to leave England on its cruise to the United States July 4. Plans for an aerial escort for the R-34, made when the flight was expected two weeks ago, have been revived, and orders have been issued to have a dirigible from the Rockaway station meet the visiting airship as far out to sea as possible, piloting it to the landing field at Mineola. Rock- away, Montauk and Chatham Naval air stations will send as many seaplanes as available to partici- pate in a welcome and escorting demonstration.
Rohlfs’ Altitude Attempt
Roland Rohlfs, Curtiss test pilot, who will at- tempt to establish a new altitude record in a Cur- tiss “ Wasp,” one of the new models developed at the time of the signing of the armistice, expects to make his flight within a few days. He will try to climb 34,000 ft. in order to break the record of 33,132 ft., made recently by Casale, a French pilot. Major R. W. Schroeder of the United States air service holds the American record of 28,900 ft.
The instruments used in altitude tests include: Water thermometer to tell temperature of water circulating through the motor. Time clock. A 30,000-ft. aneroid to inform the pilot as to his levels. Two 34,000-ft. baragraphs which record altitude. Oil pressure gage. A tachometer record- ing the revolutions of the motor. A gas-pressure gage. A compass. . An air speed indicator. A statoscope.
Blimp Air Line A small dirigible is to make the trip from Kan- sas City to Fort Worth early in July, preparatory to establishing a passenger’air service in Septem- ber, says Charles Ora, manager for a commercial airship syndicate at Kansas City.
Ora says the company has ordered a “ sport blimp ” built.
13
New York Landing Fields
A proposal to establish municipal airplane land- ing fields in co-operation with the Federal Gov- ernment has been presented to the Board of Esti- mate of New York City by Comptroller Craig, who declared that the establishment of such fields, “was worthy of serious attention.
“Tt is only a matter of a few years before aerial intercity transportation, express service, mail service, emergency service and local photographic mapping, as well as aerial protection will be a part of the activities of every city government,” Comp- troller Craig added. “ Assurance is given that neither the air service of the War Department nor the Post Office Department will deal with any private individual, society or corporation in the matter of landing fields.”
The Comptroller’s proposal was prompted by a communication he received from Major Gen. Charles T. Menoher, Director of Air Service, U. S. A., who said that should the city decide to co- operate with the Government in establishing land- ing fields the Army will obligate itself to furnish hangars to be erected on the fields at the expense of the city.
The Army will also ask the city to bear the ex- pense for establishing landing fields and the main- tenance of both the fields and the equipment ex- elusive of airplanes.
Sermon from a Dirigible
From 300 ft. above an immense crowd at the Methodist centenary celebration at Columbus, Ohio, June 27, Dr. Edward Soper delivered a sermon through a megaphone from the big Army dirigible A-4, which came to Columbus from Akron under command of Major Clarence Maran- | ville. Dr. Soper’s voice could be distinctly heard. The sermon was about 300 words in length.
MERCHANTS FIRE ASSURANCE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK
AVIATION DEPARTMENT
Is now issuing policies covering the following hazards to aircraft:
1. Fire and Transportation 2. Collision Sa roperty sO amace
Additional coverage may be had against loss by windstorm, cyclone or tornado.
AusTEN B. CreHore, Manager, Aviation Department. For two years and previously with
in Lafayette this company
pilot since
We should be glad to discuss with those interested the various phases of insurance on Aircraft.
MERCHANTS FIRE ASSURANCE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK
6 45 JOHN STREET, NEW YORK CITY
Fire—A utomobile—T ornado—Explosion—Riot and Civil Commotion
(damage sustained by the plane itself)
(damage to property of others)
Flying Corps 1910.
14
America’s Opportunity
With the first non-stop flight across the Atlantic accomplished by Captain Jack Alcock showing the advance which has been made in aeronautical con- struction, it now rests with this country to realize what great possibilities rest in the commercializa- tion of aircraft in every field for which it is adapted—commerce, sport, recreation—in the opinion of Harry E. Tudor of the Aircraft Depart- ment of the Maryland Pressed Steel Co. The field is a wide one, he says, and the United States has the real material in thousands of experienced aviators. It will be a loss to aviation and the coun- try, Mr. Tudor believes, if these highly trained young men have to go back to the work they did before the war.
He does not think there will be any great rush by the public to take pleasure or business trips to Europe by the air, despite the recent success won by Captain Aleock and Lieutenant Commander Read in their crossings by air.
Germany Always “Under Cover”
“With the successful flight of the ‘ Vimy’ the applauding world will, unanimously, say ‘ what next?’” Mr. Tudor said: “The failure of Hawker, his sensational rescue, the crossing of the NC-4, and the recording of the first ‘non-stop’ has served to crowd years of aeronautical history into the time space of one month exactly. The main achievement has been a feast of press pub- heity—that dominating factor of all human suc- cess in every line of endeavor of our supermodern days. It may be added that a most excellent anti- dote has been provided for a war tired world in assisting the regaining of national equilibrium.
“ All has been as might have been anticipated. Europe’s years of preparation for the materializing of the ‘ German Invasion Bogie,’ provided for inter- European competition in the designing of war craft of every kind, and proper attention was given to the aerial possibilities. The antewar days flying fields of the nations that became, subsequently, grouped under the title of ‘The Allies’ welcomed
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AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
all-comers. Germany and Austria did not respond. Signs were not awaiting by any means of what was destined to come. Astute Germany was the first purchaser of Britain’s first seaplane, and the somnolent British Government woke up. Mysteri- ous lights were seen in the sky, at nights, for months before the war’s outbreak, over various parts of Britain that could find no accounting, but one, First “ Airobat” Arrested
“At times, stories of unbelievable altitude and endurance records, ‘made in Germany,’ were dis- cussed. Other stories of gun practice from the ‘silent grey monsters’ over Lake Constance were told by tourists and regarded by the conservative British press as travellers’ tales. Brusiloff, a lieu- tenant of the Russian flying corps, looped the loop, and was given some months of imprisonment for ‘unnecessary endangering of Government prop- erty.’ Credit for the first execution of this feat was given to the French airman Pegaud, but such belonged to his less fortunate comrade of the air.
“The Government need not, necessarily, assist civilian aviation beyond a moral encouragement of it In many obvious directions. It is a matter of municipal bodies, Chambers of Commerce, Boards of Trade and a prompt recognition of the fact that, before long, ‘landing facilities’ for airplanes will form close seconds to railway depots and sidings. Private enterprises, throughout the United States are already accounting for financially backed ‘ Aerial Transportation Lines’ and the linking of cities, necessarily rests with provisions for ‘ air- line stations.’ No city is too small to permit itself to be considered as inconsequent in this direction.
Greater Scope Offered Here
“No necessity to say ‘Look what they are doing in Europe.’ America’ offers greater scope and American enterprise can find a hundred more ways of applying aviation to commercial endeavor. One has only to appreciate the ambitions of the retired air service men to recognize that such provides the
-was nearly $125 for each employee.
July 5, 1919
greatest factor of all in the immediate present and future of the possibilities of commercializing air- craft. vise
“Beyond its recording the advance of aero- nautical design, the actual airplane that has ac- complished a nonstop flight across the Atlantie counts but little in comparison with the value as an object lesson. It is, purely and simply, the basis of most excellent advertisement copy and of a value that cannot be overestimated in the competi- tion between the respective entrants for the Daily Mail’s cash prize of $50,000.
New Fields Opened Up
“T do not assume that there will be a wild desire by thousands of Britishers and Americans to under- take similar trips for business or pleasure reasons,, nor that there is any possibility, for some time to come, at least, of ‘aerial ocean fliers’ competing | with the steamship lines for passenger business.
“To sum up, Hawker, Read and Alcock have made history in proving that the airplane engine has attained a proficiency in reliability that is of supreme importance in adapting aircraft to the varied uses it may have in scientific research, com- merce, sport and recreation., It is now a matter of applying the lesson with the proverbial enterprise of the United States in fields where enterprise counts.”
Enviable Service Record
The employees of the Ericsson Mfg. Co., Buffalo, N. Y., manufacturers of the well-known Berling Magneto, put their company over as a 100 per cent: American concern in the Victory Loan.
Not content with a high average for the other four loans and an enviable record for Magneto production for our government during the war period when the entire energies of this company were devoted to the task of meeting the government demand for magnetos, for aeronautical, truck and marine service, they cheerfully subscribed to the Victory Loan. The average for the entire company
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uly 5, 1919 AIRCRAFT JOURNAL 15
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16
NC Fliers Warmly Greeted at Home
(Continued from page 3) the sentiment. Her excitement was qualified, how- ever, by doubt that Lieutenant Breese was aboard the Zeppelin, it having’ been. reported that he missed the ship.
It was not until the big transport had drawn fairly close that her fears were settled. From the decks, alive with men, the sharp eyes of the woman presently picked out a little line along the port rail of the quarter-deck, which proved to be the long-awaited party.
Other welcoming vessels had joined the convoy. The Dock Commissioner’s tugboat, Manhattan, had been procured for the occasion by the Aero Club of America, which took down a committee ‘to greet the fliers. The Mayor’s Committee of Welcome boat, Patrol, was crowded to the guards as it circled the big transport. Its band was an- swered by the band aboard the Zeppelin, and the whirr of flying-boat motors overhead, the roar of steamboat whistles and the cheers of returning doughboys made spoken interchange between the flyers and their wives out of the question.
After circling the Zeppelin twice as closely as caution permitted, the Herreshoff put in at Ho- boken, where the ladies were escorted to an office to pass the tedious minutes until they could greet their husbands.
The flying boat patrol from Rockaway was aug-
. mented in the harbor by a flight of five airplanes from the Mineola flying fields. They consisted of two De Haviland and three Curtiss training planes. Twelve would have been sent out had the weather permitted. One De Haviland, piloted by Lieut. Ross C. Kirkpatrick, carried invitations from the American Flying Club to the dinner at the Hotel Commodore.
Byrd’s Sextant
Commander Read was willing enough to talk of
navigation problems met and conquered, but he
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
declined to say whether he had used the Byrd sextant, invented by Lieut. Commander R. E. Byrd, who mapped out the trip. This will be held for his report, and the facts he gives will be awaited with interest by airmen.
“T will say that at a dinner given the NC men in London by Commander Towers a eablegram congratulating Commander Byrd was sent,” he said.
Commander Towers’s remark concerning the failure of the radio compass, or direction finder— something new to aerial navigation—was the re- sult of a statement made by Commander Read, who had been asked earlier how he happened to reach the Island of Flores under the same at- mospherie conditions experienced by the pilots of the other planes.
“T call it just good luck,” he said. “I got through the fog bank and caught one glimpse of land. Of course, I knew what the land was and headed for it. I never have been able to under- stand why the others had worse weather. One was to the north of me and the other to the south of me. Reports received by wireless indicated that the fog was less dense to the south. I was in the centre of the sandwich, so to speak.”
“That is perfectly true,’ said Commander Tow- ers In discussing this point. ‘“ Both Read and I were south of the course, which lay between the Islands of Corvo and Flores. When I was off Flores I too got one flash of the sun and made an observation, but I didn’t trust it. Later, I wished I had as it would have saved us fifty-six hours in the water.
“Tt was about that time that the engineer in- formed me we had but two hours of gasoline and I decided to descend to the sea.”
“Then you were not forced down by the storm or fog?” he was asked.
Radio Compass Failed
“Not at all,” replied the commander after a slight pause. “ The plane—all of them, in fact— could have withstood the storm and fog nicely.
July 5, 1919 |
We came down because we didn’t know where we were, and could not afford to take chances with so limited a supply of gas.”
“But you were supposed to know by means of your radio compass?”
The commander paused for a considerable time.
“Tl be perfectly frank with you,” he said finally. “ That was the whole trouble—not the fog and unexpected storm. But I want to say right here that the most valuable result of the flight, scientifically speaking, was the demonstration that the radio compass is most remarkable. It will make air travel over the ocean feasible.
“The difficulty did not lie in the fact that the compass was imperfect, but in the fact that under the system of installation on the planes it was confined to a radius of ten miles. With proper installation it would have recorded signals sent from a distance of 150 miles. We knew the limita- tions before we got to Halifax. We also were aware that it would require at least a week to make the necessary changes.”
Lieut. Commander Read and Mrs. Read left New York for Washington at 1 o’clock last Sun- day. Commanders Towers and Lieut. Commander Bellinger, with Mrs. Towers and Mrs. Bellinger, took a later train to the capital. The officers re- ported to the Navy Department at 10 o’clock Mon- day morning and returning to New York on Wed- nesday for the dinner to be given in their honor at the Hotel Commodore, by the American Flying Club.
The reason why Commander and Mrs. Read left earlier than the other Captains of the transatlantic flying boats was that the six-months-old Read baby has not seen its father for two months, and Mrs. Read thought it a bit neglected.
Brig. Gen. Mitchell of the Air Service has wired that he and his staff would be present at the Ameri- can Flying Club dinner which will be fully re- ported in the next issue of AIRCRAFT JOURNAL.
At this dinner, which will really mark the official welcome home of the fliers, most of the important officers of the Air Service will be present.
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constructed of four longerons, braced by veneer cross panels, and is covered with 3-ply veneer. The fin is of simple construction, and is covered with 3-ply, while the other tail surfaces are cov- ered with fabric. The rudder and elevator are balanced, and the spars of these parts are of a very deep box section. The ribs in the tail sur- faces are not routed. An aluminum trailing edge is used on the wings, ailerons, rudder and ele- vators. The stabilizer is fixed at a non-lifting angle, and attached to the upper longerons. The tail skid is spring steel.
The radiator is installed in the center section
of the upper plane, and its location has necessitated some slight modifications in the engine to increase the water circulation. The propeller diameter is 9 ft.4 in. The center of gravity of the fuselage occurs at a point 6 ft. 3 in. from the nose of the fuselage.
Civilian Flying Licenses
The following licenses have been issued to civilians by the Joint Army and Navy Board on Aeronautic Cognizance:
License No. Issued to Address
479 Martin A. Sundeen.... Michigan City, Ind 287 .Tony Barone ..... Fort Worth, Texas 388 H. W. Hanchette.. -Fort Worth, Texas 389 Clarence F. Cato.... ....-Beaumont, Texas AS AME COTEOUMUEG Se LAV OT 2. vis enoteret yore ces ale Dallas, Texas 40 ee uKke Ohristophersnn aie eens ae Hverman, Texas ACSee UA CIS Heisei L OWil Crusteucpsterencdstolesclens Larchmont, N. Y ACOH OWATOG UCI oO TONE sil trite Holley, N. Y Aria OMeNR HHS AWVERGL ISOS 66 oo gb ccoe bc Albany, N. Y 485 Edward P. Brennan........... Southampton, N. Y. 488 Lyman B. Lockwood............... New York City AS OR Mie helpsi PAS hleyeu rire abel at Norwood, N. Y. ASOR Marky TAS Gy o4 co wot. siiebte oi ca) sty ote Norwood, N. Y. 464 Donald Gifford Vande Water....Washington, D. C. Aeon ry aC micenl yeni lena ee ra elc ot Washington, D. C. Aas Nitaliblenen oly, Ueihy ooo e ooo do ddee Washington, D. C. ALG Gi Grok Wer BD Wrettereeralledss' tls, o custo ncaa cache tne Caribon, Maine
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
JORIDERNTNES Ip AMESALS Goo kc sb no 8 Wilmington, Del. 549 Adolphua R. McConnell... 225... KIknoxville, Tenn. 551 Earl Kenneth Campbell...... Strawberry Pt., Iowa 552 ADSI Open OLR aside Melos oid A bine Dba Chevy Chase, Md. 553 Chanlesma eda day OT ean ranenanem Waterloo, Iowa Ceongemine barnett. ae Des Moines, Iowa 554 1D, AG VOM Do EAS oconcossaoodsus Dayton, Ohio 555 RD PCH DS See seen ee ee Ravenna, Ohio 556 JERI 18}, GUI, 5c BE osc noo as Salt Lake City, Utah 557 Dea LILIS welt... <a aca nth Seiten % DeLand, Fla. 558 Lozan DasMeMenemysn ss ae eres Rockford, Ill. 559 AMOS! IDOE. WB d ons ovo ncovcoc Providence, R, I. 560 Walter B. Hawkins, 511 W. Maple St., Monrovia, Cal. 561 George W. Putnam..... Box 402, Millensburg, Ohio 562 Ht Dodge) Acroplane Gomsem ven. Fort Dodge, Iowa 563 George V. Grey...780 Kinston Ave., Piedmont, Cal. Lyman A. Wine...164 Winona Ave., Detroit, Mich. 564 Clarence W. Osburn,
151 W. Pike St., Clarksburg, W. Va. 565 George (, IBEOKo 5 opa00g06¢009 Salt Lake City, Utah Curtiss Airplane Co. of New England, 566 j 80 Boylston St., Boston, Mass.’ Curtiss Tri State Airplane Co., 567 246 Adams, Memphis, Tenn. 568 Paul F. Baer........11 BH. 38th St., New York City 569 PauleMicellige ran: 463 W. 159th St., New York City Wilber P, Larrabee, -570 119 Groveland Ave., Minneapolis, Minn. Henry Hugo Hewetson..493 Ave. H, Bayonne, N. J. 571 Paul Augustine Bogan, 44 Guild St., Boston, Mass. 572 Caspar D. Swinson....80 Alfred St., Detroit, Mich. IDSA 1k, IMBTIND. 65.546 11 EH. 38th St., New York City 5738 W. M. Brainerd,
533 W. 31st St., Oklahoma City, Okla. 574 Georgembutedemrnr.: 2424 Indian Ave., Chicago, Ill. 575 William S. Brock....care B. W. Beam, Celina, Ohio N. R. Walling. ...1241 Philip St., New Orleans, La. 576 George W. Hill, 1241 Philip St., New Orleans, La.
Glen Wm. Poyzer, 5TT 703. Merchants Rd., Rochester, N. Y. 578 Charles Adam Martin, 579
326 Barrett Place, San Antonio, Texas 580
S. C. Wilberg, 595 Charles River Rd., Cambridge, Mass. 581 Walter Sa Carrite...0 Saray ones Humboldt, Tenn. 582 Lyman A. Hodgdon, 8 Indiana Ave., Somerville, Mass. 583 William S. Cormack, Jr., 5 Bigelow Terrace, Newton, Mass. 584 William F. Wichart, Aero Club of America, Washington, D. C. 585 Malcolm G. Robinson, 586 415 Carter Bldg., Houston, Texas : Jas. Thos. Ringland, 587 1860 H-Grand Blvd., Detroit, Mich. 588 Howard W. Trefry, 589 19 Hubbard Ave., Cambridge, Mass. C. C. Creighton, 590
410 Traction Bldg., Indianapolis, Ind. 591 WMernons GaOmilicke eee eer Grafton, N. D. Burnit Albert Shields, care Mr. Goldberg, 592
Surf Ave. and 8th St., Coney Island, N. Y. 593
Leslie L. Petticord. .316 S. Main St., Wichita, Kan. 594
Harley W. Lake..210 Peterboro St., Detroit, Mich. 595
Jas. A, Hewlett....80 Columbia Hgts., Bklyn, N. Y. 596 Elon L. Brown,
2607 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, Cal. 597
July 5, 1919.
Alexander McLeod Maurice J. Regan....... 2111 Bird St., Joplin, Mo. Jean F, deVillar, 609 Caples Bldg., Hl Paso, Texas Harry P. Christofferson, ,
1363 5th Ave., San Francisco, Cal. DanagCwde carter mena raey y Queens, L. I., N. Y. Parker eDresser i @ramerny iri ce nite Bradford, Pa. J. Tinus Christensen. .1503 State St., Racine, Wis. James H. Kirkha..338 N. Kedzie Ave., Chicago, Ill. Rolf Thorp Nixon, 216 W. 110th St., New York City WidesS teviensi a aay) ses eee as Beaver City, Nebr. MadileneiiDavise spot ete Wauchula, Fla. Robt. Gilbert Adams, 11 EH. 38th St., New York City William J. Hahnel...154 Bleecker St., Bklyn, N. Y. Frederic Kirk Smith,
14 Hodges Ave., Taunton, Mass.
Harrison Dale Miller,
606 Board of Trade Bldg., Indianapolis, Ind. Howard Z. Bogert,
529 18th St., N. W., Washington, D. C. Frederick Henry Harris, 1017 16th St., N. W., Washington, D. C. MON Wile IEA 65 cdabe05 000006 Glenville, W. Va. Robt. F. Shank, Traymore Hotel, Atlantic City, N. J. Ralph Winslow Barnes, 825 Walnut St., Cochocton, Ohio Hmery H. Rogers, 336 Adelaide Drive, Santa Monica, Cal. Hdmondsr ee Mekennabedicererieirerier Tyler, Texas Malcolm A. MacDonald, 11 East 38th St., New York City John D. Probst, Jr., South Dwight Place, Englewood, N. J. Filip A. Bjorklund...... Gen. Del., Brooklyn, N. Y. Curtiss Northwest Airplane Co.,
554 Builders Exchange, Minneapolis, Minn.
Samuel Custer Eaton, Jr., 6324 N. Woodstock St., Philadelphia, Pa. Marshall) EH: Callander... >. 2-2. Sioux City, Iowa Hrion H. Parker..... .Farmington, Maine | JNiineol TR, CHlleynolkse, oo q600000006 Sioux City, Iowa Richard Boyce Miller, : 401 S. 15th St., Indianapolis, Ind. leyany Aiieyll TxOeS, 5 oooodoon00 8S Charleston, S. C. Walliams Seer donee niin para Amarillo, Texas Frederick A. Hoover, care Packard Motor Car Co., Detroit, Mich. Maurice H. Murphy, ‘ Roosevelt Field, Mineola, L. I., N. Y. Sidney Q. Noel. .1301 Michigan St., Lawrence, Kan. Jules D. Biscayart, Roosevelt Field, Mineola, L. I., N. Y. Toe READING Yel stots opeete ete ie epee morerse: Ada, Okla. William F. Sullivan........ Port Washington, N. Y. Richard Bernard Pennock,
136 Mountain View Terrace, Dunellen, N. J. Simeon dni ve iiriesre Meera aeesacltate a cee Dupree, 8. D. Peter Selmer Rask, ; f
813 9th Ave., S., Minneapolis, Minn.
Ay H. Gibson. 3... a2. -Columbia Station, Ohio
Claude Vin D eValtaliSkrrrimreinsre ces Chatham, N. J.
James M. Field, Jr....1335 Main St., Buffalo, N. Y.
Harold R. Cochran.3 St. Paul’s Court, Bklyn., N. Y. Harry Baird Nilson,
756 76th Ave., N., Seattle, Wash.
James A. Morell...... 72 Days Park, Buffalo, N. Y.
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AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
(C) International Film Service.
Striking View of the British Airship R-34 as She Landed at Roosevelt Field, Mineola, L. 1, July 6—The Picture Shows a Close-up of the Stern
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL July 12, 1919
THE MARTIN NIGHT BOMBER
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R-34 Flies from Scotland to Long I
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Early Return to Great Britain Imperative “>: mn P
The British airship R-34 arrived at Roosevelt Field, Mineola, L. I., from Hast Fortune, Scotland, at 8:45 o’clock Sunday morning, July 6, circled the field three times to make observations, and at 9:21 o’clock the first overseas air pilgrim Major John Edward Maddock Pritchard, landed upon American soil, after a parachute drop of 2,000 feet.
This completed the longest flight in history, the distance covered being 3,200 miles, not counting the mileage forced upon the fliers by adverse winds. The time consumed was 108 hours and 12 minutes. The big airship brought over thirty-one persons, one of whom was a stowaway, and a tortoise shell eat.
During the morning of July 7 the straining of the aircraft against the cables with which she was leashed tore a rent four feet square in the covering of the bag, but this was soon repaired.
The engines had not been wholly overhauled until the afternoon of the next day, therefore the big airship did not start on the return trip on July 8, and was not expected to leave before the last of this week.
- Letters and platinum were brought over by the R-34, and mail was carried on the return trip.
A fortunate turn of the wind at about 2 o’clock ‘Sunday morning made the success of the flight possible. Four times on Friday night and early Saturday morning heavy squalls and thunder-
storms had threatened to cripple or smash the flying’
colossus. Taking these experiences aS mere mat- ters of course, Major G. H. Scott, the commander, decided at the first sign of favorable weather to attempt to complete the trip as contemplated in the beginning, by landing at the original objective point, although it involved careful calculation of mileage to be covered against the scant stock of gasoline remaining.
Tossed Like a Dory in Storm
During the worst of the storm on Friday night the big airship was suddenly tossed aloft 500 feet and pitched about like a dory in a heavy sea. For
-a time there was great danger that a vital part
would be smashed and a landing forced on the rough water, but the workmanship and material in every part of the 650-foot air giant proved flaw- less and Commander Scott got his craft safely through. His officers and men were at a loss to find words to tell their admiration for his navigat- ing and for the staunch flying airship itself.
At 8:35 o’clock the R-34 became visible from
Mineola Field, looking at first like a splinter split off from the bluish horizon in the northeast. <A thin line of light beneath it made it distinguish- able at first at a distance of about twenty miles. Slowly it disengaged itself from the blurring lines where the earth and sky met, and gradually its
bulk began to develop. As it approached the field ©
it rose for better observation, and at about 9 o’clock stood out in the sky in its full superdread- nought proportions, its painted skin responding to the sun, which had become bright a few minutes before, and giving off a dull metallic gleam between lead and aluminum in tint.
It glided through the air with such smoothness as to give the suggestion that it was motionless and the spectator moving. Like the buzz of a midsum- mer noontime, the hum of the motors produced no disturbing effect on the quiet. _
The ship approached the landing place at a height of about 2,000 feet, coming from the east northeast and passing over Mitchel Field. It swung around the cutskirts of Roosevelt Field, while the commanders studied the details of the landing place. The. manoeuvres for observation took the airship three times around the field before she came to a stop. At 9:11 it shut off its motors, and hovered, like a fixed object, 2,000 feet above the ground.
First Man to Land
Wig-wag communication was opened between the dirigible and the field, and Major Scott was in- formed that Major Fuller, who was to have been in command of the landing, was not there, having started for Boston when the R-34 purposed land- ing there. Major Pritchard, the second officer on the dirigible was then directed to land and take charge of the ground work when the dirigible de- scended. At 2,000 feet Major Pritchard jumped with a parachute, swinging around and around in circles and moving slowly downward. His descent occupied two minutes and he landed rather heavily at 9:19, slightly injuring his hip. Under his direc-
As it was making the final descent, the main mooring line was tossed. to workmen waiting to receive it and it was thrust through a massive iron ring, with conerete anchorage, which bridles the big machine until it has been securely fixed by eight anchors.
The line. which is about six inches thick, made a bullseye in its drop, falling squarely over, the main anchor. The workmen, who rushed to catch it on the bound, were flung to the ground and rolled about, as if by the lash of a gigantic whip, but they subdued it in a second and rushed with it to the iron ring. An instant later it was dragged through this opening and the gas bag was secured.
(c) Keystone View Co. - Crew of the R-34. Left to right—lieut. Commander Z. Lansdowne, U. S. N.; Second Lieut. Rex Durrant, wireless officer; Lieut. Guy N. Harris, meteorological expert; Major J. E. M. Pritchard, Air Ministry; Brig.-Gen. E. M. Maitland, C. M. G., D. S. O., representing Air Ministry; Second Lieut. H. F. Luck and Second Lieut. John D. Shotter, engineer officer—all British R. A. F.
tions 600 workmen were disposed in eight groups to tie down the great gas envelope which, though sure and steady in the air, is inclined to be erratic when chained to an alien element.
After these forces had been deployed in precise order the dirigible began to release gas and de- scend. It moved down on an’even keel, as if it were a great weight being lowered-by an invisible crane. It kept precisely over its anchorage with an accuracy of navigation that would have been the despair of any deep water skipper proud of his skill in docking his ship. She gained a little speed as she sank down the last 1,000 feet, and when about 300 feet up she suddenly released a great flood of water ballast, which spread into a sheet and then poured in a torrent to the ground, shower- ing the workmen under it. This water was dropped from canvas tanks in the hull to steady and delay her descent. ee
The landing of a big airship is-a very delicate operation. It requires nice balancing by the skip- per in releasing water and gas in the last few feet
of the approach to the ground in order to bring a -
state of equilibrium as the machine touches the earth, thus preventing a jar which might disjoint the light ‘skeleton on which the outer cover is stretched.
A few moments later the crews of men were pin- ning it down like Gulliver, attaching anchors all along the hull to prepared anchorages of concrete and steel, sunk deeply into the earth.
The British officers, accompanied by their Ameri- can guest, Lieut. Commander Zachary Lansdowne, climbed out of the gondola to receive the official greetings of the Government of the United States and the hearty congratulations of brother seamen and fliers in American and British uniforms. Those who expected to find them worn and wan from their unparalleled experience were astonished to see them all in the finest fettle and spirits, ruddy and vigorous, wide-awake and full of fun.
The crew followed them to land, on which none had set foot for nearly five days, all the members being in good health and spirits, except one man, who had suffered a smashed thumb, the only acci- dent of the criuse.
ions) .,Stowaway the Crew Star
The star member of the party was the stowaway, William Ballantyne: of Neweastle-on-Tyne, who registered a new “adventure in the history of the human race by smuggling himself across the At- lantie Ocean in midair. -This Ballantyne, who. is 22 years old, is a rigger on dirigibles, had. sailed
4
with the R-34 in its sensational flight over Ger- many and the Baltic and would not be left out this time, when he was dropped from the roll of the erew because he was the thirtieth man and it was thought necessary to cu the crew to twenty-nine, to reduce weight and conserve fuel.
But the “rigger,” while pretending to accept his fate with good grace, planned, with the probable connivance of some of his pals, to hide in the ship the day before she started. He climbed up from the gondola into the space between the outer skin of the airship and the bottom of the gas container. This is the space into which the crew climbs for sleep, exercise, and rest. It is rather dark there normally, and Ballantyne hid himself by climbing to the top of a beam which runs the length of this chamber. He took good care not to be put back, because he did not disclose his presence on board until the ship had been six hours in flight.
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
and others who felt that the great air navigator Coe not be allowed to get away without meeting them. ;
“We often flew as low as 400 feet from the ocean in the course of the voyage,” he said. “ When the wind was high we flew low, and when the wind was low we flew high. We didn’t get very good treatment from the wind.”
Officially Welcomed
The officers of the R-34 were officially weleomed at a luneh given in the Garden City Hotel. Vice Admiral Gleaves, who presided, in a greatly ap- plauded speech, congratulated the officers over the successful flight of the dirigible and welcomed them to this country in the name of Secretary Daniels and both branches of the service.
Vice Admiral Gleaves introduced General Mait- land, who said:
July 12, 1919
“T want to express my sincerest thankfulness and appreciation for the kind words spoken in be-- half of Major Scott, the other members of the R-34 and myself. I am not going to tell you of our trip. Major Scott is here to do that, but I would like to mention two experiences. We set out to cross the Atlantic, and we hardly saw it. We hugged the clouds all the way across. At times the clouds were over and under us, and at one time I began to wonder if we would ever see it. I was surprised at the absence of motion. I am a bad sailor, and susceptible to seasickness. It did not
bother me. I believe that in the days when we will be crossing by air these airships will be sought after by persons subject to seasickness.
“The Air Ministry had a definite object in send- ing us out, to fly from east to west and back. It was to demonstrate what airships will ultimately This not only
do to establish commercial service.
Major Scott admitted that he had been informed of this man’s disobedience of orders, when he dis- cussed the voyage. “He probably had help from other members of the crew in stowing away,” said Major Scott. “I don’t doubt that. We felt that we had to cut the crew and so we left him off, but he would not have it.”
“ Will he be court-martialed or anything?”
“ Possibly something of the kind,” said the com- mander, with a smile. “Perhaps his- punishment will not be very heavy.” ;
Major Scott said, however, that the romantic stowaway had not been treated as a guest. | LNW worked him proper,” he said. “In addition to that, he didn’t have a hammock.”
When he was asked how much fuel he had left when landing, Major Scott said:
“T don’t know exactly, but I think about three hours. ”
Other officers of the R-34 thought that there was less than an hour’s fuel and that it was touch and go in the last few minutes whether the flier could reach Mineola and make a landing under safe con- ditions. The commander of the dirigible was not inclined to talk, but at the Garden City Hotel he good naturedly answered questions, under constant interruptions from Congressmen and men escorting pretty women demanding to be introduced to him,
Arrival of the R-34 at Roosevelt Field
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
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between England and America, but all around the world. I believe that within a few years there will! be regular commercial service.
_ “This will not be with ships of which our own: is a grand pioneer. She is not big enough for the: job, and we had anxious times owing to - petrol, but with ships bigger and speedier we will have no trouble—airships five times larger than our own. I venture to hope that in the future these: ships will have a hundred miles an hour and have two hundred tons lifting capacity and will carry passengers, mail, and fuel. When they do they will play a big commercial part between the two countries.” °
General Maitland spoke of the appreciation felt by the men for the cordial way in which they had been received.
Vice Admiral Gleaves, in introducing Major Scott, spoke of the possibilities of the airship, and he said that Admiral Beatty had been quoted as saying that the airship of the future will take the place of the cruiser. He reported having heard that the Admiral said he would rather have one airship than six cruisers.
Major Scott said the main fact was that “we left England with the intention of crossing, and we got here.”
July 12, 1919
“We had the wind against us nearly all the way,” continued Major Scott. “The wind was favorable at the start and again at the finish. That we could come across at such odds speaks well for the future. There is one thing that I want to say now, and that is that the arrangements for landing here were absolutely wonderful. I don’t think we could have landed in England and found any better arrangements. ”
Major Scott said rather humorously that he knew the arrival of the R-34 had occasioned some trouble and he said he wanted to apologize to the Navy for the request for help and the trouble that had been caused. Things would have gone well had the big dirigible not met head winds, for, as it was, he said, he had just enough petrol to come
through. He thanked the American Navy for the’
positions given, the weather reports, and the hearty co-operation.
In speaking as the representative of the army, General Charles T. Sicnoher, Director of Army Aviation, began by pointing out that perhaps few knew that the reason for the efficient work in land- ing the dirigible was because many of the men who carried out that task had been trained in England.
“T look for greater development in lighter than air rather than heavier than air craft,” he said. “T believe it is almost a matter of a few years when we will have ships five times larger and of greater capacity than that which arrived today. If they can carry 200 tons deadweight they can carry a battalion armed and equipped.” :
Great care was taken to guard the R-34 while she was at Mineola. Details of several thousand _doughboys were assigned to the work and they were cheered along by the Knights of Columbus at their rest hut near the field. Supervisor James Cunnion was in charge of the hut, aided by Thomas Cullen, General Secretary and several assistants from the Garden City Hostess House. i
Log of the R-34.
Brig. Gen, Edward M. Maitland, C. N. G., D. S. O., official observer for the British Air Ministry, on board the R-34, made public yesterday his official log of the first flight from the time the dirigible left East Fortune, Scotland, until it arrived at Min- eola. The log follows:
Distances covered were as follows: East Fortune to Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, 2,050 sea miles; ‘irin- _ ity Bay, Newfoundland, to New York, 1,080 sea miles. It was originally intended that this flight should have taken place at the beginning of June, but owing to the uncertainty of the Germans signing the peace terms the British Admiralty decided to detain her for an extended cruise up the Baltic and along the German coast line. ‘This flight occupied fifty-six _ hours under adverse weather conditions, during which time an air distance of, roughly, 2,400 miles was covered, . _ At the conclusion of this flight the ship was taken _ over from the Admiralty by the Air Ministry and the _ airship was quickly overhauled for the journey to the ' United States of America. The date and time of sailing decided upon was 2 ' A. M. on the morning of Wednesday, July 2, and the ' press representatives were notified by the Air Minis- try to be at Hast Fortune the day previously.
The Start
_ At 1.30 A. M. on the morning of Wednesday, July 2, _ the airship was taken out from her shed and actually _ took the air twelve minutes later, thus starting on her long voyage exactly eighteen minutes in advance of scheduled time.
i The story of the flight as entered in the log fol- lows: :
1.42 a. M., Wednesday, July 2:
The R-34 slowly arose from the hands of the land- ing party and was completely swallowed up in the low-lying clouds at a height of 100 feet. When fly- ing at night, possibly on account of the darkness, there is always a feeling .of loneliness immediately after leaving the ground. The loneliness on this oc- casion was accentuated by the faint cheers of the landing party. coming upward through the mist long after all signs of the earth had disappeared.
The airship rose rapidly 1,500 feet, at which height she emerged from the low-lying clouds and headed straight up the Firth of Forth toward Edinburgh.
A few minutes after 2 o’clock the lights of Rosyth showed up through a break in the clouds, thus proy- ing brilliantly that the correct allowance had been made for the force and direction of the wind, which was 20 miles per hour from the east.
It should be borne in mind that when an airship sets out on a long distance voyage carrying her maxi- rum allowance of petrol she can only rise to a lim- ited height at the outset without throwing some of it
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
cverboard as ballast and that as the airship proceeds on her voyage she can, if so desired, gradually in- crease her height as the petrol is consumed by the engine. -
An airship of this type when inost of her petrol is consumed can rise to a height of about 14,000 feet.
For this reason the next few hours were one of the most anxious periods during the flight, for Major Scott, the captain of the airship, who, owing to the large amount of petrol carried (4,900 gallons, weigh- ing 15.8 tons), had to keep the ship as low as possible and at the same time pass over Northern Scotland, where the hills rise to a height of over 3,000 feet. _
Owing to the stormy nature of the morning the air at 1,500 feet—the height at which the airship was traveling—was most disturbed and “bumpy,” due to the wind being broken up by the mountains to the north, causing violent wind currents and “air
pockets.”
aN
Col. Wm. N. Hensley, A. S. A., who replaces Lieut. Commander Lansdowne as observer on the return trip of the R-34
The most disturbed conditions were met in the mouth of the Clyde, south of Loch Lomond, which, surrounded by high mountains, looked particularly beautiful in the gray dawn light.
Ireland Sighted
The islands at the mouth of the Firth of Clyde were quickly passed. The north coast of Ireland appeared for a time and shortly afterward faded away as we headed out into the Atlantic.
The various incidents of the voyage are set down quite simply as they occurred and more or less in the form of a diary. No attempt has been made to write them as a connected story. It is felt that, by record- ing such incidents in this way, most of them trivial, a few of vital importance, a truer picture of the voy- age will be obtained.
Time, 6 a. M., July 2:
_ Airship running on four engines with 1,600 revolu- tions. Forward engine being given a rest. Air speed thirty-eight knots—land. miles per hour made good 56.7. Course steered 298 degrees—north, 62 degrees west, course made good 39 degrees, north 71 west. ‘ind northeast, 15 1/3 miles per hour. Height 1,500 eet.
Large banks of fleecy clouds came rolling along from the Atlantic, gradually blotting out all view of the sea. At first we were above these clouds, but gradually they rose higher and we plowed our way into the middle of them.
GT Bo Wilts 8
Nothing but dense fog estimated by Harris, the meteorological officer, to go down to within fifty feet of the water and up to a height of about 5,000 feet.
Suddenly we catch a glimpse of the sea through a hole in the clouds and it is now easy to see we have a slight rift to the south which was estimated by poet Scott, the captain, and Cooke, the navigating officer.
A few minutes later we find ourselves above the clouds, our height still being 1,500 feet, and beneath a cloudy sky with clouds at about 8,000 feet. We are therefore in between two layers of clouds, a condition which Alcock and Brown found themselves on more than one occasion on their recent flight from west to east.
An excellent cloud horizon now presents itself on
5
all sides, of which Cooke at once takes advantage. These observations; if the cloud horizon is quite flat, ought to prove a valuable rough guide, but cannot be regarded as accurate unless one can also obtain a cheeck on the sun by day or the moon and stars by night.
‘Cooke reckons it is easy to make as much as a fifty-mile arc in locating one’s position when using a cloud horizon as substitute for a sea horizon.
7.30 A. M.: :
Breakfast in crew space, up in the keel, consisted of cold ham, one hard boiled egg each, bread and but- ter and hot tea. We breakfast in two watches, gen- erally about fifteen in each. :
The first watch for breakfast was Scott, Cooke, Pritchard, Admiralty airship expert; Landsdowne, Lieutenant Commander United States Airship Serv- ice; Shotter, engineer officer; Harris, meteorological officer: myself and half the crew.
Conversation during breakfast reverted to recent flight up the Baltic; and in the adjoining compart- ment the graphophone was entertaining the crew to the latest jazz tunes, such as “‘The Wild, Wild Women.” ‘
It might be interesting at this stage to give a com- plete list of the crew, showing their various duties:
Officers
SHIP’S OFFICERS
Major G. H. Scott, A. T. C., captain.
Capt. G. S. Greenland, first officer.
Second Lieut. H. F'. Luck, second officer.
Second Lieut. J. D. Shotter, engineer officer.
Also: (
Brig. Gen. E. M. Maitland, C. M. G., D. S. O., rep- resenting Air Ministry. 4
Major J. E. M. Pritchard (Air Ministry).
Lieut. Commander Z. Lansdowne, O. B. H., U. S. Naval Airship Service.
Major G. G. H. Cooke, D. S. C., navigating officer.
Lieut. Guy Harris, meteorological officer.
Second Lieut. R. D. Durrant, wireless officer.
W. O. W. R. Mayes, coxswain.
Warrant Officers end Men ENGINEERS Flight Sergt. Gent. Flight Sergt. Scull. Flight Sergt. Riplee. Sergt. Evenden. Sergt. Thirwall. Corpl. Cross. Lg. Air Craftsman Graham. Corpl. Gray. Air Craftsman Parker. Air Craftsman Northeast. iv AN Cy Mort: RIGGERS
’ Flight Sergt. Robinson. Sergt. Watson.
Corpl. Burgess.
Corpl. Smith.
L. A. C. Forteath.
L. A. C. Browdie.
WIRELESS Corpl. Powell. A. C. Edwards.
Sea Hidden by Clouds Jil ANS We 8
Still ploughing our way through the fog at 1,300 feet. Sea completely hidden by clouds and no visibil- ity whatsoever. Stopped forward and two aft engines and now running on only the two wing engines at 1,600 revolutions. These are giving us an air speed of 30 knots or 33.6 miles an hour. This is the airship’s most efficient speed, as she only consumes on the two engines 25 gallons of petrol an hour.
Wind is east seven miles an hour, and so we are making good 40 miles an hour and resting three engines.
Cooke is now on top of the airship, taking obser- vations of the sun, using the cloud horizon with a sex- tant. The sun is visible to him but not to us, the top of the ship being 85 feet above us down here in the fore central cabin.
Our position is reckoned to be latitude 55 degrees 10 minutes north and longitude 14 degrees 40 minutes west, which is equivalent to 400 miles from our starting point at Hast Fortune and 200 miles out in the Atlantic from the northwest coast of Ireland.
We are in wireless touch with Hast Fortune, Clif-
TELEGRAPH OPERATORS
’ den, the west coast of Ireland, and Ponta Delgada,
Azores, and messages wishing us good luck are re- ceived from Air Ministry, H. M. S. Queen Elizabeth and others.
11.45 a. M.:
Lunch—Hxcellent beef stew and potatoes, choco- late and cold water. :
The talk as usual was mainly “shop,” dealing with such problems as the distribution of air pres- sure on the western side of the Atlantic, what winds were likely to be met with, what fog we should run into, the advantages of directional wireless for navi- gational purposes, cloud horizons and the like.
Seoit, Cooke and Harris, in comparing their ex- periences and expounding their theories, were most interesting and illuminating.
noon:
Watch off duty turned in for their routine four hours’ sleep before coming on for their next period of duty—only two hours in this case, as it is the first of the two dog watches.
(Continued on page 14)
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
July 12, 1916
American Flying Club Dinner to the NC Heroes
Brilliant Assemblage at Hotel Commodore Does Honor to the Trans-Atlantic Air Pioneers (Double Page Picture of the Dinner on Pages 10 and 11 of This Issue)
The men who blazed the trail through the air across the Atlantic, Lieutenant Commander Al- bert C. Read and the crew of the NC-4, and the men who failed honorably while trying their ut- most, Commander John H. Towers and Lieuten- ant Commander P. N. L. Bellinger and their crews, were cheered by a notable gathering of Army and Navy officers and men prominent in the world of aviation at a dinner given by the American Flying Club at the Commodore Hotel July 2.
At the Speakers’ Table
The president of the club, Laurence La Tourette Driggs, presided and Job EH. Hedges acted as toast- master. Others at the speakers’ table were:
Captain Roy N. Francis, U. S. A., Representa- tive F. H. La Guardia, Colonel William A. Bishop, Commander G. C. Westervelt, U. S. N., Glenn H. Curtiss, Commander H. C. Richardson, U. S. N.,
Major-General Charles T. Menoher, U. 8S. A., Cap-
tain T. T. Craven, U. S. N., Commander John H. Towers, U. 8. N., Lieut-Commander Albert C. Read, U. S. N., Rear Admiral James Glennon, U. S. N., Lieut.-Commander P. N. L. Bellinger, U. S. N., Brigadier General L. E. O. Charlton, R. A. F., Senator Harry 8. New, Colonel Archie Miller, U. §. A., Commander J. C. Hunsaker, U. 8. N,, Colonel Thomas DeWitt Milling, U. 8. A., and Captain Edward Rickenbacher.
. President Driggs
President Driggs: Ladies and Gentlemen—Among the numerous telegrams which came to the club today I wish to read but three. This telegram is from the Secretary of the Navy: ; ;
“The success of the NC-4 in laying an air route across the Atlantic Ocean called for the plaudits of the world. The fleet added a branch to the Navy’s laurel crown for pioneer work in a new field. I regret that I am unable to attend the dinner in honor of the crew of our NO boats tonight to express in person for myself and the Naval Service my apprecia- tion of their intrepidity, zeal and perseverance in making their splendid record for the Navy and for American aviation.
(Signed) “JOSHPHUS DANIELS.”
The following telegram is from the Secretary of War:
“Tet me convey again through you the pride which all of us as citizens and officials of the government feel in the thrilling accomplishment of Commanders Towers and Read and their associates. Their action has written into our history a new page and for years we shall be stirred and quickened by the recounting of their pioneering adventure.
(Signed) “NEWTON D. BAKER, “Secretary of War.”
Among all these gentlemen who had so much to do with the winning of this race for America, most of whom you see before you at the speakers’ table, there is one L am sure that all will agree was the pioneer of this success and I have from him the following telegram :
“JT regret I cannot be with you this evening to honor Commanders Tower and Read who, by being first in crossing the Atlantic by airplane, have brought great credit to America. Please extend to them an appreciation of my felicitation and esteem.
(Signed) “ORVILLE WRIGHT.”
As President of the club I desire to say for the
club that. we are under obligation to one of the best loved men in America, who has consented to act as toastmaster for us tonight. ‘The club is but a few months old. ‘he summer time coming at the same time the NC commanders and crews came back to New York it was with great difficulty that a dinner of this size waS. handled with the machinery that the club possesses. We must offer you our apologies for the many inconveniences that you have suffered. I hope that you will pardon them and I hope that the man I refer to as one of the best loved in America will do the best for the club. I beg to introduce Mr. Job Hedges, the Toastmaster. (Applause. )
Toastmaster Hedges
Toastmaster Hedges: Mr. President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,—and particularly those ladies who are the real commanders of these alleged commanders up here. (Laughter and applause) You will pardon me, Mr. President, for expressing a feeling of satifaction about that best beloved business. IT don’t know whether it is true or not, but I hope it is, although there have been occasions in my brief eareer when it hasn’t been borne out.
» mer candidate for governor ;
We Navy men (laughter) welcome you here. As toastmaster, I flirted a little bit with the committee indicating that I didn’t know at first whether I could do it or not, but I intended to accept all the time. I have always wanted to be connected with a histori- cal event. _This dinner furnishes one of those situ- ations. It is a great pleasure also to be toastmaster at the first thoroughly dry dinner of any size given in New York. Hereafter we will have to say to each other that we can drink to each other only with our eyes.
I want to say to these distinguished gentlemen that while they have been welcomed by the President and members of the cabinet, it remains for me to welcome them on behalf of various functionaries and on behalf of the government of the State of New York. On behalf of the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen; as receiver of the New York Street Railways; as a for- 4 as a member of th Princeton Club and of the University Club; as an
Lieutenant Comman@er Read just started out and said: I am going to get over there,’ and then he went over, not over the top, but over everything. And he has got a harder time before him during the next’ few months than he had in getting across the water. And so all I will say of Lieutenant Commander Read is that he suits me and I know he suits you and I know he suits the American people and I know he suits all other intelligent peoples, and he suits Mrs. Read. And so, in order not to prolong this I will just ask the Lieutenant Commander to hop off and tell us about it.”
Lieutenant Commander Read
Lieutenant Commander A. C. Read: Ladies and Gentlemen—I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the honor of being here tonight, and on top of that, the demonstration. When we were abroad, after we had made the flight, we visited quite a number of
(c) Underwood & Underwood. ; Commander Read and the members of the crew of the NC-4 received a great ovation on their arrival - in London for their great achievement in accomplishing the first trans-Atlantic flight. The photo . shows Commander Read being carried through the streets of London on the shoulders of the crowd.
enrolled member of the Tenth Assembly District Organization, as an annual $10.00 subscriber to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and in various capaci- ties too numerous to mention, I extend to these gen- tlemen a very hearty welcome. We are glad that they are here and we are glad they got back.
I don’t think of anything at the moment that can separate the British nation and the American nation. Certainly there is no ocean broad enough to keep them apart. There is no mountain high enough to screen them from each other. ‘There is no fog dense enough that their mutual purposes cannot penetrate, and, all together, the Hnglish speaking people have come to stay, and to fraternize and to like each other. Now that we can fly through the air or go under the ocean or talk through the air we know each others’ purposes and decent people don’t have to get together so often to understand each others’ ideas.. I can’t think of any organization that could keep them apart; I can’t think of any disturber of general social conditions, and God knows the German nation couldn’t do it. I have been thankful to the kaiser myself, for drawing decent people together. Now and then a non-intelligent mind does something intelli- gently inadvertently. pga’ Pot Sera
Lieutenant Commander Read and I have known edch other for a long time spiritually.’ I’ know’ just how he feels now. He feels as I would feel if I were about to go up in an airplane. different conditions can revise conditions.
It just shows how
places on orders. We were dined and wined. Twelve countries decorated us. Hverywhere we went there were crowds to meet us, including reporters and moy- ing picture machines. We enjoyed it all very much: It was something new in our lives.’ But after all the thing that we really appreciate is what the people do at home ; how they think. For that reason, when we Say we appreciate it now, we mean it as we never meant it before.
; Before coming in here I saw a card which. said, Lieutenant Read would tell the story of his flight.’ I have told it so many times that I thought every- body knew about it; but perhaps they do not know some of the results; obtained by the flight.. In the first place, I’d like to take this opportunity to con- gratulate all those who were responsible for the de- sign and the excellent workmanship in the NC boats.
There is one thing we learned—there were a good many things we learned—one of them that we must have larger boats the next time. ‘Then the Liberty motors. I had never had much experience with ‘them. I neither had faith in them nor lacked faith. But my opinion of them stands very high today. (Ap- plause.) And I venture to say that any of you, if you had gone through @ long flight from Trepassey to the Azores and felt that comfortable feeling that I did on looking back and seeing six cylinders on each side of each motor—that is all there are—spout- ing out a flame with never a miss, I know that you would feel the same way.
' when it is going slowly. ' tion, one of the future developments of importance,
July 12, 1919
In regard to this motor question, we have a lot ahead of us. It has been demonstrated that the geared motor is the thing for seaplanes particularly. For those who don’t know what a geared motor is, I will tell them that it is merely a gearing down so that the propeller revolves at less revolutions than the motor; and that is just the thing we want, as, generally speaking, the motor is most efficient when it is going the fastest, and a propeller is most efficient And in that same connec-
which Mr. Gallaudet has already shown us, is the hitching up of more than one motor to a single
propeller.
Before I leave the subject of Liberty motors I want to extend my very best wishes to Captain Francis, who is going to use them on the transcontinental flight. And although I don’t like to prophesy—avia-
_tion has not advanced far enough so that is safe—
-
'the whole trip. the radio. -I had a particularly good installa-
' officer,
I believe that he will have as good or better chance with the Liberty than with any other. (Applause.)
Results from the Radio
Then there is one of the most interesting parts of That was the result obatined fiom I don’t know whether
tion or whether I had a particularly good radio officer—I think, as a mat- ter of fact, it was a combination of both. Ensign Rodd was the radio but we got results that I know broke a great many records as far as seaplane communication goes. He sent messages over seven hun- dred miles. That doesn’t sound much when you speak of Arlington, but when you speak of NC-4, it sounds pretty big.
He copied a message from the George Washington about to arrive in Brest, he copied it verbatim, a long message, 1175 miles away. He heard Boston 1,000 miles away. He heard other radio stations calling each other over 1,300 miles away. ‘And then there was the radio com- pass. Preliminary results at Rock- away were unsatisfactory as far as I knew. I took out a plane one day and they were unsatisfactory that day. I didn’t have much faith in it. In fact, I almost forgot it was on board, till we left Ponta Delgada, and got in trouble on account of my own. carelessness.
We got off the course between 15 and 20 miles, perhaps 25. The visi- bility was much less than that and we missed our destroyers, and I called on the radio officer to see what he could do about it. I wasn’t sure which side of the line we were on. ‘ He came up with a bearing 20 degrees on the port-bow. I still was a “Doubting Thomas.” I told him to get another one. About ten min- utes later he reported the same de- stroyer 45 degrees on the port-bow. I changed the course and picked up the destroyer.
Later on, from Lisbon to Ply- mouth, it was very thick at times. I only sighted two out of the six de- stroyers, but each time we knew by the radio compass which side of the destroyers we were on.
I am firmly convinced that the fu- ture of trans-atlantic or trans-pa- cific, or Antartic navigation depends on the development of the radio com- pass. The rest of the instruments will be carried.’ There may be times
_ of failure of the radio, but that will
be the principal means of getting across the water.
Since landing on the other side, a great many people have asked questions of many different types and kinds. whether we drank anytRing or not, were we com- fortable, were we nervous, was it a great strain? It would take too long to answer all those questions, but there are one or two that I would like to answer. One of them—Was the trip worth while?
The principal reason for making the trip was to gain information about something we knew very little about, and which, looking into the future, was thought to be of very great importance. We obtained the information that we were after, regarding the struc- ture of the machines, and the operation oversea.
Then there were the more intangible results that cannot be measured, of adding some prestige to the Navy and to the country and to bringing home to the great mass of people the fact that not only that it could be done, but that it had been done.
Another question was asked:
“What were your impressions of the trip?” I never knew how to answer that question. I have told you one impression I had during the night concern- ing the Liberty Motors. Another impression was the very small size of the Atlantic ocean. If one sits down with a pencil and paper and figures the time, the distance, the speed, you can arrive at cer-
They asked how we ate, how we slept, -
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
tain results, but in order to realize it you have to do it. That was brought home to me particularly on the way home when it took ten days to get here. Then I began to think that may be the ocean was pretty big after all.
British Sportsmanship.
One of the perhaps most important impressions of England was the sportsmanship of the British people. We had just captured the prize they had been hoping for. Perhaps here it might not be out of the way to say that Harry Hawker met me at the train, took the best care of me and although the papers have more or less gone after him on account of some remark that he made, this remark was very well explained to me, and I believe the explanation to the effect that he was endeavoring to defend the British Admiralty for not sending boats out. Some paper had criticised them quite severely. They said that the American Navy sent out boats all over the ocean, the British Admiralty did nothing. He was a_ guest at luncheon and he wished to defend the British Admiralty without thinking of the backfire which his words apparently created.
In France I received a good many impressions. One
(C) Press Illustrating Service.
President Laurence La Tourette Driggs of the American Flying Club
of them, probably the chief one, was the great enthu- siasm of the French for all things pertaining to fly- ing. That same enthusiasm was apparent in Wngland. They have a wonderful interest in the game. So when I got back I was rather surprised, in fact mildly astonished, to find an opposite attitude among the people in general in this country. I should not have been; I have lived here long enough, but it takes actual contact with other people to realize just the state of affairs. During the war there was plenty of enthusiasm here. There had to be. It was absolutely necessary that we get into it and get into it strong. But now that the war is over, there seems to be the same old question, the same old thing about the submarines. The first submarine made its plunge over on this side, the first plane flew on this side. There seems to be the attitude: ‘‘ Well, there are great things ahead,” but they want to let aviation take care of itself. Aviation is a thing that won’t take care of itself. If aviation had the whole-hearted cooperation that it had during the war. which of course is impossible in peace times, but if it had that, I believe that within three years we would be send- ing our families across the ocean by air.
While in Paris I had the pleasure of lunching with some of the foremost .designers of aircraft. If I mention some of the things that they said in a prophetic vein I doubt if there are very few here
7
but would say that they are dreaming. Anyone, however, nowadays who says that it is impossible to reach an altitude of 60,000 feet, impossible to go to Europe in the forenoon and return in the afternoon, is very courageous with the courage that the old sail- ors had when they said that iron ships were 1Impos- sible.
I am also a great believer in getting behind civil aviation. ‘They say we need a merchant marine for the Navy. How much more do we ‘need a merchant air force for the military and naval air force. | A shipyard that is built for turning out freight carriers cannot be easily changed to a shipyard for turning out battle ships, but a factory that is built for turn- ing out passenger carrying or mail carrying or Cargo carrying airplanes can immediately turn to and turn out military airplanes ‘of the latest type.
Why is it that the people won’t get behind aviation? As far as I can make out it is ignorance. A great many people still stick to the old idea that flying consists of getting into a small, fast speed scout, and looping the loop and slipping and going through all sorts of stunts. They forget that the real flying game is the useful game, the useful part of it. They don’t realize that there are great machines being
built and greater ones to be built in
the near future that can carry tons of bombs, guns or tons of passengers and freight. ;
So that the best thing, to my mind, that could be done for avia- tion is to start a campaign of edu- cation and when the people realize what there is in it, what there will be in it, they will get behind it as our friends the British have always been behind their Navy and made it what it is, and as they are now getting behind their air force.
Toastmaster Hedges: It is en- tirely logical that a gentleman should be called on now who comes from the other side, a Britisher. Some of us have not forgotten that that is the parent country. Some of us have not forgotten ‘that they bore the original brunt in this war. Some of us have not forgotten, and I hope never will, no matter how much we aided, that there was a
_ Flanders line before we got over. We aided, and I think I am not arrogating to myself an individual opinion when I say to the next gentleman, speaking on behalf of the American people, and address- ing ourselves to the British people, that we owe them much, “ within these walls of flesh there sits a soul, counts them her creditor, and with advantage intends to pay that love.” General Charlton, the British Air Attache. :
General Charlton
Brigadier General L. H. O. Charl- ton: Mr. Toastmaster and_ gentle- men: It is no good my telling you that this takes me by surprise. You wouldn’t believe me. Those of us who have read assiduously the news- paper reports since the triumphant arrival of the NC crews at Ply- mouth, will realize that they have been feasted again, and I feel that I would not be out of place if I first of all offer congratulations to them on the robust appearance they present tonight, and their iron con- stitution.
To strike a new and original note on an occasion such as this, it were necessary to soar into the Empy- rean, as they did, and I confess that oratorically speaking, it is a feat I am unable to accomplish. Nevertheless, honest and sincere congratulations, a theme that can never be outworn or threadbare, especially on an occasion of this kind, when the guests of honor tonight are those who have brought to a triumphant issue, a rare combination of organization, skill, science, and pluck —on behalf, then, of my fellow countrymen in the United States, be they officials or be they in a private capacity, I do offer my most heartfelt and sincere congratulations on this defeat of the Atlantic— a defeat which carries with it a sense of poetic retribution, poetic because it is right that the triumph should fall to America, who has _ con- ceived the science of flight and brought it forth; poetic because the voyage of Columbus, as he sailed from shore to shore, has been reversed in this case, and the joke is on him. Ever since man lived in a cave and chased mammoths for the sake of the mar- row in their bones, he has waged an unceasing conflict with the elements of the earth—air, fire and water. >
The gallant crews of the NC boats have taken not a step, but a complete stride toward the subjugation of the air. I only wish to add that it is a significant fact to which in my opinion sufficient attention has not been drawn, that in all the five attempts hitherto made, successfully, partially successful, and yet a failure, no loss of life has accrued. And I feel that (Continued on page 9)
L. D. GARDNER. . .President and Editor
Wie 1D MOU G5 5 6 6 6 Vice-President Wits SHAMAN ee icsn js eter Treasurer
H. M. WILLIAMS. . . . General Manager
Lessons of the R-34s Flight HE 108-hour non-stop flight of the British airship R-34 from Scotland to Long Island is a pioneer performance whose value for the future of aeronautics it is difficult to overesti- mate.
The total distance covered from Hast Fortune air station to Roosevelt Field is, according to the official log given out by General Maitland, 3,130 sea miles, or 3,588 land miles. This is in itself a record for aircraft of any kind—one which has been surpassed but once; but the performance ccquires a much greater significance when it is realized under what corditions the flight was accomplished.
After a brief period of favorable winds, storms and electric dis- turbances were encountered, which the most careful weather forecast could not always dodge, so that the R-34 had to ride out some storms of extreme intensity. That these atmospheric conditions put the ves- sel under very severe strains is obvious, and the fact that she suc- ceeded in completing her journey without suffering any damage is therefore a high testimonial to the soundness of British rigid airship design as well as to the professional skill and devotion to duty of the Royal Air Force.
With respect to the latter it may be said that while on a rigid
of this size a tolerable amount of comfort is provided for the officers and crew, the nerve strain involved in such a flight across uncharted skies is of the very highest order, the more so as in this case it .extended over four days. Therefore every man of the complement, from Commander Scott down the hierarchic ladder, deserves the most sincere congratulations for the great feat each contributed to achieve in the portion allotted to him—even the stowaway, who had to ** work his way across.’’
The lessons of this epoch-making flight, which constitutes at the same time the first transatlantic flight by lighter-than-air craft and the first aerial crossing from Hast to West are manifold.
Foremost perhaps the voyage of the R-34 spells the doom of America’s splendid geographical isolation. The sea barrier of the Atlantic is no longer inviolable since an aircraft carrying thirty men succeeded in reaching these shores from Europe. What today seems but an experimental flight achieved in the face of great difficulties will in a brief time seem quite a common occurrence, that is, when regular airship mail and passenger services will be established across the Atlantic.
The warning is obvious. It is high time that the United States took a hand in the development ef lighter-than-air craft of great size, and particularly of large rigid airships, we are so woefully in want of, and which in the war have proven such incomparable fleet scouts. If we do not now make good our backwardness in lighter-than-air equipment, the United States may in a future emergeney find herself in the same deplorable situation as to up-to-date aircraft as in the spring of 1917, when the Nation’s air force had to be built up from the turnbuckle with the assistance of foreign advisers and to foreign designs.
Another important lesson that may be gathered from the trans- atlantic voyage of the R-34 is that lighter-than-air craft have now reached a size where their cruising range is on the whole sufficient
to cross the Atlantic against headwinds such as aircraft will gen- |
erally encounter when flying westward. To be sure, much larger _ airships will be required for operating a regular passenger, or even mail, service across the Atlantic, but the fact that the feat has suc-
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
Formerly Air Service Journal
“aviation as its guide.
G. H. DICKINSON. ... .Managing Editor ALEXANDER KLEMIN. Aeronautic Editor LADISLAS D’ORCY. . . Aerostatic Editor GEORGE NEWBOLD. . Business Manager PETER VISCHER. . Advertising Manager
cessfully been accomplished proves that lighter-than-air craft have reached a point in their progression towards greater perfection which will soon make them eminently desirable as carriers of aerial trans- port over great stretches of water. :
In this branch of human activity the United States should no more remain in an inferior position than in the matter of supplying. the Navy with fast airship scouts of long range. The comparatively small difference between war airships and merchant airships makes it possible to quickly fit out the latter for war purposes, just as Germany did in 1914 with her Zeppelin liners. It follows that an American merchant airship fleet would afford the Navy an excellent reservoir in which to pick fleet scouts in case of war, not to speak of the additional number of trained pilots and crews that would thus become available for naval service. :
These patriotic considerations as well as pride to see a portion of the world’s coming air borne traffic carried under the American flag should make a sufficiently strong appeal to Americans to com- mence the development of large rigid airships; but this is unfor- tunately well-nigh impossible without government assistance of some sort because of the very high initial cost of experimental work and the establishment of suitable airship stations. Congress would do well to seriously consider this problem and to promptly devise means for overcoming our great deficiency.
Responsibility of Congress ONGRESS in appropriating $25,000,000 for each of the two C Air Services again puts on the Senate and House the respon- sibility for any failure of aerial defence of this country should we have trouble before adequate provision can be made for aircraft and flying personnel.
The aircraft industry which has done so much creditable work in demonstrating that the United States is not behind other countries in design and construction of airplanes is dealt a staggering blow. Instead of receiving encouragement to achieve further triumphs, no- tice is served on the manufacturers of aerial material to mark time in development work, construct a few airplanes and await further action by Congress when the future of the Army and Navy is to be considered. ;
To those who can penetrate the mental processes of our repre- sentatives in Congress, comes the impression that both the House and Senate are not satisfied to entrust large appropriations to® branches of the Army and Navy. The duplication that was apparent in the military and naval appropriation requests may have had much to do with the feeling that the Air Service should be a separate and independent force. If some such result should come from the present unfortunate situation, some excuse can be offered, but if a year goes by without further aviation legislation, the United States will take rank as the sixth or seventh nation in aeronautics.
Japan and *Aviation
APAN has commenced to develop an Air Service on a scale J worthy of its Army and Navy. At present one hundred French officers who have had experience at the front, in shops and technically trained are instructing Japanese officers and soldiers and sailors in aeronautics. Japan evidently intends to use French If it does, a great advance may be expected
from the Orient. . :
July 12, 1919
American Flying Club ¥ Dinner to NC Heroes
(Continued from page 7)
the bald results of that, and of the flights to take place in the near future will hasten the heralding of the dawn of that morrow on which we will see avia- tion as a successful commercial proposition.
Captain Craven, U. S. N.
Captain T. T. Craven: Mr. Toastmaster, Mr. Presi- dent, ladies and gentlemen: The introduction of our worthy toastmaster recalls to my mind a saying of one of our British friends, the Hon. Joseph Chamber- lain, who stated that upon one occasion when called upon to address a brilliant assemblage, the toastmas- ter opened or began his remarks by stating that it was time to cease enjoying themselves and to listen to Mr. Chamberlain. I don’t know whether our toast- master meant the same in this instance or not. It is very hard for me to say anything original here or to do more than to repeat what has already been suid. We are. glad to be here this evening to congratulate the gallant officers of the service to which I belong. As has been hinted, one is prone to compare their feat with that of our gallant British cousins who success- fully made the jump across in one flight, but as Com- mander Reed has pointed out, I think that their act does not suffer by comparison. The deed which they accomplished was conceived during the war time. It was intended as a war feat. It was carefully studied and preparation was carefully made with the idea that it might become necessary as a war measure. No reasonable precaution was overlooked, and as he has pointed out, we think that the effort and the expense and the time given over to this experiment were all well worth while.
He has mentioned the wonderful work of his radio compass. We also must think of the communication system which was developed and used for this pas- sage. We must think of the meteorological work which it was necessary to carry on. We received information of all these things.
Our spokesman or chairman has mentioned fog. I tonight congratulate Commander Reed and his asso- ciates in returning to old New York finding that alco- holie fog dissipated, I mean done away with here, and he is able now to find a purer form of enjoyment which is not marred by a headache or anything of that nature. ;
As I say, there is nothing that I can think of which we can add to what has already been uttered in praise of the efforts of Reed and his companions. They have written their names indelibly on the scroll of fame, where they will always remain. There is nothing more to be said in their behalf.
Lieutenant Commander Bellinger
Lt. Commander P. N. T. Bellinger: I want to spe- cially remark on the very wonderful aerial demonstra- tion which was made on our arrival in very disagree- able weather, but on a very joyous occasion for us, and I want to express my appreciation of what has been tendered to us this evening. I thank you.
Toastmaster Hedges: Now, I don’t know Comman- der Towers except tonight. We are intimate friends from now on. You men are just acquaintances. We are friends. And J am strong for him. He had the responsibility; he had the directing force; to him would have been charged failure if none of them had gotten over there, and therefore the fact that one of them did get over there in no wise diminishes the credit of the commanding officer. (Applause.)
I present him to you and I know you will like him. Of course, you respect him, but there is a heap Oe difference between liking péople and respecting them.
Commander John H. Towers
Commander Towers: I féel very much honored at being invited to speak here, but I must confess that the Toastmaster is wrong in saying among those present are only acquaintances. I happen to know that I have a great many friends here. They all know me so well that they know I cannot speak, that I am merely going to talk.
I should like to first take this opportunity of thanking those friends, and the many million other friends that I have since discovered, for worrying about the NC-3 while we were down in the fog. If those friends had known the crew of the NCG-3 as well as 1 did, they wouldn’t have worried. A great deal has been made of all of us since that flight, and the limelight has been rather centered upon Lieutenant Commander Read, Lieutenant Comman- der Bellinger, and myself, but I am sure that both of these officers will join me in saying that we were only one each of a crew of six and we only did one job, and there were five other people in each of those planes, a great many of whom are sitting around a little table here very modestly, who had just as much, if not more, to do with this flight as we did. (Applause. )
I should like to take this occasion to point out the purposes of the flight. As you all know, it was a project approved by the Navy Department, and the principal purpose behind the whole thing, as far as the Navy Department was concerned, was to work out by means of this flight many problems that
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
were only about half understood. They intended from the very beginning to make it a go. The reason it was a go was because it was whole departmental proposition. It was by no means a one man job or three, or eighteen—the number of the crew. It was entirely due to the fact that the Navy Depart- ment was behind this project from beginning to end that it was a success, and no one appreciates that as much as we who came in contact with the various ships, supply ships, destroyers, etc., which were all on their stations with the proper material, proper signals, and at the proper time.
It sounds very simple, but it wasn’t simple at all. The names of the officers who were responsible for working out that project will probably never really sericusly be connected with the flight. Their work was all drudgery, and they deserve just as much credit as any of the officers who took part in it. We have present at the Speakers’ table here this evening quite a number of them All those present who are connected with aviation know them, there is no need of introducing them. There are certain others who are not present, and I should like to enumerate those officers, but I realize that it is impossible to do so. Certainly, when I finish my report, if I ever do finish it, their names will go down, and the Navy Department at least will have a record of who accomplished the Trans-Atlantic flight.
Selection of the Route
A great many people have asked me about the selections of the route. I am afraid I must assume responsibility for the selection of the route. The prin- cipal question was: ** Why go to England? When you fly to Lisbon, you cross the Atlantic, why not quit?” Well, I don’t know really why I laid down the route that way. It just sort of seemed the natural thing to do, to end up the flight in England. And I should like to say, to General Charlton this evening that had we known what we were going to get when we got to England, in the way of a reception, we never would have gone there, because he shortened our lives about ten years, he and his compatriots.
I am going to take exception to another remark that was made this evening by Lieutenant Commander Read, and that is in regard to the size of the Atlantic Ocean. It all depends, like a great many other things, on the point of view. Lieutenant Commander Read looked at the, ocean from the point of view of-a bird, Lieutenant Commander Bellinger and I had had the doubtful pleasure of looking at it from the point of view of a fish. It makes an awful lot of difference.
‘There is one man present here tonight who I am going to single out. Hverybody in the Navy con- nected with aviation wanted to go on this flight. There were certain crews selected, and I think I can say that I had a large hand, or took a large part in the selection of the crews, and I endeavored to select the best officers and men in naval aviation that could possibly be had. There has frequently been made to me the remark that “I would give an arm to go on that Trans-Atlantic flight.” There is present, tonight one man who was selected, and in line of duty, the night before we left from Rockaway, did give an arm—Chief Special Machinist Howard.
I am going to insert in here one further little re- mark about the purpose of this flight, and this is con- fidential, absolutely. There were two purposes. I have named the first one—that was the Navy De- partment’s purpose. Thete was another one, and that was to prove to the Navy Department, on the part of the Naval Aviation, that seaplanes had come, and that they had come to stay; and it remained to Lieutenant Commander Read to prove it. And the people who are the biggest backers of aviation in the Navy today are the very officers who*’were out on those destroyers, in that fog and storm that we ran into, who didn’t see because they couldn’t see, but who received radio messages from the NO-4 that she was on her way, because she went through weather that absolutely did stall those destroyers. And when we finally reached Lisbon I ‘had several destroyer captains come around me to really seriously discuss the question of fitting wings on their destroyers. We told them that that,was the next move.
Lack of Vision
As regards the future of aviation , which subject Lieutenant Commander Read has discussed, I am afraid I have been in it too long to do it myself before So many people, because I have found that you have got to change your mind about once every three months in aviation. It is usually because you don’t see big enough. I can candidly say that I have no
idea as to the future of naval aviation, and I can °
only quote the remark made to me by a Rear Ad- miral of the Navy, whom I happen to know two years ago was dead against another blank battleship, because what was the use of building them if all you had to do was to send a seaplane out to sink ’em? And I think that the time is coming and coming very soon when the Navy Department is perhaps not going to that limit. As a conservative officer, I hope they won’t, but when are they. going to realize that they eve in aircraft the primary medium of naval war- are?
Senator New of Indiana
Senator Harry S. New: I-shall follow the injunc- tion that was placed upon me by a certain gentleman a few minutes ago and shall make no reference to him, but some of the remarks that have been made thus far
9
this evening by a certain individual brought the sus- picion on my part that one thing that he had won- dered at this evening is, if these very gallant gentle- men saw more water on their transatlantic trip than we have this evening, or if it was more difficult to conduct a flight by airplane over than it is to conduct an oratorical flight over the same fluid.
When I was invited to come this evening, I did so, I respond with pleasure as an American and as a senator of the United States to extend my congratu- lations to and to express my pride and that of all Americans in an accomplishment of our honored guests of this evening.
From the earliest days the American Navy has Ree flected the greatest credit and glory upon the fair name of the United States.
Tonight the shades of John Paul Jones and Barry and Decatur and Farragut and Sampson and Schley and Porter and Dewey smile down upon these their successors as all America doffs its hat to them and extends its congratulations and good will.
And then I was glad also to come, because I believe that I am a friend of aviation.
I have unlimited faith in its future, but why speak of its future when its present is so happily before us? When we have already accomplished such great things? In view of what has been done by these gallant gentlemen, in view of what has been done by our gallant compatriots, our British cousins, the future opens up a field that is almost beyond vision.
I don’t think anything that was said by Comman- der Towers about the possible development of aviation was too extravagant. I see things as he sees them, myself. As to what the future may be, I believe that the next war—and I am one of those who doubt seriously if our boasted League of Nations is going to be sufficient in stopping another war—lI believe that there will be other wars in the days to come, and I believe that in them these twin agencies of the air, the airplane, the airship and chemical warfare, are going to be the chief agencies in waging it and bringing it to a close.
Holds the World’s Attention
Aviation is certainly a great subject and one that holds the attention of the world today as perhaps no other does. America is the birthplace of aviation. The first lighter-than-air plane, the first dirigible was launched in the United States. It is just one year less than a century since Rufus Porter, as is shown by the records in the Patent Office at Washington, launched the first model of a lighter-than-air plane, of a dirigible. That is, he made his model, put in it a little steam engine because that was before the days of gas engines, and actually gave a demonstration with his model, but when it came to the building of a ship, he had to stop because he couldn’t get the meagre amount of money in those days, amounting to what wound today seem a paltry sum, but he couldn’t get it for the purpose of building that ship, and the project lapsed and was not again, undertaken for a_ great many years, and then not in the United States:
As to the progress of aviation we are apt to. think that it has been slow, and so it has, in a way, and yet all things considered it has been more rapid than the development of navigation by steam. The future of aeronautics is going to be as great and the develop- ment greater than has been the development of steam ocean going craft. It is not very long ago, not more than ninety days since one of the foremost railroad presidents of the United States, living here in New York, said to me that he believed the day was here when the railroads had to take into account a lessen- ing of their receipts, because of the competition that was going to be offered by aircraft in the carrying of mail, of parcel post, and light freights, express and things of that kind. 3
I don’t know to what extent and degree the compe- tition that is to be given to the railroad by airplane now is going to match the experience of the trolleys and the automobile. Perhaps it may not go that far. I doubt if it does, but that it is going to be something substantial I have no particle of doubt.
I congratulate the Navy upon having received at the hands of Congress a few days ago, a sum not as great as they should have had, not as great as I would have been glad to give them, nor as great as that for which they asked, but a sum that is much more commensurate with their needs than that which was given to the Army by my confreres. I can only say that I stayed with that Committee all day and all night for a week, trying to get them to bring up the amount that they gaye the Army, and that it was reduced to what I regard as an altogether inadequate sum, is due to no fault or no lack of interest on my part.
I wish I knew the names of all who were interested in this great accomplishment. I do know of some who have not been mentioneed. I know of Admiral Taylor, whose perseverance and whose interest contributed greatly to the success of that effort. I know of Com- mander Hunsaker, whose skill and whose industry were a great aid, without which the success could not have been attained. :
One final word. Recognizing as I do the great value, the great potency, the almost unlimited power of aeronautics as a military arm—I am thinking of it, too, not only with reference to that, but in its com- mercial aspect, because I believe it has 2 great com-
(Continued on page 12)
eae
Paying Homage to the Nav
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oneer Trans-Atlantic Fliers
Copyright by Helm, Official Photographer, American Flying Club.
Held at Hotel Commodore, New York City, Wednesday Evening, July 2, 1919
12
American Flying Club - Dinner to NC Heroes
(Continued from page 9)
mercial future, and to that end I believe that it should be made the business of somebody -in this country to see that its interests are not lost to the United States.
We are the fathers over here of those two great instruments, the airship and the airplane. I don’t want to see it left upon the doorstep a foundling, upon the doorstep of some foreign nation. I want the United States to see to that, to look after its own and to see that America gets what it ought to have and what is properly ours, out of the things which we have ourselves designed and created. It is a fact well known to some of you, most of you here, I think, that today England—and I take off my hat to Hng- land for her enterprise, England, France, Italy, they have agents in the South American countries, today, distributing airplanes, gratis in some instances, in order to awaken the interest of those people in com- mercial aeronautics, in order that they may get for their country the benefit of the trade in countries that know not yet of aeronautics and of airplanes. It should be the business of somebody to look after the interests of the United States in that respect, and as I said before, to that end, I am in favor of the
creation of a separate and distinct Department of * Aeronautics in this country.
Alcock and Brown Congratulated
Major Connolly: (Applause.) Mr. Chariman, through you, some of the membership desire to express this resolution, which in a way very crudely, extem- poraneously, and imperfectly drafted, I think, typifies the breadth and the generosity of American sports- manship, and American appreciation of great and worthy deeds.
ReESOLvED, That the American Flying Club at the dinner given by the club to commemorate the suc- cessful accomplishment of Lieutenant Commander Read and the crew of the NC-4, of the first Trans- Atlantic voyage by air, in conjunction therewith ex- tend to the Royal Air Force and the British Air Service organizations generally our congratulations and felicitations on the extraordinary accomplishment of Lieutenants Alcock and Brown, respectively, in their successful and epochal trans-oceanic flight, and also the courageous and sportsmanlike effort of Harry Hawker and Lieutenant Commander Grieve. We await with hopeful and hospitable anticipation the arrival of the R-34, and its gallant crew.
Mr. Chairman, I desire the adoption of this reso- lution. :
President Driggs: Gentlemen, upon the exhibition of your approval the chair will have this message sent to the Royal Flying Corps Club of England by its own wireless which is on the roof of the Club house. It is a great pleasure to the Club to announce that a
prize has been offered for an international contest to be held for the third week in August between Toronto, Canada, and New York City. At that time, an ex- position will be held in Toronto, and the race will start from both ends. The Club has appointed a Contest Committee, comprising some of the most dis- tinguished aviators and sportsmen in the United States. We hope that this will be the first of many such contests offered. It has been arranged that the Prince of Wales will be present at this exposition in Toronto at that time, and that he shall start the race. A prize of $5,000 has been offered by John E. McBowman. (Applause. )
Following is a list of officers of the American Fly- ing Club, Inc., No. 11, East Thirty-eighth Street:
President, Laurence La Tourette Driggs.
Vice-Presidents, Major General Leonard Wood, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, Cortlandt Field Bishop, FE. G. Diffin.
Seoretary, Major Maurice Connolly. .
Treasurer, Lieutenant M. Leslie Hull.
Honorary President, Major General Menoher.
Honorary Vice-President, Honorable Franklin K. Lane.
Honorary Life Member, Brigadier General William Mitchell.
Honorary Member, Colonel Thomas D. Milling.
Board of Directors, Major Charles Biddle, Anda- lushia, Pa.; Lieutenant Paul Baer, New York City; Cortlandt Field Bishop, New York City; Lieutenant- Col. Hiram Bingham, New Haven, Conn.; Samuel S. Bradley, New York City; Gutzon Borglum, New York City; Lester Barlow, New Haven, Conn., now at Clear Lake, Iowa; Commander H. W. Coyle, U. S. N., Washington, D. C.; Colonel Milton P. Davis, Washington, D. C.; Lieutenant F. Trubee Davison, Locust Valley, L. I.; Frank H. Diffin, New York City; Captain Roy N. Francis, Washington, D. C.; Colonel Robert Glendenning, Philadelphia, Pa.; Harry Payne Whitney, New York City; Captain James Nor- man Hall, Colfax, Iowa; Major Clifford B. Harmon, New York City; Lt.-Col. Harold H. Hartney, Wash- ington, D. C.; Lt. M. Leslie Hull, New York City; Capt. Mare Lagen, B. S., New York City; Charles ff. Manly, Buffalo, N. Y.; Lt. Percy Pyne, Jr., New York City; Commander Scofield, U. S. N., New York City ; Capt. Hlliott Springs, S. C., or New York City ; Lt. Col. William Thaw, Pittsburgh, Pa.; Chance Vought, New York City; Major C. H. Wadsworth, New York City; Lt. Waldo Walker, New York City.
Among the diners were:
Chance Vought, Major Fred Blakeman, Comman-
Charles T.
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
der EF. G. Coburn, John J. Rooney, Colonel V. B. Clark, W. Cullen Morris, Frank Vernon, Col. Lester M. Horner, Col. W. Lucas, Andrew L. Riker, Lt. L. T. Barin, Lt. Harry Sadenwater, Chief Machinist Mate C. S. Kessler, Hngineer R. Christansen, Lt. David McCullough, Lt. R. A. Lavender, Machinist L. A. Moore, Lt. H. F. Stone, Lt. Walter Hinton, Lt. J. P. Breese, Jr., Hnsign H. C. Rudd, Machinist H. S. Rhoades, E. H. Howard, Commander A. K. Atkins, Lt. Comdr. S. M. Kraus, Capt. N. B. Hall, Lt. G. M. Brush, W. A. Hdmundson, Lt. R. S. Went- worth, Lt. G. H. Murray, Hnsign G. J. McCarthy, Luther K. Bell, Lt. C. A. Tinker, Col. H. M. Hick- man, Lt. Kenneth Leggett, Albert Shaw, Sidney R. Cook, David Becroft, John D. Ryan, Elmer A. Sper- ry, H. B. Mingle, Benj. L. Williams, William B. Saunders, Wm. ©. Potter, Albert H. Flint, Charles L. Laurence, Roger Pero, William Rockefeller, Jr., Capt. Jacques Swaf, Iit.. Sam Pierce, F. H. Diffin, Roy Conger, Major G. R. Wadsworth, Arthur Johns, Frank H. Russell, Leeds Johnson, Curtiss Gardner, C. T. Fairfield, William F. Bleakley, Lawrence Don- ahue, Lester D. Gardner, Alexander Klemin, Geo. ze Newbold, Spencer Heath, Frank Stanton, Albin Mc- Cauley, Edson Gallaudet, Glenn L. Martin, George
UBSTANTIAL and remarkable are the
achievements of Goodyear balloon men.
Since nine years ago they have built a total
of more than eight hundred balloons
July 12, 1919
Bell, Capt. Fred B. Renschler, John R. Rodgers, J. R. Cautley, Henry R. Sutphin, Frank L. Morse, C. W. Mix, J. B. Taylor, Jr., Harry E. Tudor, Charles H. Towne, B. J. Greenhut, Robert W. Chambers, Charles L. Lawrence, Robert Grier Cook, Capt. David H. Webster, F. G. Hrickson, Comdr. Kirby Smith, Lt. Comdr. R. HE. Byrd, Jr., A. L. Hausteter, Lt. B. C. Parsons, Raymond Orteig, Capt. Chandlier Smith, Lt. Thos. McConchie, Donald Grey, Captain Eypper, C. H. Danforth, Capt. EB. A. Clune, Judge W. Benton Crisp, Lt. Col. J. F. Stover, Major V. Page, Freder- ick Garguila, Alexander Pomilio, Grover C. Loening, Major Albert Loening, Russell Vought, Lt. James A. Taylor, George H. Townsend, Lit. John M. Ruther- ford, Walter Fairchild, Ensign Gilder, Israel Ludlow, C. I. Michie, Harry Bijur, C. J. Lake, Herman Metz, G. Douglas Wardrop, Stuart Hartshorn, Major Hd- ward J. McShane and Lt. George N. Gregory.
General Foulois Returns Among the passengers brought back on the Lev- iathan was Brig. Gen. Benjamin D. Foulois of the Army Air Service who returned from twenty months’ service in France.
of all
types, including spherical, kite and dirigible.
In gas capacity, these “ships of the air’’ in- clude even those enormous bags that con-
tain up to one hundred and seventy sand cubic feet.
thou-
During the world war, more than one half of all the balloons purchased by the govern-
ment were Goodyears.
passengers—without a single fatality.
balloon designers of unquestioned petence.
Weare prepared to submit plans and
Goodyear balloons have traveled more than two hundred thousand miles during the last two years, while carrying thirty-six thousand
Due then to these achievements, it is only natural that Goodyear men have become
com-
speci-
fications for any type of balloon desired— from the smaller sizes to the huge Ocean
liners.
Balloons of Any Size and Every Type Everything in Rubber for the Airplane
GOOD)
YEAR
RON
‘July 12, 1919
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
(C. Keystone View Co.) The R-34, Built by Beardmore, Lands in the United States.
The first lighter-than-air craft to cross the Atlantic
The first aircraft to cross the Atlantic from Europe to America
Total distance covered from East Fortune Air Station to Roosevelt Field, 3,130 sea miles.
Total duration of flight 108 hours and 12 minutes.
Hull and cars manufactured and assembled by Beardmore
In conquering the Atlantic Ocean, the R-34 has inaugurated the era of safe and dependable trans-oceanic air transportation.
Inquiries from American interests will be given careful attention.
LA THE BEARDMORE AERO ENGINE, LTD. tS 112 Great Portland Street, London, W. 1.
5%;
ANI |
Seu
13
14
Arrival of R-34 (Continued from page 5)
Sleeping Arrangements
The sleeping arrangements consist of a hammock for each of the men off watch suspended from the main ridge girder of the triangular internal keel which runs from end to end of the ship. In this keel are situated the eighty-one petrol tanks, each of sey- enty-one gallons capacity; also the living quarters for officers and men and storing arrangements for lubri- cating oils for the engines, water ballast, food and drinking water for the crew. ‘The latter is quite a considerable item, as will be seen from the following table of weights:
Gals. Lbs. Tons.
IMEROL 4 oo boob o10.G0 000 4,900 35.300 15.8
Ue ics Ae) ae peers — 2,070 9 ANYVEN Ie) iD en ses cy Reon AER a — 3 Crew and baggage...... — — 4
Sloreshieaerin Gees cor — 550 oP}
Drinking water ....... — 800 42
ARG alee ie at etre ee ee, — — 24.32
life in the keel of a large, rigid airship is by ho means unpleasant. ‘There is very little noise or vibration except when one is directly over the power units—a total absence of wind and, except in the early hours of dawn, greater warmth than in the surrounding atmosphere.
Getting into one’s hammock is rather an acro- batic feat, especially if it is slung high; but this becomes easy with practice—preventing one’s self from falling out is a thing one must be careful about in a service airship like the R-34.
There is only a thin outer cover of fabric on the underside of the keel on each side of the walking way, and the luckless individual who tips out of his hammock would in all probability break right through this and soon find himself in the Atlantic.
It is surprising the amount of exercise one can get on board an airship of this size. The keel is about 600 feet long and one is constantly running about from one end to the other. There are also steps in a vertical ladder to the top of the ship for those who feel energetic or have duty up there. By the time it comes one’s turn to go to bed one generally finds one is very sleepy and the warmth
of one’s sleeping bag and hum of the engines soon
send one to sleep.
Remarkable Rainbow Effects
Sy eily 12) hs 8
Sea now visible at intervals through the clouds— a deep blue in color, with a big swell on. Our shadow on the water helps us to measure our drift angle, which both Scott and Cooke worked out to be 21 degrees. Running on the forward and two aft engines, resting the two wing engines. Speed, making good forty-nine miles per hour.
Durrant, the wireless officer, reports he has been speaking to St. John’s, N. F.—rather faint but quite clear signals. As we are still in touch with Hast Fortune and Clifden and have been exchanging sig- nals with the Azores since reaching the Irish coast, our communications seem to be quite satisfactory.
Remarkable rainbow effects on the clouds: one complete rainbow encireled the airship itself and the other—a smaller one—encircled the shadow. Both are very vivid in their coloring.
3:40 P. M.:
xcellent tea consisting of bread and butter and greengage jam, also two cups of scalding hot tea which had been boiled over the exhaust pipe cooker fitted to the forward engine.
Fruitarian cake was also tried for the first time— rather sickly to taste, but very nourishing. 'The whole assisted by Miss Lee White on the grama- phone. We would one and all give anything for a smoke. Greenland, the first officer of the ship, is vainly trying to discover the culprit who used his toothbrush for stirring the mustard at lunch.
-Model 5A-414—H.P. 210
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
4:30 P. M.:
Still in fog and low clouds and no sea visible. We have hardly seen any sign of the Atlantic since leaving the Irish coast and we are beginning to
wonder if we shall see it at all the whole way‘ across. ; ; Talks with a Steamer @ Je, IMGs
Tramp steamer SS. Ballygally Head, outward bound from Belfast, destination Montreal, picked up our wireless on their Marconi spark set which has a range of thirty miles only. She heard us, but didn’t see us, as we were well above and completely hidden by the clouds. She gave her position as latitude 54 degrees 30 minutes north, longitude 18 degrees 20 minutes west, and reported as follows:
Steering south southwest true, wind north, barom- eter 380.10, overeast, clouds low.
SUFFREN, Master.
They were very surprised and most interested to hear we were R-34, bound for New York, and wished us every possible luck.
Moa) 125 IM 8
Messages were received from both H. M. S. battle eruisers Tiger and Renown, which had been pre- viously sent by the Admiralty out into the Atlantic to assist us with weather reports and general obser- yation. ‘They reported respectively as follows:
i. M. 8S. Tiger—‘‘ Position 86 degrees 50 minutes north, 36 degrees, 50 minutes west, 1,027 millibars, falling slowly, thick fog.”
Tals WL, Renown—‘ Position 60 degrees north, 25 degrees west, 1,027 millibars, falling slowly, cloudy, visibility four miles.”
Harris’s deductions from these reports were to the effect that there was no steep gradient and that therefore there was no likelihood of any strong wind in that part of the Atlantic.
Well Over the Clouds
@ IB, ING 3
Scott increases height to 2,000 feet, and at this
height we find ourselves well over the clouds and with a bright blue sky above us. The view is an enchanting one—as far as one can see a vast ocean of white fleecy clouds ending in the most perfect cloud horizon. - Two particularly fine specimens of windy, cirrus clouds of which Pritchard promptly obtained photo- graphs appear on our port beam, also some “ cirrus ventosus ” clouds—little curly clouds like a black- cock’s tail feathers—all of which Harris interprets as a first indication and infallible sign of a de- pression coming up from the south.
We hope that. this depression when it comes may help us provided we have crossed its path before it reachas us. If we can do this we may be helped along by the easterly wind on the northwesterly side of the depression. i,
Tt is interesting to note that as yet we have re- ceived no notice of this depression coming up from
-the south in any weather reports.
6:40 BP. M.
Put back clock one-half an hour to correct Green- wich mean time. Time now 6:10 P. M. Position— Latitude 53 degrees 50 minutes north; longitude 20 degrees west. 4 .
We have covered 610 sea miles measured in a direct line in seventeen hours at an average speed of 86 knots, or forty miles, per hour. Depth of Atlantic at this point, 1,500 fathoms. At this rate, if all goes well and if that depression from the south doesn’t interfere, we should see St. John’s— if visible and not covered in fog, as it usually is— about midnight tomorrow, July 3
Forecast Confirmed
Conditions unchanged in British Isles. Anti- cyclone persistent in Hastern Atlantic—a new de- pression entering Atlantic from south.
This confirms Tlarris’s forecast and is an ad- mirable proof of the value of cloud forecasting.
(ie) Bas 2 WEE
The clouds have risen to our height and we are new driving away to them with no signs of the sky
July 12, 1919
above or the sea underneath: Scott reckons the wind is northeast by east and helping us slightly. Airship now very heavy, owing to change in tem- perature and 12 degrees down by the stern. Run- ning on all five engines at 1,600 revolutions; height 3,000. feet.
S12, Mb 8
We are just on top of the clouds, alternately in the sun and then plunging through thick banks of clouds. The sun is very low down on the western horizon and we are steering straight for it, making Pritchard at the elevators curse himself for not having brought tinted glasses. Ship now on an even keel.
Seo Omens Ver
Scott decided to go down underneath the clouds and increases speed on all engines to 1,800 revolu- tions to do so. Dark, cold and wet in the clouds, and we shut all windows.
We see the sea at 1,500 feet between patches of cloud. Rather bumpy.
We now find ourselves between two layers of clouds, the top layer 1,000 feet above us and the lower layer 500 feet below, with occasional glimpses of sea.
@) des WL, 8
‘The sun is now setting and gradually disappears below the lower cloud horizon, throwing a wonder- ful pink glow on the white clouds in every direc- tion. Course steered 320 degrees. Course made good 299 degrees. Air speed 44 knots, speed made good 55 miies per hour.
All through this first night in the Atlantic the ordinary airship routine of navigating, steering and elevating, also maintaining the engines in smooth- running order, goes, watch and-watch, as in the daytime.
The night is very dark. The airship, however, is lighted throughout, a much enlarged lighting system having been fitted. All instruments can be individ- ually illuminated as required, and in case of failure at the lighting system all figures and indicators are radiumized.
The radium paint used is so luminous that in most case the lighting installation is unnecessary.
The Second Day
8:20 A. M., Thursday, July &:
The clock has been put back another hour to correct our time to Greenwich mean time. Position— longitude 35 degrees, 60 minutes west, latitude 53 degrees north.
Cooke got position by observation on sun and a good cloud horizon and considers it accurate to within thirty and forty miles.
Our position is over the westbound steamship route from Cape Race to the Clyde and momentarily crossing the eastbound route from Belle Isle to Plymouth.
We are well over half way between Ireland and Newfoundland and are back again on the great circle route, having been slightly to the south of it, owing to the drift effect of a northerly wind.
Good weather report from St. John’s.
12 e4l IP WE?
Durrant is speaking S. S. Canada on our spark wireless set so there may be a chance of our saeing her shortly as the sea is temporarily visible. The second wireless operator obtains his direction on our directional wireless so that we may know in what direction to look for her. All we know at the © moment is that she is somewhere within 120 mites.
Capt. David, in command, wishes us a safe voyage. We gaze through our glasses in her direction, but she is just over the horizon.
2 JP, Ml, 3 ba a ghe q
Slight trouble with starboard amidships engine; cracked cylinder water jacket. Shotter, always equal to the occasion, made a quick and safe repair with a piece of copper sheeting, and the entire supply of the ship’s chewing gum had to be chewed by himself and two engineers before being applied.
4:30 P. M.:
We are now on the Canadian summer route of steamers bound for the St. Lawrence via Belle Isle Strait and over the well known Labrador current.
(Continued on page 16)
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The R-34 Arrives!
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16 ae ae
Arrival of R-34
(Continued from page 14)
There are already indications of these cold currents in the fog which hangs immediately above the sur- face of the water.
Scott and Cooke spend much time at chart table with protractors, dividers, stop-watches and many navigational text-books, measuring angles of drift and caiculating course made good.
Aerial navigation is more complicated than navi- gation on the surface of the sea, but there is no reason why, when we know more about the air and its peculiarities, it should not be made just as accu- rate.
GIP Wii 3
Harris unwisely shut his hand in door of wireless cabin—painful but not serious. Flow of language not audible to me, as the forward engine happened to be running.
Gator (Eee Me:
We are gradually getting further and further into the shallow depression which was reported yesterday coming up from the South Atlantic. For the last four hours the sea has been rising, and now the wind is south-southeast, forty-five miles per hour. Visibility only a half-mile. Wery rough sea and tor- rents of rain. In spite of this the ship is remarkably steady.
At 8 P. M. Scott decides to climb right through it, and we evidently came out over the top of it at 3,400 feet.
Sega JE, Ile ;
We have now passed the center of the depression exactly as Harris foretold. The rain has ceased and we are traveling quite smoothly again.
A Sky Picture
To the west the clouds have lifted and we see extraordinarily interesting sky—black, angry clouds giving place to clouds of a gray mouse color, then a bright salmon-pink, clear sky, changing lower down the horizon to darker clouds with a rich golden lining as the sun sinks below the surface. The sea is not visible and is covered by a fluffy gray feather bed of clouds slightly undulating and ex- tending as far as the eye can reach. The moon is just breaking through the black clouds immediately above it. q
On the east we see the black ominous depression from which we have just emerged, while away more te the south the cloud-bed over which we are passing seems to end suddenly and merge into the horizon.
We are getting some valuable meteorological data on this flight without a doubt and each fresh phe-
AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
homenon as it appears is instantly explained by the ever-alert Harris, who has a profound knowledge of his subject.
© 12, ik, e
One of the engineers has reported sick—complains of feverishness.
Mascots Aboard
A stowaway has just been discovered, a cat smuggled on board. by one of the crew for luck. It is a very remarkable fact that nearly every member of the crew has a mascot of some description, from the engineer officer, who wears one of his wife’s silk stockings as a muffler around his neck, to Major
Scott, the Captain, with a small gold chart called.
“Thumbs Up.”
We have two carrier pigeons on board, which it has been decided not to use. Anyway, whether we release them or not, they can claim to be the ‘first two pigeon to fly the Atlantic.
4.30 A. M., Friday, July 4th:
Woncerful sunrise—the different colors being the softest imaginable, just like a wash drawing.
Tt Ne NGS _ Height, 1,000 feet. Bright blue sky above, thin fog partly obscuring the sea beneath us; sea mod- erate, big swell.
The fog bank appears to end abruptly ten miles or sv away toward the south where the sea appears to be clear of fog and a very deep blue.
Icebergs Sighted
Standing out conspicuously in this blue patch of sea we see an enormous white iceberg. The sun is shining brightly on its steep sides and we estimate it as roughly 300 yards square and 150 feet. high. As these icebergs usually draw about six times as much water as their height we wondered whether sie was aground, as the depth of water at that point is only about 150 fathoms.
Another big iceberg can just be seen in the dim aisiance. These are the only two objects of any kind, sort or description we have as yet seen on-this journey.
Seals AL, WWE s
Fog still clinging to the surface of the water— water evidently must be very cold. Extraordinary crimpy wevelike appearance of clouds rolling up from the rorth under! eath it. Harris has never seen this before. Pritchar), took photograph.
On port beam# here is a long stretch of clear blue sea sandwiched 3. between wide expanses of fog ou either side lookigg just like a blue river flowing be- tween two wide snow-covered banks. Cause: <A warm current of water which prevents cloud from hanging over it. This well illustrated the rule that over cold currents of water the clouds will cling to the surface.
July 12, 1919
OAse Nias :
We are now over a large ice field and the sea is full of enormous pieces of ice—small bergs in them- selves. The ice is blue-green under water, with frozen snow on top.
A message reaches us from the Governor of New- foundland :
“To Gen. Maitland, officers and crew, R-34: “On bebalf of Newfoundland I greet you as you pass uS ch your enterprising journey. : “ HARRIS, Governor.” Repiied as follows: “Po Governor Newfoundland:
* Majer Scott, officers andscrew R-34 send grateful thanks for kind message, with which I beg to associate myself. GEN. MAITLAND.”
U2 eal) 1B, Wl,
Land in sight. First spotted by Scott on star- board beam. A few small rocky islands visible for a minute or»two through the clouds and instantly swallowed up again.
Altered course southwest to have a closer look at them. Hventually made them out to be the north- west coast line of. Trinity Bay, Newfoundland.
Our time from’ Rathlin Island—the last piece of land we crossed above the north coast of Ireland— to north coast of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, is exactly fifty-nine hours.
2 3X0) Je, IMLS 8 t ;
Crossing Newfoundland
We are crossing Newfoundland at 1,500 feet in thick fog which gradually clears as we get further inland. A very rocky country with large forests and lakes and for the most part no traces of habitation anywhere.
Message from St. John’s to say that Raynham was up in his machine to greet us. We replied, giving our position.
3 12, IML :
Again enveloped in dense fog. Message from H. M. S. Sentinel giving us our position. We are mak- ing good thirty-eight to forty knots and heading for Fortune Harbor.
4:30 LE. M.:
We haye passed out of Fortune Harbor with its magnificent scenery and azure blue sea dotted with little white sailing ships and are now over the two French islands, Miquelon and St. Pierre, and steering a course for Halifax, N. S. The French flag was flying at St. Pierre and was duly dipped as we passed over. :
7:45 PB. M.:
Passed over tramp steamer, S. S. Seal, bound for Sydney, N. S., from St. John’s, the first we have seen.
(Continued on page 18)
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Arrival of R-34.
(Continued from page 16)
Seitay 182, INES ;
Clear weather; sea moderate: making good thirty miles per hour on three engines. Northern point of Cape Bretou Island, N. S., just coming into sight. Lighthouse four flashes; we should make Halifax 2:30 A. M.. tomorrow.
Saturday, July 5, 2:30 A. M.:
Very dark, clear night. Lights of White Haven show up brightly on our starboard beam and we make ouf the lights of a steamer passing us te the east. Strong. head wind against us. Making no appreciable headway. ‘
7 A. M.?:
Scott decided to turn inland to avoid southwest wind barrage.flowing up the coast. Crossed coast at Goose Islanc, Country Harbor.
Miles and miles of endless forests. Here and there a clearing with a hut or two, a few cows and an acre or so of cultivated land. Any number of sinall rivers and lakes.
10:20 A. M.:
We are down as low as 800 feet smell of pines, which we inhale with delight. Stacked tree trunks look like bunches of asparagus from above.
Put the “‘ wind up” a big brown eagle.
We all agree we must come to Nova Scotia for shooting and fishing.
eae Oneal Vines
Lunch.
Serious Petrol Situation
The petrol question has become distinctly serious. Shotter has been totalling up our available petrol resources with anxious care. We have 500 miles to go to New York and if we don’t get any wind or _bad weather against us will do it all right with two engines, assisted occasionally by a third engine. We cannot afford to run all five at once owing to the petrol consumption.
Lieut. Commander Lansdowne, United States Naval Airship Service sends signal on behalf of R-84 to United States authorities at Washington and Boston to send destroyer to take us in tow in case we should run out of petrol during the night.
The idea is we would then be towed by the de- stroyer during the hours of darkness, and at dawn east off and fly to Long Island under our own power. Let us hope this won’t be necessary.
It is now raining and foggy, which is the kind of weather that suits us now, as rain generally means no wind.
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AIRCRAFT JOURNAL
a 15 IMLS
Passed Haute Island, in Fundy Bay.
8330) 12, IE, 8
For soie little while past there had been distinct evidences of electrical disturbances. Atmospherics became very bad and a severe thunderstorm was poene over Canadian coast, moving south down the coast.
Scott turned east off his course to dodge the storm, putting on all engines. In this, fortunately for us, he was successful and we passed through the outer edge of it. We had a very bad time, indeed, and it is quite the worst experience from a weather point os view that any of us have yet experienced in the air.
During the storm some wonderful specimens of cumulo mammatus were seen and photographed. These clouds always indicate a very highly per- turbed state of atmosphere and look rather like a bunch of grapes. The clouds drooped into small fastoons.
C30 1B, WL s
We are now in clear weather again and have left Nova Scotia well behind us and are heading straight for New Yerk. ;
Particularly fine electrical disturbance type of sunset.
W)eat0) 120. Wie
Another Storm
Another thunderstorm. Again we have to change our course to avoid it, and as every gallon of petrol is worth its weight in gold, it almost breaks our hearts to have to lengthen the distance to get clear of these storms.
July 6, Sunday, 4 A. M.:
Sighted American soil at Chatham.
S25 ew An IMs:
South end of Mahoney Island. Scott is wonder- ing whether petrol will allow him to go to New York or whether it would not be more prudent to land at Montauk.
5:30 A. M.:
Passing over Martha’s Vineyard, a lovely island
‘and beautifully wooded. Scott decided he could just
gec through to our landing field at Hazelhurst Field, but that there would not be enough petrol to fly over New York. Very sad, but no alternative. We will fly over New York on start of our return journey on Tuesday night, “weather and circum- stances permitting.
landed 1:54 P. M. Greenwich mean time, or 9:54 A. M.. U. S.A. summer time, at Hazelhurst (Roose- velt) Field, Long Island.
Total time on entire voyage, 108 hours 12 minutes
' miles an hour faster.
July 12, 1919
“Ships Twice as Big”
“We have ships building that are twice as big as the R-34 and will have a speed of twenty-five You can therefore say that we have made this trip from Scotland here in an obsolete type of airship. ”
This statement was made June 6 by Major J. H.M. Pritchard of the British Air Forces, the Air Ministry expert on board of the R-34, a man fully conversant with the past and proposed future of British aircraft building. A representative of some Australian papers asked him if the R-34 might make a trip to Australia.
“Oh, no; not this ship. She couldn’t do it. But in a year we'll have ships that can. In a year it will be just as easy for our ships to make a non-stop flight to Australia as it has been to make this journey. We'll have some great ships in a year.
“This flight was not really an amazing thing. It is the result of long years of work. It was not wonderful. What I do call wonderful is the per- sistent and unspectacular work that led up to it. All this congratulation really seems to me a bit out of place. It’s the past work that is the thing.
“T want to emphasize the fact, too, that it is far easier to fly from here to England than it is to fly from England here, because of the tremendous air currents, I might say that as a matter of air
miles America is nearer to England by 1,000 miles than England is to America.
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2 AIRCRAFT JOURNAL : July 19, 1919
THE MARTIN NIGHT BOMBEK
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Congress Fails to Provide for Army Air Service
Disintegration Commences Caused By “¢ NG
Blind Curtailment of Appropriations = \%,
The disintegration of the Army Air Service due to the lack of funds has commenced. With $25,- 000,000, the appropriation for the coming fiscal year, the United States will fall so rapidly behind that it will take many years and large appropria- tions for the Air Service to reach a par with other countries. If the present plans of the War De- partment are carried out the Army Air Service will have only 250 officers by September 30 of this
ear.
This situation has been caused by the general feeling in Congress that all appropriations for the Army should be curtailed to a minimum until a definite reorganization plan can be formulated. The advocates in Congress of an independent Air Force be- lieve that until a union is made of all air activities of the Government that there will be great duplication and wastage and therefore were against large appropriations at this time.
That Congress was in- formed of the critical posi- tion is shown by the state- ments made by Generals Menoher and Mitchell to the - Senate Committee on Military Affairs. General Menoher said in reply to questions by the Senators, ‘“ We have real- ly no service equipment as to planes except the De Havi- land. It is a pretty good day bomber, it is a good observing ship, but it is not a pursuit ship, and it is not a night bomber, and to properly equip our squadrons we have to have pursuit planes and night bombing planes of the various types to properly equip and carry on the work. Unless we can manufacture adequate equipment we never will get anywhere beyond where we are now. It will be like having artillery without guns, or the infantry without rifles, or the motor transportation corps without trucks. If that program were approved and we were ready to carry it out now we could not have any of those planes probably within a year.”
General William Mitchell followed General Menoher and told the committee with great frank- ness his opinion of the requirements of the Air Service:
“ Now that is what this money is to be used for, and if we do not get some service planes, and if the airplane industry goes to pieces due to lack of work, I do not know how long it will take to get it back, because it was not easy to get it together in this war.
“You have elements in this country now which are excellent. Everything I have seen built in this country is better than any I have ever seen in Europe. ,
“ The Hispano-Suiza motor is a wonder, and our new pursuit planes are wonders too. All they need is to have the ‘bugs’ taken out of them. We cannot depend on any foreign machine. In fact, these foreign machines that are being sent over here are second-rate machines to-day.
“We got this equipment in order to assist us in bridging over the period until we shall have got our own, which will take from one to two years after the money is authorized. The question of materiel is only part of it. We have got to get the personnel trained. Now that is why the $30,- 000,000 is asked for planes. I think that unless the airplane factories are kept going it will be serious indeed.
“As to lighter-than-air, we ask for less than $15,000,000 to develop dirigibles and keep up our
balloons. We have no place in America to make large dirigibles. We have the airplanes, but dirig- ibles and balloons are more satisfactory for keep- ing constant surveillance of any pomt. For in- stance, if we had them now down on the Mexican border we could keep constant surveillance of everything that was going on.
“ Now, we have in there an item of $12,000,000 for experimentation. The Air Service is going along faster than any other branch or arm, and it is something with which, if you fall behind, it is awfully hard to catch up—people get the jump on you—they get the jump on you in making an engine, in every respect. All air services are de-
$350,000,000 For AVIATION APPROPRIATED by GREAT BRITAIN
10,000.00 by FRANCE
B+ AMOUNT ASKED from U.S. AVIATION CONSTES GSO, 000.
UNITED STATES
DIAGRAM SHOWING ti COMPARATIVE AVIATION EQUIPMENT PLANNED FOR
(Courtesy N. Y. World)
veloping very rapidly. We must keep up this ex- perimentation and get out models for experimental purposes, which, naturally, cost a great deal more than when you can manufacture a great number of the same model. At the present time we have an excellent technical section. I have been struck with the excellency of it. What we must do with the technical section is to give them something to work with. The items I have already covered amount to approximately $45,000,000 (airplanes and dirig- ibles), and this $12,000,000 for the technical sec- tion makes a total of $57,000,000. The remainder of the appropriation is asked for various things to keep the program going.
“We cannot put any ships in service because we have not got the organization nor the machines to put them in service on a basis fit to cope with a nation equipped with a good air service.”
Asked by Senator Thomas his opinion on the advisability of a separate Air Service General Mitchell replied, “In my opinion, after watching these things from over there for practically two years and being connected with it for a much longer time, and considering it not only from a military standpoint, but from the standpoint of availability for civil departments of the Govern- ment, and the development of commercial aviation I am convinced that an independent Air Service is the only way in which we will be able to have a good air force.”.
Hicks Going Abroad
Aroused by the activities of other countries in aviation, especially in dirigible development, Rep- resentative Fred C. Hicks of New York, Chairman of the Aviation Sub-Committee of the House Naval Affairs Committee, announced his intention of go- ing abroad to study what is being done by France and England in developing airships in a military and commercial way.
< CSTE , Now, ot LOTTED 4, CONGRESS. 50,000, 060
1 A GREAT BRITAIN, FRANCE. and’ The UNITED. STATES UNDER. PRESENT GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS for Alle SERVICE.
Mr. Hicks said Congress had not been as liberal as it might have been in making appropriations for aviation in the Army and Navy bill. This was be- cause Congress was not impressed with the plans of the army and navy heads, neither of which, until the bills had become the subject of bitter dis- pute, had submitted anything that looked to the committees like a comprehensive plan.
The bills as they passed the House carried $30,-
000,000 for aviation in the Army and Navy. The Senate increased the appropriations for each ser- vice to $25,000,000 each, so that for aviation pur- poses the Administration has $50,000,000 for ex- periment and development in the next fiscal year. As against this $50,000,000, England’s budget for aviation amounts to $303,000,000. In- stead of lessening aviation activities as the result of the armistice and peace, Hng- land’s plans, launched six months ago, provide for ex- tensive airship building with the idea of perfecting ma- chines for ocean travel, as well as powerful battle ma- chines. _ Mr. Hicks said he expected to find out, if possible, the extent of England’s air pro- gram and make a comprehen- sive report to the Naval Affairs Committee. He be- leves Congress will not be penurious when it learns what is being done abroad.
Mr. Hicks added his be- lef that the people of the country were not satisfied with “the way money was wasted in the air program during the war. If there were a reorganization, and an air secretary directing experiments in some co-ordinated way, I think Congress would be more disposed liberally to provide for aviation. ”
Permanent Military Policy
First steps have been taken toward drafting leg- islation to establish a péfmanent military policy by the Senate Military Committee in the appoint- ment of a sub-committee to confer with the House Military Committee with a view to joint hearings.
Chairman Wadsworth, of the Senate committee, believes that through joint hearings duplication of effort can be avoided and an agreement reached on such matters as universal training, the National Guard and organization of the Regular Army,