The article that forecast “bat wings” was posted here
“Bat-Men” Troops Join California State Guard
Major MALCOM WHEELER – NICHOLSON, military expert, forecast the use of circus “bat-wings” for parachute troops, in the August issue of Mechanix Illustrated. Now, as a preliminary test, the California State Guard has organized just such a unit of “bat-man” paratroopers, under the leadership of Mickey Morgan, famed jumper (left). Bat-wings, it is claimed, makes paratroops more maneuverable-and swifter.
That flight-suit on the second page is one of the most steam-punky looking things I’ve ever seen that wasn’t actually designed to look that way. I also love the habit of just throwing a woman in the frame when they show pictures of weird stuff. Balance?
IT’S NEW!
HYDROFOILS in kit form are easily installed on almost all outboard craft from 12 to 16 feet Safe, smooth, they literally make boat fly. Atlantic Hydrofin, Miami. Fla.
GROWING UP LAMP’S base has yardstick with spaces for marking date, weight, height of little Oscar, who likes to see how much he “growed.” Device was exhibited in Chicago.
SLIT SPECS, originated by the Eskimos, are considered the most on Canadian ski slopes these days. Glassless, slits guard against sun’s glare. This pair costs $20. Read the rest of this entry »
This was the third in a series of Flying Wings by Jack Northrop that began in 1929 with the first one successfully flying in 1930
Shortly before his death in 1981, Mr. Northrop was given clearance to see designs and a scale model of the B-2 Spirit which was unveiled in 1988.
The “Flying Wing” Takes To The Air
PROBABLY the strangest looking thing ever to fly in the air is the Northrop Aircraft Company’s new “Flying Wing,” seen in action above, and viewed from the rear on the ground below. It has no fuselage nor tail surfaces. Twin pusher propellers power it. Power plant and personnel are housed within the contours of the airfoil. The greatest secrecy is being maintained by both the company and the army about the weird plane’s performance, but reports which have leaked out credit the ship with remarkable efficiency.
Navigation Computers have progressed a wee bit since this was published.
New Navigation Computer Solves Flight Problems
SIMPLIFYING aerial navigation problems
to a point never before possible, an entirely new type navigation computer has been perfected by engineers and adopted as standard equipment by many pilots on the nationwide air travel systems.
Designed to provide an immediate answer to navigation questions the pilot must face during the course of a flight, the new instrument combines features of a slide rule with a series of special scales in the form of three celluloid discs which rotate around a common center.
Read the rest of this entry »
Those wings look awfully small…
New Flying Machine Patterned After Structure of an Owl
AS THE result of intensive study of the flights and structure of heavy birds, Robert Myers, of Rockford, 111., has designed and built an ornithopter from which he expects to develop ideas for further experiments with such ships. The strange ship has wings crisscrossed with rib structure and hinged to the body in such a way that the wings can be flapped to propel it. Myers, like many before him, believes that it may be possible to learn secrets of flight from birds that will enable man to perfect highly developed flying wings; a type of aircraft radically different from the rigid type of winged ships now in use.