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MAIL VIA ROCKET

A missile expert predicts rocket mail by 1965. Here are MI’s ideas on how the system could function.

By Frank Tinsley

IT’S Friday noon. In the home office of a giant New York corporation the final drafts of a secret merger are being signed. If they can be signed by the party of the second part in San Francisco and be back here in the office before the stock market closes—so that “buy” orders can be rushed to dealers throughout the country—a possible Monday financial slump can be averted. The atmosphere is tense. A micro- photo machine has been moved into the president’s office and a trusted operator inserts the sheets, one by one. Two tiny prints of each emerge, one for the files and one for mailing. Read the rest of this entry »

Novel Parachute Plane Is Built to Land in the Back Yard
FIRST cousin to the autogiro, a new circular-wing airplane recently tested in Chicago is so simple in operation that one who has never been off the ground can learn to fly it in thirty minutes, according to the inventor.

Instead of the conventional wing structure, the new plane has a huge saucer-like disc trussed above the fuselage. At the rear of the wing are two ailerons which enable the plane to land at low speeds.
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English Perfect Tail-Less Plane

DESIGNED primarily for aerial combat, a new British fighting plane overcomes a dangerous blind spot by eliminating the fuselage and tail unit behind the wings. This construction provides the rear gunner with a fine field of fire. The upper wing is of the tapered, swept-back type. The ship is controlled by balanced flaps on the upper wing. Worked together, they serve as elevators; operated differentially, as ailerons.

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Looping the Loop in a Balloon

By 1st LIEUT. W. C. FARNUM

Air Corps, U. S. Army Aviation history records only one instance of a balloon looping the loop. Lieut, Farnum tells here the story of his aerial somersaults.

WATCHING an airplane loop the loop always reminds me of a morning 12 years ago when I was a flying cadet at Fort Omaha in the balloon service, waiting for my commission and instructing student officers in balloon observation. This particular morning I was to ascend 3,000 feet and instruct a student in observation. I checked the balloon and gave the order.
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200-Mile Air Camera
ALONG distance aerial camera perfected by Captain A. W. Stevens of the U. S. Army Air Service has proved itself capable of taking photographs from a distance of 200 miles. The secret of the amazing performance of the camera lies in the fact that it is equipped with a dense red filter that cuts through the haze which usually clouds long distance pictures. The above photo of New York shows how the smoke which always hangs over a large city is pierced.

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Anyone Can Fly a Blimp

This first-hand account of a novice at the controls of an airship is so graphic and thrilling that you cannot fail to be delighted with it You will find it all the more interesting because, while airplanes have become commonplace, comparatively few have ridden these gas bags.

By ANDREW R. BOONE

SMITHY stuck his head out of the port window. “Give us a weigh-off,” he shouted, raising his voice to get it past the roar of the two engines.

The ground crew, stepping back from the car, slackened all ropes. Instantly the Volunteer began to rise from the Goodyear air dock. And as suddenly all hands grabbed the ropes and the rail running around the bottom of the car.

Across the field came one of the more distant crew members, a canvas bag, heavy with sand, clutched in each hand. Through the starboard door he swung them onto the floor of the car.
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Pulsating Wing to Drive Propless Plane
LACKING both propeller and tail assembly and driven only by a 10 H.P. motor, an Austrian plane is expected to take the air this summer. The motor drives a compressed air pump which expands and evacuates a large series of pneumatic air cells in the wings. It is planned that pulsations of these cells will furnish lift and driving power for the ship. By altering the stroke in the rear wing cells, which act as a propeller, the plane is expected to climb, bank, dive, hover and go forward or backward. The forward wing is used primarily for the higher speeds. The framework of the ship is constructed of welded steel tubing.

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TRAINING ARMY AIR FIGHTERS

A LARGE percentage of each year’s graduates of the West Point Military Academy enter the autumn class at the Air Corps Training Center, Randolph Field, Texas. This fact, and the further fact that the flying school is conducted along lines similar to the Military Academy, has caused this Air Corps school to be popularly termed “The West Point of the Air.”
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Huge Wireless Station Receives Messages of Zeppelin on World Tour

All the latest devices of radio-land are in service in this huge wireless station at Nauen, Germany. Radio messages sent from the Graf Zeppelin on its epochal flight around the world passed through the receiving apparatus shown in the photo above. The Nauen station acted as clearing-house for the correspondents aboard the dirigible.

Pup Aids Pilot in Take-off

“Slipstream,” the intelligent dog shown above, superintends his master’s take-offs from the Coast Guard air base at Floyd Bennett Field, New York City. At a signal from Lieut. Charles Tighe, he yanks away the wheel chocks for a take-off.

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FLOATING AIRPORTS on LINK CONTINENTS

by BEN LINCOLN

FUNDS recently appropriated by the government have put the United States Department of Commerce, Aviation Branch, squarely behind the immediate development of a chain of five floating airports which will span the Atlantic for regular airways service.

This recently announced appropriation, amounting to $1,500,000 was negotiated by Eugene L. Vidal, Director of Aeronautics of the Department of Commerce, in behalf of Edward R. Armstrong, inventor of the seadrome, and completes a 16 year fight to gain recognition for a project which both Mr. Vidal, a competent and experienced airways operator, and Mr. Armstrong solidly believe in. As well, it will provide work for a great number of unemployed, as 80 per cent of the cost of such development projects goes to labor.
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Capt. Rickenbacker’s Airplane of the Future

By CAPT. EDDIE RICKENBACKER

America’s war-time ace of aces who is now prominently connected with Fokker Aircraft tells of the remarkable ships of tomorrow now being built, and predicts revolutionary developments in flying.

SEVEN years ago with a pilot, mechanic and a traveling companion, I began an air tour of the United States.

It was a visionary journey in a cabin plane, with my companion, a young newspaper friend, making his first air tour. We rode in the cabin of the plane, carried our luggage in the baggage compartment and caused no little commotion as we began our trip from a landing field near New York City. Read the rest of this entry »