.Cameraman Strapped to Plane Wing to Take Air Pictures
EVER wonder how some of those remarkable pictures you see on the talkie screens are produced—the kind, for instance, in which you seem to be falling from a mile in the air right down into the heart of New York City?
The series of photographs at the right will give you an idea of how it’s done.
What, no pug?
.Photographs Self During ‘CHUTE JUMP
FEW photographs possess such thrilling and extraordinary interest as those appearing on this page, which were taken in mid-air by a German parachute jumper during his leap through space.
Well, that looks comfortable. I particularly like the valve handle right in front.
.New Stratosphere Flying Suit Tested In Airless Chamber
LOOKING like a man from Mars, Lt. Col. Emilio Herrera demonstrated the feasibility of his stratosphere flying suit in an impressive test of man and equipment. Simulating conditions he expects to find on his proposed stratosphere flight, he remained in an airless chamber at a temperature of 70 degrees below zero for a period of more than two and a half hours.
Has anyone ever made a plane with a cycloidal propeller that actually flies?
.Flying Without Wings or Motors
Airplane design faces radical change. Prof. Kirsten’s cycloidal propeller is ready to emerge from the experimental stage into a safe, wingless craft. In Europe ships are being developed eliminating not only wings, but motors also.
an Interview with F. K. KIRSTEN
Professor of Aeronautical Engineering University of Washingtonby JAMES BOWLES
PICTURE yourself soaring over the Rockies in an airplane without fixed wings, with no propeller as you know the air screw today, yet climbing, diving, dashing ahead in level flight or actually stopping after the manner of a giant insect.
.ATOM-BOMBER Carries 3 Jet Fighters
Meet the B-36. Its wing span is twice the distance of the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kittyhawk. It’s 3 times as lethal as the B-29 and can hop to any spot on earth.
THE U. S. Air Force has a “Sunday punch” ready to slug any enemy who tries to start World War III with another Pearl Harbor.
It’s a sleek super-dreadnaught of the skies, the Consolidated Vultee B-36 long range bomber—and it’s ready today to exploit to the fullest the awesome power of the atomic bomb. Carrying its own fighter protection in its belly, it will serve, in the event of war, as the “throwing arm” for the most destructive force in history.
.Convertable Jet Helicopter
By GILBERT PAUSTWHEN you see a plane standing on its end in the sky—or on the ground—this will be the one!
A radical new design, just granted a patent, is an airplane that can stick its nose up and act like a helicopter.
The craft has a plane’s wings, ailerons and enclosed fuselage. Three wheels extending straight back to the rear allow vertical takeoff and sit-down.
.SUN’S RAYS TO DRIVE Aerial Landing Field
RECENT experiments in the conversion of the sun’s rays into electric power have led to an unusual idea in aerial equipment. It is a dirigible that not only would get its power from the sun but also provide space for a landing field in the air.
The ordinary cigar-shaped dirigible would in effect have a slice taken from the upper half of the gas bag. This would provide a large deck on which could be mounted solar photo cells, an airplane runway, and a hangar. Planes could land on the dirigible, floating over the sea, to refuel for trans-ocean passenger service.
.Girl Is Airport Jack-of-All-Trades
Said to be the only woman airport operator in the East, Rosa Laird, a twenty-one-year-old girl, handles several jobs at once at the Du Pont Airport at Wilmington, Del. She takes her turn at greasing planes, radio dispatching, running a refreshment stand, and recording weather forecasts.
Here is another example of a diaeresis being used on the second e in reënacted. Also, I would just like to point out that the world would be a much cooler place if things like that could actually fly.
.MOVIE SHOWS CONQUEST OF THE AIR
Stirring episodes in the history of man’s conquest of the air are being reënacted for a movie in England. The odd scene reproduced above shows the filming of one of the earliest and least-known experiments of Otto Lilienthal, German pioneer. Seeking to fly by flapping wings, he built this curious machine in 1868, and tested its lifting power by hanging it and a counterweight from a boom attached to a barn. The experiment was a failure, since he found that by the utmost exertion he could lift only half his weight. Turning aside from the flapping-wing idea, he devoted himself to the historic gliding experiments for which he is famous, and which helped pave the way for the eventual success of heavier-than-air machines.
I just love the pictures in these color sections Popular Mechanics used to have. I think they are all hand colored, but I’m not sure.
.Behind the Scenes of Aviation
LITTLE by little, aviation engineers are revolutionizing the art of flying. Today’s big transports are vastly improved over those of only a year or two ago although an untrained eye can hardly spot the differences. Scores of slight improvements in power plants, instruments and construction have materially increased efficiency.
Behind the scenes the engineers are working on other improvements. “Within five years we will be wondering how we ever got along without the many improvements in radio alone which are now being developed,” one of them remarks. “Within that time passenger transports will be landing on schedule in zero-zero weather. Among other new instruments in the control room, the pilot probably will have a height indicator to tell him the exact distance down to the ground. Planes will be carrying heavier loads farther and faster due simply to numerous small improvements which are constantly being made.”
