ICE-ISLAND in Mid-Atlantic Proposed
SEADROMES for ocean landing fields are not a new idea, a steel ‘drome designed by Edward Armstrong, recently described in these pages, being well on the road to practical acceptance. But the proposal to build seadromes of ice, recently advanced from Germany, seems fantastic until one realizes that the idea has already passed the experimental stage with flying colors.
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Planes That Go Straight Up OPEN NEW FIELDS FOR AVIATION
By Edwin Teale
AMONG the skyscrapers of lower New York City, a few weeks ago, a strange wingless craft drifted down in a vertical landing. Its wheels touched the concrete of a pier and rolled less than a dozen feet. With balancing wings eliminated, it represented the latest style in autogiros. The flying windmill has taken another step toward the goal of a thousand inventors, the helicopter.
An autogiro can descend vertically; but it can take off only after a run. A helicopter could get out of a field the size of its landing gear. It could climb straight into the sky, could hover like a humming bird, and could drop like an elevator descending its shaft. Entirely new realms of aerial travel await the perfection of such a craft.
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Skywriters see it this way
They spell from right to left and make words that are 15 miles long.
SO YOU have a new pen that writes under water, a pen that writes for three years without a refill, and never leaks. Kid stuff!
I know a bunch of guys that write with a gadget that can make letters a mile high, write a word 15 miles long that’s visible for 40 miles, and can write 15 miles of letters in 20 minutes.
Yes, I’m talking about “sky scribblers,” the smoke writers. It all started back in 1922 on England’s Derby Day at Epsom Downs. Everything was going along as dignified as usual with King George and Queen Mary there to add a bit more tone to the affair. Suddenly some chap glanced upward at the sky, clutched his ascot and yelped, “Blyme, look there now, it’s bloomin’ writin’ in the sky!”—and thereby began a unique industry, Skywriting.
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“Grand Central” of the Airways
By Allen Warren Elliott
ON a misty morning a little more than a year ago, one of the most remarkable industrial babies ever born was ushered into existence almost exactly in the geographical and population center of New York City.
The industry was aviation and the infant was La Guardia Field, already something of a whopping prodigy because $40,000,000 had been spent to make it the largest port of the skies, bigger than anything England, France, Russia or Germany could offer.
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Rotating Blades To Row Planes In Air
JUST as the propeller supplanted the paddle wheel, revolutionizing shipping, so are the new Voith-Schneider vertical feather-blades, successfully tested in Germany, expected to supplant the propeller.
The blades, mounted on a rotating disk, have been used for the past two years on river and harbor boats with marked economies in operation coupled with a decided increase in maneuverability. As the disk rotates, the blades present a full face on the back stroke, and then assume a feathered position for the return circuit. Steering is accomplished by an adjustment which delays the feathering movement, the open faced blades thus pushing the stern of the vessel to starboard or port as desired.
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Why this would be any better than a dive bomber? The pilot is screwed either way. If he misses the ship they are just going to blow up his little raft and if he hits the ship then he’ll be floating around in water that is filled with all of the people who jumped off the ship. They might hold a grudge. He might as well just fly it right into the ship, at least that way it’ll be quick.
Flying Bomb Guided by Man Pilot
GUIDED by a human pilot, a “flying bomb” designed by Lester P. Barlow, well known aerial munitions expert, would enable one man to destroy a battleship and escape alive, according to the inventor. The new aerial weapon consists of a small airplane-like structure, featuring wings, rudder and elevator controls, to which a 3,500-pound bomb is fitted as a nose.
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Super-Speed Turbo-Plane to Span Ocean
by DOUGLAS P. ROLFE
FIVE hours out of New York and the flasher lights of the Central London Air Terminal are blinking their welcome to the Trans-Oceanic express as it glides to a swift, effortless landing.
Five hours out of New York! This and similar pictures of future transportation have been painted ever since man first flew, but today it can be said that this is no idle fancy or paper prophecy. Even the most casual review of various activities in the United States, Great Britain and France show the vast number of experiments that are now being conducted towards this very end.
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Learn to Fly—Right on Ground
A RECENTLY developed machine gives actual flying instruction to beginning aviators when a coin is placed in the slot.
A small plane is fixed within a glass cage, which is also a miniature wind tunnel. The plane is controlled by regulation joystick, rudder pedals and throttle handled by the embryo pilot seated just in front of the apparatus.
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Is The Military Dirigible Doomed?
YES!
by WING COMMANDER S. K. UHLER
Royal Air Force, Great Britain, Retired Editor’s Note: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official views or opinions of the armed forces of His Majesty, the King of England.
SINCE Count Zeppelin built and flew the first large, rigid airship, approximately 150 such lighter-than-air craft have been built and flown. Practically all of them, built by Germany, Great Britain, France and America have exploded in mid-air, burned or crashed with disastrous loss of life. There have been 19 major, peacetime dirigible disasters during the past 23 years.
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