February 28, 2008

Air Liners Have Berth Facilities (Jun, 1934)

Air Liners Have Berth Facilities

GIANT air cruisers, equipped with comfortable sleeping quarters, will soon take flight, to mark another forward step in aviation. Each plane will have six compartments which may be converted into upper and lower berths.

These berths are longer than those in standard railroad sleeping cars and are furnished with reading lights, individually controlled air heat and the customary berth accessories. When not used for sleeping purposes, the berths are made into comfortable lounge type chairs as shown in photo, left.

February 27, 2008

ICE-ISLAND in Mid-Atlantic Proposed (Oct, 1932)

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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February 26, 2008

MAN-MADE TORNADOES DRIVE ODD PLANE (May, 1936)

MAN-MADE TORNADOES DRIVE ODD PLANE

Following successful ground tests of a wooden model, a Stillwater, Okla., inventor has begun construction of a full-sized airplane of radical design that he expects to show unprecedented speed. The craft’s twin propellers will blow a tornado of air through a pair of cylindrical ducts, shaped to enhance the propulsive effect obtained, so that its two 100-horse-power motors will do the work of much larger power plants in standard planes.

February 21, 2008

Planes That Go Straight Up OPEN NEW FIELDS FOR AVIATION (Mar, 1935)

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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February 20, 2008

Skywriters see it this way (Oct, 1947)

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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February 14, 2008

“Grand Central” of the Airways (Mar, 1941)

“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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February 13, 2008

Rotating Blades To Row Planes In Air (Nov, 1935)

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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February 9, 2008

Flying Bomb Guided by Man Pilot (Aug, 1938)

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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February 8, 2008

Super-Speed Turbo-Plane to Span Ocean (May, 1936)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 12:40 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1936
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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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February 7, 2008

Learn to Fly—Right on Ground (Apr, 1934)

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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February 6, 2008

FLYERS USE HAND TO WARN OF MOVEMENTS (Oct, 1931)

FLYERS USE HAND TO WARN OF MOVEMENTS

To warn other pilots of their movements, aviators at a Glendale, Calif., flying field use hand signals. Extending the hand diagonally upward means a right turn; straight out, a left turn; downward means the pilot will land. Above a girl student is seen learning the signals.

Is The Military Dirigible Doomed? (May, 1935)

Filed under: Aviation, War — @ 2:00 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1935
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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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