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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Ten years later we had the unfortunate answer to this question.
Can Cities be Annihilated from the Air?
IN contemplating the horrors of war, those whose natural instincts are inclined to peace look upon the newest weapons of war as threatening swift extinction of the whole civilized —that is to say, city—population. Such writers as Wells have pictured all the world’s great centers of population uninhabited and uninhabitable, after a war carried on with new death-dealing devices. They recall the fall of ancient empires which perished completely with their capitals—like Nineveh, Babylon, Tyre and Carthage—and others—like Rome—which barely escaped; and they wonder if Paris and London and New York are similarly to be obliterated when the scientific world war comes.
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New De Luxe Sleeper Planes
THE day was, when to ride in an airplane was an adventure, and one which involved a degree of “roughing it.” The newest plane design carries all the facilities of luxury and comfort afforded by any form of transportation; made possible by the great size of the new high-speed transports. The new Douglas Sleeper Transports, of American Airlines, pictured here, have a wing span of 95 feet, an over-all length of 65 feet, and height of 17-1/2; feet; the gross weight is 24,000 pounds, and they can carry 24 passengers each as day planes, or 16 as night passengers, with sleeping accommodations.
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