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Spokeless Air Wheels Coming Auto Style

LATEST rumors in Detroit and Akron indicate that there will be a radical change in tire styles before many more auto shows come and go, and that with this change will also come entirely new chassis and body designs.
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ELEVATED HIGHWAY TO SPEED TRAFFIC

WHAT will be the finest, and perhaps the greatest, highway of its kind in the world, is now under construction in New York City. Built along the Hudson River waterfront, this highway, which may be listed as one of Borough President Miller’s important achievements, begins at the Hudson Tunnels at Canal Street and will extend to Spuyten Duyvil, a distance of 14 miles. Read the rest of this entry »

New Slant on Bicycles

EVERY man his own streamline is the idea of Fred Strecker, English rider, in the bicycle design at right.

Back Seat Control Shows Beginners How to Drive
COPYING the dual control idea from army training planes, a back seat drive with steering wheel, clutch and brake pedals has been built into an automobile by an enterprising dealer to help beginners learn the fine points of driving their new cars. The photograph shows how the back seat controls are built into the car. This system of instruction has proven unusually efficient.

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Flying Down On The Job

THE first airplane to get off the ground back in 1903 was flown by a prone pilot. Originated by the Wright Brothers, the prone pilot position was soon abandoned in favor of the upright seat and was to all intents and purposes a dead issue until the mid-30’s. Read the rest of this entry »

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Bird-Size Plane Wins Air Race at 140 M.P.H.!

STREAKING low above the ground, a tiny silver plane whines toward the pylon at the National Air Races held at Los Angeles. With speed which seems more comparable to that of a projectile than an airplane she bursts from nowhere and is gone with a whine. It is Ed Heath’s “Baby Bullet,” smaller than a South American Condor!
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SUBMARINE SAFETY – An Insolvable Problem?

Must submarines, by their very nature, always be death traps for the men who operate them? No successful rescue device has yet been developed which can be depended on infallibly in all circumstances, and recent losses of life indicate that the problem of safety is no nearer solution now than it was 20 years ago.
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New Type Gyro Plane Tested on Electric Rail Carriage

AS interesting as is the new type of gyro plane now undergoing exhaustive experiments in France, the method of testing is perhaps of even more interest.

The trial carriage is electrically driven and attains a speed of from 60 to 80 miles an hour on rails. By means of measuring instruments on the carriage, the wind pressure, lifting power, derivation of lift, and the stresses on various parts are registered.

The plane itself is of the conventional type, except for a pair of large propellers, which turn in opposite directions, mounted on a stub shaft above the plane. These propellers work by wind pressure.

rice cleans carbon

RICE is moving out of the kitchen and into the garage. Oldsmobile has developed a new device, the Head-On Carbon Blaster, which uses rice under air pressure to clean engine combustion chambers through their spark-plug openings. Read the rest of this entry »

Midget Streamliner goes record hunting. The Cooper 500-cc. racing car has gone to Paris to set some new times for the speed demons to shoot at. John Cooper admires his baby, left. Open hood, right, reveals driver Bill Aston behind the wheel.

70-YEAR OLD TOURIST CROSSES U. S. ON BICYCLE

AN ORDINARY bicycle with a special baggage support above the front wheel is the equipment used by M. C. Plummer of Portland, Maine, in touring the United States. Mr. Plummer is 70 years old but he covers from 50 to 150 miles every day on his bicycle, depending on the weather and the nature of the country to be traveled. Read the rest of this entry »

NEW PLEASURE CRAFT

A LOS ANGELES man has invented a new type of pleasure boat. The boat has a round, metal air-filled pontoon to keep it afloat. There are twin paddles to control the boat. One of them furnishes the motive power while the other steers the odd craft. The interior of the boat is shown here with three young ladies engaged in giving it a trial spin. The boat is built to carry four persons comfortably but a maximum load of eight people can be safely handled.