.The SWIFT
BY GILBERT PAUST
Long cruising range, adaptability and fine performance make this one of the most popular new planes.
ONE thing can be said for the Swift right from the start—it’s a corking good airplane and offers the guy who wants to fly a lot more value than its price of $3,495.00 indicates. It’s all-metal, one of the first samples of production-line technique applied to the aircraft industry.
.Small Dirigible TOWS GLIDER
TWO unusual glider events took place recently at Akron, Ohio, municipal airport. One, believed to be the first of its kind ever attempted, was the successful towing of a glider by a small dirigible.
.Cargo Canoe can be detached from the bottom of the fuselage in less than two minutes and towed to the terminal by tractor. Used on Eastern Air Lines’ 60-passenger Constellations, it accommodates 8,000 pounds of baggage and greatly facilitates handling. This photo shows “skycaps” removing bags from the detachable compartment at Newark, N. J., airport after the “Connie’s” four-hour, non-stop flight from Miami, Florida.
.BULLET BOUNCER ON CAR SAVES POLICE FROM THUGS
Bullet bouncers are now in use on cars of the San Francisco, Calif., police department to protect members of radio patrol crews from the gunfire of thugs. The contrivances are sheets of quarter-inch-thick steel plate, equipped with shuttered windows and hinged to the top of the windshield frame.
.BOAT RUNS ON ROLLING DRUMS
A boat that runs along the surface of the water on drums was given a trial recently on the Hackensack River, near Newark, N. J. Five specially-designed white steel drums, having indentations like the treads on tires to increase their grip upon the water, support the craft.
.English Timetableria
Press a button for any trip you desire, and the proper timetable card drops out, in the Southern Railway station, London.(Keystone)
.Toilet Kit for the Automobile
Here is a toilet kit which you can build for your car, at a total expenditure of about $5.00. It will be found ideal for long: trips and also when it becomes necessary to change a tire on the road.
.Underground Nests for War Airplanes
THE next war, all agree, will be a war in the air; and the advantage will be with the force striking the first blow. Obviously, the attack will be made on the fixed air bases of the other army, since that will inflict most damage from a military point of view.
.Mechanized St. Bernard
A new breed of St. Bernard is making news for Steamboat Springs—a western Colorado winter resort—by rescuing skiers lost in the high Rockies. This latest hero of the snow, however, is not a canine but a cat—a novel, snow-traveling tractor invented and produced by Emmitt M. Tucker of Medford, Oregon, and known as the Sno-Cat.
.WHAT TO INVENT
In this installment of this series of articles, the author presents some new problems for inventors. The right solutions and subsequent exploitations should bring the designers wealth and fame.
By Raymond Francis Yates
DURING the two years that I have been writing this department for Mechanics and Handicraft, many hundreds of letters have been received from readers.
