This reminds me of all those persistence of vision gadgets like clocks and hubcaps.

Autogiro Blades Form Screen for Floating Ads After Dark

DISPLAY advertising at night by means of a magic lantern suspended beneath an autogiro, with the rotating blades serving as a screen, is a German inventor’s latest medium for placing a product before the public eye.

The magic lantern assembly is placed in a torpedo shaped carriage equipped with vertical and horizontal rudders to keep it in perfect alignment with the autogiro flying above. It can be raised or lowered by means of a cable, for focusing the advertiser’s message on the blades. When landing, the projector is drawn up into the fuselage.

To insure perfect reproduction of the advertisement, the under sides of the rotor blades are specially treated. The autogiro has been found to be particularly adapted for this type of aerial advertising because of its ability to hover almost motionless in the air, while the blades revolve fast enough to form an uninterrupted screen.

HILL HOPPING A WORM DRIVE SLED

FROM California comes a radical innovation in motor driven vehicles, a worm drive ski-sled. Powered by a 35 horsepower engine, it negotiates the steepest, roughest inclines with ease, and on level snowfields has attained speeds of twenty and more miles per hour.
With a more powerful motor, considerably higher speeds are expected, and the initial success of the experimental model may lead
to an entirely new sport in the form of motor ski racing and jumping. In order to achieve the latter sport, it will be necessary to mount the runners on shock struts, both to protect the worm-drive blades and the rider. This would be a simple matter.
More practical vistas opened by this novel sled lie in its adaption to the needs of Arctic exploration parties in their long treks over snowbound wastes.

Plane Wing Carries 14 Men
SOVIET military aviators have converted an ordinary two-seater airplane into a troop transport carrying 14 soldiers by building a special compartment onto the bottom of the plane’s lower wing. The men lie in a prone position within the compartment and are fully protected from the wind.
In test flights the converted plane earned 14 men and gas spreading equipment with a total weight of 4,400 pounds at a speed of 111 m.p.h. The plane will be used in time of war to land special troops behind enemy lines, a military strategy resembling Soviet experiments with mass parachuting of troops. The plane can also be used to transport wounded soldiers to base hospitals.

Nickel Meter Stops Overparking
OKLAHOMA CITY is cashing in on its car- parking problem by charging all motorists a nickel to park for from 15 minutes up to an hour, depending on location. At each parking space on the curb is a nickel meter. When a nickel is inserted, a clock mechanism raises a red indicator for the allotted time. The traffic policeman, on making the rounds, passes out tickets where no indicator is showing.

Daring Bird-Man Soars At 10,000 Ft. On Homemade Wings

FOR three years Clem Sohn, parachute jumper of Lansing, Michigan, dreamed of the time when man might go aloft and soar like a bird. Recently his dream became a reality.

Clad with foot-webbing and home-made wings of airplane canvas, he bailed out of a ship at an altitude of 12,000 feet. During the first 2,000 feet of his fall, he kept his wings folded at his side while he tested his leg-webbing. Slowly, he opened his wings to check his descent, and for more than a minute he banked, looped, climbed and zoomed to right and left. At 6,000 feet he pulled the rip cord of his parachute and floated back to earth.

While aviation authorities who witnessed the stunt failed to see any practical value in man’s new “conquest of the air,” Sohn was already at work designing bigger wings and planning future aerial maneuvers.

God, are we really this lazy?
Oh wait, yes we are.

view additional pages

For Shopping, Golf-And Fun!

OF COURSE the lady seen above will have to add a windshield, light, horn and a license plate or two if she wants to take her Ramble-Seat on the road. But around the marina, plant, resort or golf course, it’s ready for use as is. This nifty electric is sold by Ramble-Seat, Box 74786, Los Angeles 4. Calif. It comes in a variety of models, some rugged, some for use as powered wheel chairs. Optionals are available to meet state vehicle codes. For maneuverability and versatility it’s hard to beat.—John and Irene Lenk

Read the rest of this entry »

Aero-Drive Desert BUS Replaces Camels
PROTECTED from tropical sand storms, desert travelers of the future may be able to whiz across the Sahara in monster 100-passenger aero-drive buses following radio beam highways. Camel caravans
would be out-moded bythe standard of comfort possible in the proposed buses.
Preliminary details of this whirring, bouncing giant of the sands call for propulsion entirely by air, with a 2500 h.p. aviation engine and pusher propeller mounted atop the roof. Most unusual feature of the desert bus is a series of spherical tires on each side which would provide good traction over the shifting sands. Directly back of the propeller is a steering fin which controls the direction of the ship.

This is the coolest boat model I’ve ever seen. You can ride around in it!

German Boys Build Scale Model Liners for Sea Cruises
EXPERT marine constructionists, between the ages of 9 and 16 are being developed in one of the most novel trade schools of the world at Potsdam, Germany. Under the tutelage of experienced marine engineers, the youths receive a thorough technical training in building exact replicas of real steamships on a scale of one to twenty.
Grades are given according to the aptitude and intelligence shown in building the model vessels. The plans from which the youth work are the same plans, scaled down, of such ships
as the Normandie and the Queen Mary. At the end of the school year, advanced students build models that can actually go to sea.

view additional pages

Power It with a PULSE JET

THIS model plane project uses what may be the smallest successful pulse-jet engine ever built. It was developed after scores of experiments and the building of a dozen test models by Hiram Sibley, Jr., a California guided-missile engineer.

Read the rest of this entry »

view additional pages

Inventors Patent Odd Designs For Safer Planes

Unusual ships, straying away from accepted designs, are being tried in an effort to increase safety and simplify air travel. Some of thef ideas are shown here!

The odd looking barrel shaped airplane above is based on the patent of Hans G. E. Roth, of New Rochelle. N. Y. It differs from the successful Stipa-Caproni barrel shaped ship, built some time ago in Italy, in that the propellers are not mounted within the tunnel itself and in the curious arrangement of vertical fins above and below the main wing. These fins aid in lateral and directional control. Passenger accommodations would probably be located in the thickened portion of die barrel about the main wing, while die crew would be in the lower fin as shown above.

Read the rest of this entry »

Glass Cooky Jar Becomes Diving Bell
DIVING enthusiasts for more than a year, the twin brothers, Joe and Jerome Maurice, 17-year-old high school students of Fond du Lac, Wis., invaded their mother’s pantry for their 1935-version diving helmet.
A heavy glass cooky jar was selected to form the bell of the helmet, and thick sheet copper was sealed to this to form the breast plates and shoulder supports for the jar.
Several improvements in construction were added to the new model. The air valve was placed within easy reach of the right hand, with the air hose entering the helmet from below to prevent kinking. The helmet may be swiftly slipped off in the event of accident below water.
The greatest advantage of the cooky jar diving bell is that it permits full vision in all directions with ample safety. Air is supplied through a two-cylinder pump at a pressure of 30 pounds per square inch. At a depth of 35 feet, the helmet functioned perfectly.
The helmet the twins used in 1934 was made from the end of a water tank, with a top air valve and welded port window for observation. The imperfections of this helmet led to the invention of the new one.

Cycle Engine Gives 50 m.p.h. Speed to Wheel Chair
A THREE-WHEELED chair built around a motorcycle engine brought Norman Tapper, 23-year-old Californian whose legs have been paralyzed since childhood, to Indianapolis almost a month before the start of the 500-mile auto race. The motorized chair was parked at the gate of the Speedway, to make certain of a good position on the day of the race.
Tapper asserted that this novel wheel chair, which he built himself from motorcycle and automobile parts, reached 50 miles an hour on the long drive from California to Indianapolis.