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Streamline Beauties Lure Travelers to Rails

ROLLING along railways of the world at greater than mile-a-minute speeds, streamlined trains are conquering time and space in an attempt to keep the traveling public from deserting the rails for airplanes and motor buses.

Three choices have been offered to the jury of travelers—the ordinary steam train running on faster schedules, the beautiful Diesel-powered streamliner, and the light weight steam streamliner in its gleaming new dress of chromium and brass. A fourth contestant recently entered the picture—a turbine-drive steam locomotive that may surpass all others in speed, safety, and comfort.

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Motor Unicycle Proves Fast, Safe
A SPECTACULAR demonstration of unicycle operation was given in Los Angeles recently when Walter Nilsson, California inventor, drove his specially constructed machine 18 miles per hour in second gear without the aid of a pneumatic tire.
His unicycle consists of a single outer wheel driven by an inner wheel held in a stationary frame and powered by a one-cylinder motor. The engine is mounted motorcycle fashion between the rider’s legs. Steering is accomplished by means of a secret device which tilts the outer wheel while permitting the rider to remain upright.
With the arrival of a pneumatic tire, Nilsson expects to be able to attain 100 miles per hour.

Exhaust Flame-Thrower is a new gadget for hot-rodders. Spark plugs set in the exhaust pipes ignite unburned gas in the vents which shoot out flames to a distance of 20 ft. on fast starts. It’s noiseless and police want an excuse to prohibit it.

“Fill’er Up with Cold Air!”
Texas gas stations are delighting motorists with a new kind of free air. When a car stops for gas, a nozzle fixed to an air conditioner is poked in the window. Station attendants say temperature inside the car drops as much as 20 degrees in two minutes.

It seems like they didn’t quite understand that the planes were the important part, not the tower.

Giant Air TOWER to GUARD PARIS
TO GET defense aircraft into action more quickly, architects of Paris have worked out plans for a huge aerodrome tower, more than a mile in height, which will literally hurl planes, into the air at the 5000-ft. level, ready for combat.
High-speed elevators would bring planes from the roof-top-level landing field up to each of the three aerodrome platforms. Swooping downward after leaving the inclined take-off platform, planes would reach flying speed with little loss of altitude.

If he actually tried to jump off that cliff with those I’m guessing this is the last picture of him alive.

Oregon Man Builds Flapping Wings for Mountain Gliding
WITH only a pair of strange cloth-covered wings strapped over his arms, Joe Fodie of Rowena, Oregon, hopes to glidfe through space by the power of his arms alone, after jumping from a mountain top precipice. Should this intrepid inventor glide safely to earth, it will be the first time man has flown through the air under his own power. The queer wings are hinged at their center, with a stop to prevent them from buckling upward. As the arms are moved upward in flight, the outer halves of the wings would naturally fold inward; on the downward stroke they flatten out again, providing lifting power. Fodie designed his wing action to resemble as closely as possible the flapping motion characteristic of a bird in flight.

George Andrews, of Akron. Ohio, who likes to drive midget racers, wants his son to follow in his footsteps; so he built this “midget midget” for Junior. It isn’t powered now, but George plans to mount a Ford starter motor on the rear axle. Eventually, after Junior masters the battery-driven job, a one-cylinder gasoline engine will be employed for power.

AUTO RADIO “DE LUXE”
TO MEET the growing need for broadcasting from outside points, the National Broadcasting Company, of Chicago, 111., has outfitted a new car with all necessary equipment for this type of work. The vehicle is capable of traveling from place to place at high speeds.

The equipment for this mobile unit consists of two transmitters, three receivers and a gasoline driven generator, all compactly mounted in a specially built touring sedan. Considerable weight reduction was achieved by discarding storage batteries and substituting the generator for the transmitters’ power supply.

Immediately in back of the front seat is the control panel and console, which houses the ultra-high frequency receiver and the specially designed four-stage high gain audio amplifier. To the rear, in the space usually occupied by the back seat, is a large compartment containing a fifty-watt transmitter, used for stationary broadcasts. A forty-watt ultra-high frequency transmitter is used for mobile broadcasts. The mobile unit is so designed that one man can drive and broadcast at the same time.

Meet the FORD ATMOS
ONE of the wildest “dream” cars ever to roll out of a Michigan experimental laboratory is the creature shown above, the FX-Atmos—built by Ford and backed up by the determination that “it shall never be built for sale.” This, say the engineers, is purely a “car of the future,” however
it represents styling concepts that could easily appear in the Fords of a few years from now, if the general public accepts them. The engine design and other mechanical factors were not included in this project. Wheelbase is 105 inches; length: 220.58 inches; height: 48.1 inches.

Metal Rotors Help Helicopter Fight Ice

All-metal rotor blades and a cabin floor hatch are novel features of a Sikorsky helicopter being tested by the Navy for use on carriers, battleships and cruisers. The blades are more easily adapted to de-icing equipment than the wooden ones now used and are less likely to be damaged. Air-sea rescues and cargo loading are simplified by the hatch. To protect deck personnel and prevent the blades from striking a rolling deck during landings on heavy seas, the tail rotor is mounted on an arm that extends upward high enough to give full head clearance. Designated the XHJS-1. the craft carries five, has a 110-mile-an-hour top speed and range of 330 miles.

Jet Powers Boat
Powered by a jet-aircraft engine, a new hydroplane has been built in England for an assault on the U.S.-held water speed record of 178.497 miles per hour. Pilot of the hydroplane is Donald Campbell, son of the late Sir Malcolm Campbell, whose Bluebird held the speed record in the late 1930s. The new craft, also called Bluebird, is driven by the jet discharge into the air, as in an airplane. Steering is achieved with a marine-type rudder. The new Bluebird reportedly has excited the interest of both American and British Naval officials.

While this does look fun, it seems like one would want a bus to have a bit more stability. A bus that hurls hurling passengers around would not be that fun to ride on.

Check out the history of mono-wheel vehicles here. (via)

DYNO-WHEEL Drives New MOTOR BUS

Rolling along on a single huge wheel, this motor bus combines safety with high speed.
by VICTOR J. PESEK

PROMISING to revolutionize the field of motor transportation, the new Dyno-Wheel bus operates upon practically the same principle as the tiny “Dynasphere” auto which was successfully built by Dr. J. A. Purves of Taunton, England, some years ago.
A single huge drum wheel supports the car at high speeds. Control wheels on either side are raised or lowered in response to the steering gear, to tip the bus slightly and change the direction of travel. Small fore and aft wheels come into action only when stopping or starting. A stabilizing fin keeps the car level at high speeds.