January 6, 2012

HOSPITAL ON AIRSHIP MAY SWEEP PATIENTS ABOVE CLOUDS IN QUEST OF MORE SUNLIGHT (Jul, 1930)

HOSPITAL ON AIRSHIP MAY SWEEP PATIENTS ABOVE CLOUDS IN QUEST OF MORE SUNLIGHT

For persons suffering with tuberculosis, or just from nerves, will physicians soon prescribe a trip to the clouds in a flying clinic instead of a visit to the mountains?

Not long ago Charles L. Julliot, French lawyer, proposed that airplanes or dirigibles transport such patients above the clouds. His suggestion, which America hears was approved by the medical faculties of France, called attention to the fact that high altitude and sunshine produce well-known changes in the blood, in many cases beneficial. Read the rest of this entry »

November 10, 2011

A Whole Mess of Stuff I Couldn’t Easily Separate (Dec, 1929)

Graphic Section

All the characteristics of a mammoth ocean liner are reproduced in the “Columbus,” the miniature ship shown above. It is 25 feet long and was constructed by a German engineer at a cost of #4000. Top photo shows the model coming into dock under its own power after a practice spin; below it appears a close-up of the ship. It is driven by an electric motor.

Neil Hamilton, movie actor, demonstrates a revolving camera for taking “dizzy” shots in which rooms and people tumble all over the screen.

Novel Automobile Is Driven By a Single Wheel at Rear.
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August 17, 2011

Crashing a Zeppelin for Fun (May, 1931)

Crashing a Zeppelin for Fun

by DICK COLE

who gives you a look behind the scenes of the most spectacular air thriller ever made.

Jealously guarded secrets of the amazing Zeppelin crash in “Hell’s Angels” now revealed to Dick Cole by Howard Hughes, the producer of this spectacular movie.

“Wasn’t it marvelous! How in the world did they ever take it?”

Such exclamations and questions are heard on every side as a teeming crowd pours forth from a theater after seeing “Hell’s Angels” -—the outstanding aerial war picture of the day. And it is little wonder! For several hours the spectators have been soaring 10,000 feet above the earth in a huge, wartime Zeppelin, or they have been sky-riding in a giant bombing plane. Read the rest of this entry »

August 2, 2011

HOSPITAL ON AIRSHIP MAY SWEEP PATIENTS ABOVE CLOUDS IN QUEST OF MORE SUNLIGHT (Jul, 1930)

HOSPITAL ON AIRSHIP MAY SWEEP PATIENTS ABOVE CLOUDS IN QUEST OF MORE SUNLIGHT

For persons suffering with tuberculosis, or just from nerves, will physicians soon prescribe a trip to the clouds in a flying clinic instead of a visit to the mountains?

Not long ago Charles L. Julliot, French lawyer, proposed that airplanes or dirigibles transport such patients above the clouds. His suggestion, which America hears was approved by the medical faculties of France, called attention to the fact that high altitude and sunshine produce well-known changes in the blood, in many cases beneficial. Add to this the natural exhilaration of an air trip, he says, and the effect might be even better than that of a mountain vacation (P. S. M., Mar. ’30, p. 34). Read the rest of this entry »

July 21, 2011

New Midget Scouts of the Air (May, 1930)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 7:45 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: May, 1930
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“From then on I was too consarned cold to feel anything very much.”
I thought consarned was a typo, but it would have been weird since the correct replacement would have been “consumed by” or “concerned with the”. Turns out it means: confounded; damned.

New Midget Scouts of the Air

by Lieut. RALPH S. BARNABY, U.S.N. First Man to Pilot a Glider from a Dirigible

If scouts were important to old style warfare, they are doubly important to the new warfare of the air. Army and Navy officials have experimented with every possible idea. Only recently they tested the value of gliders for scout work from dirigibles at Lakehurst. Lieut. Barnaby tells here his story of gliding a motorless ship from the dirigible Los Angeles.
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April 21, 2011

Junior High School Students Build This Model Dirigible (Aug, 1929)

Wow, I think they got ripped off. That’s $9661 in 2011 dollars.

Junior High School Students Build This Model Dirigible

FLYING on a swivel under its own power, this model dirigible shown above was made by members of a class in aeronautics in Hamilton Junior high school, Long Beach, California.

A vacuum cleaner fan and motor were attached to the model and propel it about in a circle at a rapid rate of speed. It was made of wood and metal at a cost of $750 to the school.

The model demonstrates the newly dis- covered principle of aircraft propulsion invented by F. Slade Dale. The rapidly revolving blades of a centrifugal fan whirl the air away from the bow center. This causes a partial lowering of air pressure at the bow and the atmospheric pressure on the rear portions of the ship drive it forward.

The miniature dirigible was built under the supervision of John Hodgson, former engineer and aviator, now an instructor.

March 10, 2011

A New Dirigible with Wings (Jul, 1929)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 8:46 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jul, 1929
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A New Dirigible with Wings

INTENDED to revolutionize air and sea travel, a novel amphibian airship which combines various features of Zeppelin, airplane, and ship construction has been designed by Capt. William F. Cooper of Los Angeles, Cal. The model of his airship which is shown in the photos above is one ninety-sixth the size the air-liner will be when completed. With a wing spread of 200 feet, a length of 800 feet, and a gas-bag diameter of 135 feet, the airship will be the largest and most unusual craft ever to take the air.
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January 24, 2011

Around the World with the Graf Zeppelin (Nov, 1929) (Nov, 1929)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 8:26 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Nov, 1929
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Around the World with the Graf Zeppelin

Circumnavigating the globe in 21 days, the Graf Zeppelin has broken all records for speed in traveling around the world. Little known facts concerning the giant airship, its commander, and the world flight are presented below.
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December 28, 2010

Graphic Science Section (Jan, 1930) (Jan, 1930)

Filed under: General — @ 9:58 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1930
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Graphic Science Section

Jimmy Terry, billed as the world’s greatest rope walker, recently walked between two Chicago buildings 39 stories above the ground. The stunt required skill and nerve, but the rope walker’s balancing pole was arranged as shown in the oval inset so that his task was greatly simplified. The pendulum effect of the weight at the pole’s end actually brought gravity to the aid of the performer, holding the pole upright so that he could balance himself by it. Read the rest of this entry »

July 30, 2010

Nautilus May Meet Zeppelin at Pole (Aug, 1931) (Aug, 1931)

Nautilus May Meet Zeppelin at Pole
Details of the methods by which the Graf Zeppelin and the Nautilus, Sir Hubert Wilkins’ polar submarine, hope to complete at the North Pole the most amazing rendezvous in all history, are pictured in the above drawing. The map shows the route these craft will follow. The Nautilus, described in detail in last month’s issue of Modern Mechanics and Inventions, is now on its way to the North Pole.

July 2, 2010

Uncle Sam’s Amazing Warship of the Sky (Sep, 1931)

Filed under: Aviation,War — @ 8:20 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Sep, 1931
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Uncle Sam’s Amazing Warship of the Sky

by DR. KARL ARNSTEIN

(Vice President and Chief Engineer, Goodyear Zeppelin Corp.)
As told to JAY EARLE MILLER

The biggest airship in the world, an amazing structure which is veritably a flying battleship, is practically finished and ready for test flights by the U. S. Navy, The man who supervised the design of this warship of the sky reveals here the fascinating mechanical details of its construction.

ABOUT the time this article appears in print the largest lighter-than-air ship ever built—the 6,500,000 cubic feet Akron will be walked out of the world’s largest airship dock, or hangar, for its initial trial flight.

When the Akron takes to the air, the dream of Count Zeppelin—a super-airship capable of taking its place in world commerce—will have been realized. Not that the Akron is such a ship, for it is purely a military craft, a sort of flying battleship, built for scouting work with the fleet at sea, but it contains within it all the essentials which the coming trans-oceanic air liners will need, save actual passenger compartments. Read the rest of this entry »

April 19, 2010

Crew Risked Lives to Repair Graf Zeppelin (Jan, 1929)

Filed under: Aviation — @ 12:03 am
Source: Modern Mechanix ( More articles from this issue )
Issue: Jan, 1929
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Crew Risked Lives to Repair Graf Zeppelin

by EUGENE GRANT who interviewed the Zeppelin crew.

BUFFETED by the wind, with a torn fin, the Graf Zeppelin faced destruction unless the damage could be repaired. Here is the inside story of how the daring crew climbed onto the fin and saved this giant from destruction.

LITTLE has been told of that remarkable feat performed by the crew of the Graf Zeppelin in repairing the port horizontal fin damaged by the storms and threatening the destruction of the great air liner on the first passenger trip by air to the United States. Read the rest of this entry »

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