Nope, nothing scary here. Who would have a problem hanging out in a tin can being dangled a few thousand feet below a blimp? I’m not really sure what the propeller is supposed to do. Are they saying there is actually an engine in the capsule?
NEW OBSERVATION CAR FOR AIRSHIP
Nicknamed the “flying fish,” a new type of observation car for airships has been constructed by a Viennese engineer. Like the “sky car,” used occasionally by United States airships, it may be lowered on a cable through the clouds while the airship is in flight. The Viennese invention, however, has its own propeller, enabling the observer to maneuver his gondola. The fishlike tail is flexible and may be swung from side to side, serving as a rudder. Because of its slender, streamlined shape, the gondola is invisible from the earth at comparatively low altitudes.
WHAT’S WRONG With Uncle Sam’s Navy?
A naval officer frankly discloses just how badly American defense has suffered through inadequate building program.
by Lieut. John Edwin Hogg, U.S.N.R.
(Note: The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and should not be construed as reflecting the official views or opinions of the Navy Department.)
AS THESE lines are written the American navy is in the worst condition of decrepitude and impotence that has ever marked its history.
Pacifist domination and sheer neglect has left us with a navy so skeletonized and anaemic as to threaten our national security. Among some none-too-friendly neighbor nations armed to the teeth and in a world seething with social, political, and economic unrest, we find ourselves with a run-down battle fleet that is only 65 per cent of the estimated strength necessary for national defense. Moreover, this precariously weakened “first line of national defense” is only 85 per cent manned!
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FIRST Transatlantic Air Line LINKS TWO CONTINENTS
By Rene Leonhardt
SLIDING down the map 1,800 miles from the bulging west coast of upper Africa to the projecting northeastern tip of South America, a few weeks hence, a flying boat will inaugurate the world’s first regularly-scheduled transatlantic airline.
This aerial bridge across the South Atlantic will link Bathurst, just west of the Sahara, in British Gambia, with Pernambuco, south of the Amazon, in Brazil. It will clip nine days from the traveling time between Berlin, Germany, and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
At first, the big machines, on a biweekly schedule, will carry only mail and express. Later, passengers will be accommodated as well. Following the trail blazed by daring ocean flyers, the pilots will take off surrounded by elaborate precautions and aided by the last word in navigation instruments. For behind the project lies more than three years of intensive preparation by the Lufthansa, the great air transportation organization of Germany.
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One Man Bicycle Dirigible
A dirigible balloon, run by foot power with bicycle drive, is being built by a Vermont inventor.
INTEREST in aviation is by no means exclusively confined to light airplanes, as is demonstrated by the number of letters contributed to Modern Mechanics’ Shop
Mail Box in which the writers inquire as to the possibility of constructing a small dirigible balloon which can be operated by man power. A dirigible powered with a bicycle, as depicted in the drawing above and as shown on the cover of the magazine this month, is under process of construction by Ray Fraser, of Brattleboro, Vermont. As planned by Mr. Fraser, the bag of his balloon will be 30 feet long by 15 feet in diameter.
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This sounds like a lot of fun. As long as they keep the Hindenburg filled with helium and not hydrogen on that first leg.
Now You Can Fly Around the World
TWO NEW AIRWAYS MAKE IT POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO BUY A TICKET FOR A TWENTY-DAY AERIAL JAUNT AROUND THE GLOBE
By John E. Lodge
OUT of the sky over Lakehurst, N. J., a few days hence, the enormous silver Von Hindenburg, biggest Zeppelin ever built, is scheduled to nose down for a landing at the end of its maiden voyage to America. Not many weeks later, the four-engined, twenty-five-ton China Clipper will head out past the promontories of the Golden Gate on its first passenger flight to the Orient.
Those two events will forge the final links in a vast chain of airways to encircle the globe. Before the end of this summer, you will be able to buy tickets for an aerial circuit of the earth as easily as you now purchase them for a round-the-world cruise by steamer. Years of preparation, the flights of daring pioneers, and the latest advances in engineering and radio have given a solid foundation to what, but a few short decades ago, was a seemingly impossible dream.
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Tiny Blimps Carry Flying Electric Signs
BILLBOARD blimps, carrying” flashing neon signs through the night sky above big cities, form the latest innovation in spectacular advertising. The aerial electric signs, developed and patented by Goodyear Rubber Co. experts, spell out sentences a word at a time like many of the big displays on New York’s Great White Way.
Ten lighting units, each approximately six feet high and four feet wide and formed of a maze of curving and zigzag neon tubes, are attached to the side of the semirigid dirigible before the take-off. An ingenious hooking arrangement permits them to be attached or removed in a few minutes. Each unit is capable of producing any number or any letter of the alphabet.
During the flight, an automatic mechar nism makes the proper contacts to spell out the desired words on the side of the blimp. Perforated tape, similar to that used in player pianos, runs through the switching mechanism, the perforations tripping mechanical fingers to make the electrical connections. The sign remains the same until the next series of perforations is encountered, flashing on another series of letters.
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Do Wild Radio Waves Cause Air Disasters?
Millions of horsepower of high-frequency electric energy, running “wild” in the air, may be the cause of mysterious disasters to aircraft, such as the loss of the Akron, the dirigible R-101, Knute Rockne’s airplane, and scores of others. How these amazing currents affect not only airplanes but your body, your home, and any objects that fail in tune with them, is explained in this unusual article on the unseen menace from the sky.
by BURTON MANFRED
THE radio experts of the United States Navy have recently completed a series of astounding experiments, experiments that prove far beyond the shadow of human error that there is a new menace in the sky. Hour after hour, day after day countless thousands of horsepower of high-frequency electric energy is being pumped into the air by great radio stations and other high-frequency machinery which has become a part of our civilization.
Only an infinitesimal speck of this prodigious output of energy is consumed by the radio receivers of the world. What happens to the rest? Does it become a wild and roving source of death and destruction or does it rush into the frigid voids of space never to return to the earth?
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Seems like that would be a pretty slow rescue…
U.S. Navy Blimps Learn New Role for Sea Rescues
With the aid of new airship inventions, U. S. Navy blimps can now “anchor” ” 100 feet above the sea, and pick up ill sailors or victims of shipwreck. A circular disk called a “drogue,” dropped into the sea at the end of a cable, keeps the craft’s nose pointed steadily into the wind.
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