The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-07-22

stop, hours --...--...- OF ~
Il will leave to the imagination of the
reader the forecasting of the CORE
spending figures for the year 1872 anu
1913. 1t is easy to see that the business
will be put into hundreds of millions
of dollars, that so or 100 passengers
may be carried in one machine and
more than 1000 miles may be covered
without a stop.
But there surely must come a check
to this feverish increase, this flying
unless some means can be found TO
make machines less cranky than now
They are at present too hazardous Tor
men with families to venture up. NO
one with responsibilities has any more
right to be in an aeroplane today than
/ he has to ride a, motorcycle, or &C into
an automobile race, or climb mountains
or go hunting. Eighty people were
killed last year while trying to ClLm0
mountains. About 4C have been killed
since we tried to fly. Let us not speak
of the 1900 killed by our railroads
because there are hundreds OF n1lllonS
of passenger journeys in a year and
there are only a few thousand flyers
Yet flying is becoming daily more safe
and the average of fatalities IS begin
ming to approach the railroad standard.
Defects of Modern AerOpIane.
when will flying be safe, if ever?
When certain serious and clear deIects
in modern machines are overcome
What are these defects? I viii ennm-
crate the principal ones-four in num-
ber
I'D The motor many fail-probable
"(2) The pilot may fail-a probable
fall
@(8) Wind may upset nnachine-prob-
able fall.
30 In landing the ground may be
rough or through some other cause the
landing wheels may smash, thus en-
Gangering machine and occupants
Are there no remedies? Remedies
are clear.
I'D Mere than one motor.
! "C2) More than one pilot.
"(3) A machine which will swing in
the air with automatic stability like
| pendulum or parachute or keel yacht
20 A stout landing gear provided
with very large strong wheels which
will not break and which will ride over
rough ground
"All of these remedies are very sim
pie and require only mechanical IN
genuity to work out. They all presup-
4 pose a machine of considerable lifting
power-a machine Weighing tons rath-
er than pounds But when they are all
applied in one machine-and expect to
see this done this year-it will mean
that the fall-proof smash-proOf MA
chine has arrived
And when that machine has come.
What then?
Travel Will Be Fast and Safe.
Then the aeroplane will be robbed Of
| danger and inside of five years-let US
say 1915-the aeroplane will be the
| sNviftest, the cheapest and the safest
means of travel from one point to an
| other The consequence will be that
much long distance passenger travel
| will seek the air in preference TO rail-
or sea-nost of it.
That such travel will be swift, is
/ will Ia
cheap can be readily proved-one
| horse power will support more than %
| pounds in the air, ard the amount OF
gasoline required to produce horse
power for an hour is known The aero
motor of the future will probably use
! kerosene or heavier oil. The air travel
win be safe in the very near future for
those who get good machines, 1 hope
| have made clear.
Il have not set forth anything that
the conservative engineer and any close
student of matters aeronautie cannot
readily disclose for himself. [ do not
care to be concerned with wild fancles-
i BaIlooning in Topeka.
| 'By the way, several thousand people
took paid passenger trips in the big
German dirigible airsnip last year,
some Of the companies earning enough
to pay off the ship in one year
ALSO in Germany, country OF $1,000
600, Of poor frugal people with dear gas
from still dearer coal there are more
than 500 balloon pilots-and Germany is
surrounded with ocean, mountains and
uncertain weather.
In the United States we have only Il
pilots-I hope to get license No. 42-yet
in Topeka tapping the great natural
gas belt Cheap gas) hundreds of miles
to mountains or fresh water and nearly
a thousand miles to the ocean, we have
absolutely ideal ballooning conditions.
the best in the world without exception.
A trip can be made for as little as IS.
Very rarely does one cost over SIS. And
the balloon IS the kindergarten of the
air, of air study, of air conditions, of
getting used to altitude, etc.
How many balloons in Topeka in
1872? My guess is six-one Of them will
De little one all my own. Who is
lnext?''