Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1912-11-07

already about six hundred feet up when Lieu
tenant Rurez overlook him, passing at greater
speed something like hundred feet above.
Lieutenant Burlezs machine created, it is said,
a downward moving hole in the air, and this
struck Lieutenant Briefs monoplane in such
manner as to destroy its equilibrium Lieutenant
Briez and his machine were dashed to the earth,
the aviator having both legs broken and belng
otherwise seriously but not fatally injured. IN
this case the innocent cause of the accident was
the movement of the aeroplane passing above
at a height of q hundred feet, while Mile. Du-
tTieu's drop was probably brought about by the
maneuvering of the two mOnoplanes beneath
her. These accidents have brought face to
face with new problems in the art of mechanical
fight-they show us that we have much to learn
about the air in which are seeking to vie
with the bird.
The man in the street has a mistaken notion
of what these air holes really are; he imaglnes
that they are areas of partial vacuum which fail
to give the flying machine proper support. The
hazard they present is reasonably pictured all
the greater because there is no visible sign Of
their presence-the aircraft just suddenly starts
to drop and may fall several hundred feet before
the movement can be corrected, if corrected at
all. If successful the incest judgment is required
on the part of the aviator lest he suddenly bring
pressure to bear upon his planes in excess Of
their reserve of strength. Collapse OF this sort
has happened with dire results upon number OF
occasions. But. Notwithstanding these physical
err sense of the word, the term air hole is mis-
homer and a cavity as such does not really exist.
Did you ever watch the surface agitation of
boiling pot? Well that is substantially dupli-
cation of just what is going on in the air about
US. The earth acts like a great reflector Of the
suns heat and starts the air boiling below here
where we are and sends it upward in great col
umns of rising atmosphere like the movement Of
the boiling water in the pot. This is what the
meteorOIOgist calls conventional disturbances"
of the atmosphere and he tells US that this state
Of things would not annoy the aviator if the ven
turesome airman would only keep aloft at
height Of from four to five miles-a matter of
from 21OOO to 26000 feet in round numbers!
Georges LegagneuX has recently reached the
amazing height of 1876 feet
We are all familiar with the old saying, What
goes up must come down" In the agitated belt
Of air the upward rising column of air is
replaced by a descending column of cooler air.
The downward moving column is what really
stitutes the socalled holes" of the aeronaut's
parlance The layman scarcely appreciates the
conditions that are bringing about this convec-
ton or boiling motion. When the sun strikes the
earth the air is heated and rises; in the shadow
of a cloud the air is cooler and descending. This
tsee-sawing is of greater or lesser magnitude de-
pending upon the directness of the suns rays
and the temperature of the air when shaded
The evenness of the aviators fight the uni
formity of his line of Observation-Disclosures you
choose to call it's controlled by the consistency
of the pressure which the air eEerts on the
under or lifting side of the planes his machine
is driven forward by its motor. The net result
is a sustaining or lifting moment as the engineer
expresses it If the approaching air, instead Of