Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-24
INVISIBLE AEROPLANES
NOW NEAR POSSIBILITY
Government Aviation Officers
Discover Material Which Is
Almost Transparent.

/ The invisible aeroplane, which has so
long been a newspaper joke and a dis
tant dream of idealists, is now a near
possibility. owing to a new material that
has been discovered by some OF the gov
eminent aviation officers. This material
is about like transparent celuloid and
much like the backing now used for
Photographic films. 1t is non-inflamma BILE,
flexible and tough.
1t can be made in sheets of any thick
ness and size, and the War Department
has already ordered several gallons more
OF it for experimental purposes. That is
one of the features of the material, that
1t comes by the gallon rather than the
square foot. and SO can be nodded into
any form Of plane covering without even
stretching to the frame.
1t has been tested for strength and
weight. and is both lighter and stronger
per square foot than canvas. 1t is as
smooth as glass. so that the element Of
SKIN friction which is considerable in a
man-carrying aeroplane is reduced to
negligible factor. The new material can
be burned through. but the fire does not
spread. A cigarette held against 1t will
simply burn a round hole in it without
doing further damage.
Invisible at 500 Feet.
The engine. the aviator and the frame
of the machine are still opaoue as
usual, but it has been found by experi
ment that when 500 square feet of sur
face are made invisible the aeroplane
when stood on edge is practically in
visible at 500 feet. This is much closer
than an aeroplane will ever operate
under war conditions. and with a
mumed motor the aeroplane will be
not only unseen, but unheard
Experiments have already been tried
by the army with a muffied motor. and
1t has been found that the only obiec-
ton to II Is that it is SO quiet the
aviator cannot hear whether or not his
engine is missing fire.. This scan be
remedied by partly opening the muffier
so that with the transparent wings the
aviator can operate unseen and un-
heard against any sort Of sky for q
background
The transparent wing material was
regarded as such an important dis
covery from military standpoint that
1T was seriously discussed whether or
not it should be preserved as a military
SECRET. but it was decided that it had
always been the policy Of this govern
ment to make important discoveries
and then throw them open to, the world
and that il the invisible machines were
built some Of the foreign military at
taches were sure to find out about it
anyhow, so there was no further at
tempt at secrecy.
Carrying on Experiments.
In the same connection the army has
been carrying on an interesting series of
tests with an aeroplane that is as near
"fool- pr oof" as it is possible now to make
it. The machine is based on the recent
experiments of NJ. Gustave Eiffel, who
found that two planes travelling tandem
and set at slightly different angles, were
inherently very stable fore and aft This
ifs a return to the old idea of tandem
monoplanes first used by the late Prof
Langley and copied in all but its most
useful details by Bleriot when he was
experimenting with monOp1anes.
1t is almost impossible to upset the new