Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1913-01-16
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very remarkable rate Friends of mine" he
said who are experts on the scientific aspects
Of airmanship, predict that eventually speeds OF
200 miles and 800 miles an hour will be possible.
At this, ones imagination is apt to reel, but
this much is certain: If the flying machine is
to become Of real Importance, and not remain
always a sporting toy, it must be speedier than
any method of transit on land"
Perhaps he is convinced that his new four
motor arrangement will give him 100 miles
tinuousy. He must have that to make his jour-
ney in the time he has set Jules Vedrines has
flown at the rate Of trife better than los miles
an hour and George Fourny holds a record of
fifteen hours Of continuous flight. Nothing like
union of the two records has yet been known
and if Grahame-White succeeds according to his
promise he viii have approached and bet
tered the other
1t may seem strange, but to the aviator the
matter of swiftness is a secondary consideration
in the problem To him the lifting power is the
thing that counts. One prominent aviator figured
the other day that on such trip as Grahame-
White plans he would under known conditions
have to carry fuel amounting in weight to more
than 900 pounds.
1t is estimated that average aeroplane mo-
tor with a speed capacity of sixty miles hour
will average five gallons of gasoline
an hour and one gallon of lubricating oil. Both
these weigh approximately six pounds gallon.
Grahame-White is to have four motors and stay
in the air thirty hours. The result is simple
figuring.
The main difficulty, then will be in producing
aaroplane which has the power to make a
tremendous lift without materially reducing its
speed. 1t is generally conceded that the type of
airship used will be necessarily biplane the
dainty monoplane is not weight carrier Even
the biplane has not yet shown power of moving
the tremendous weight which it is estimated the
crOssseas adventurer must carry.
In France there is a record of a machine of
this sort lifting thirteen people from the ground
That. however. q hop and not a
tanned flight. At best only 1850 pounds of human
freight was thus carried if each person is al
lowed $50 pounds.
Whatever improvements Grahame-White may
have in his machine it is certain that he
must have unusual lifting power even if he has
discovered some means of cutting his oil and
gasoline requirements He viii have to have a
tremendous drive to overcome the drag of the
weight in his storage tanks.
TIC achieve what he has set out to DO he will
have to secure a machine OF a type superior to
anything that has been far in motor
equipment in strength, steadiness, and speed
His motors will have to better the continuous
flight record by half, equal the speed record and
beat the lifting record by long odds.
Granted, however that he will have at his
command machine equal to all emergencies he
will still have the ocean to cross. That in the
estimation of the aviator is the least of his trou
bles. Philip ". Page aviator, expert in the man
agement of hydroplanes, and one of the foremost
crosswater flyers. expressed the views of many
of his fellow-airmen in discussing this phase of
the proposed fight the other afternoon.
"Of course he said, there is possibility of
making a flight from continent to continent.
Such flight however, presupposes an aeroplane
theoretically perfect for the purpose. With such
machine the journey would be by
terrifying as most people imagine If the aviator
were sure of staying in the air and making the
required speed the rest under normal condi-
lions would be one of the simplest kinds of flying
-straightaway over an unimpeded course.
Contrary to the general belief, he would have
conditions better than those land. The winds
in the summer should be steady and never very
strong. He would encounter no buildings, trees
or abrupt changes in the face of the country to
split his air currents. Almost any aviator will
tell you that he prefers forty-mile steady to
ffteen-mile puffy wind
THE airhole theory has come to be a good
deal of myth, but there still troublesome
up and down trends of the atmosphere which
lend no little difficulty to land flying These are
caused in large measure from sudden obstruc-
ton to air currents and from radiation.
The atmosphere over the ocean is not sub
ject to these distractions nor is it affected by