Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-07-24
GYRoScoPE IN AVIATION
Long Sought Stabiizer Performs As
tonishins Feats of Maintained Bal

| Close your eyes and try TO DO the same
thing, and 1t Is not as simple as 1t
seems. This, however is exactly the
| situation in which an aviator finds
himself when he flies into a fog bank.
But here the result of a mistake is in
fintely more serious. There is nothing
] for his eye to take as a basis from
which to form any judgment, and he is
| forced to rely on the instructive y ork-
] ings of his muscles.
This is only one Of the reasons why
some automatic stabiliZer has been
sought so much of late years. On June
IS last at Bezons, France, Lawrence B.
Sperry drove a Curtis hydroplane
equipped with a gyroscopic stabilizer
and performed feats that would have
been pronounced impossible a few
years ago. His father, Elmer A. Sper-
ry, was the inventor.
Standing up in his machine with
both hands in the air, touching no lev
ers, the young man told his mechanic TO
climb out on one Of the planes. The
man did so, yet he had no more desire
to die than you or have. He calmly
obeyed ORDERS stepped out on the wing
as he might have sauntered out on the
balcony Of house. Nothing happened.
The machine maintained a horizontal
course, while the allerons did extra
work Lateral stability had been dem
onstrated. Next the mechanic climbed
aft toward the propeller some five or
six feet. Again the machine was un-
disturbed. Longitudinal stability was
proven.
1t Is almost needless to add that
stabilizer that will stand such tests as
these will stand equally well unfavor-
able weather conditions. NJ Rene Quin-
| ton, president Of the National Aerial
| League of France, was taken up by
| Sperry later, in a strong, gusty wind
that whipped the branches Of the trees
along the Seine. This remarkable
young man, Sperry-he Is only 2l-
| thereupon proceeded to set the auto
matte device for a rise Of forty-five de-
grees to the horizon. Without touching
his hands to any control except his
steering wheel he continued in that po-
sition as long as he wanted to, and M.
Quinton testifes he felt as II he were
in an ordinary machine on calm day.
| 1t must be remembered that all this
time, in which about a half mile was
covered, the hydroplane was automati-
cally compensating for every blast Of
wind that struck it, and M. Quinton in
sisted that there was a gale blowing at
the time.
Four small horoscopes do the gov
erning. Two Of them take care Of the
longitudinal equilibrium. Each is in its
own air tight case, so that vacuum may
be retained. These horoscopes are
turning inside the cases ct speed Of
| Il, 900 revolutions a minute. Pretty high
that, but you do not fully realize it un-
til we say it means 200 turns second.
Now you can see why vacuum Is neces-
sary. All friction with the air has to
be avoided at that speed.
| Moreover, If the power at any mo-
ment should give out Unexpectedly,
these horoscopes will keep on turning
for about thirty minutes and still be
available as stabilizers, time enough to
land from any conceivable height to
which a machine would go.
The cases are the size Of an ordinary
baseball, and the power required for
all four is about half that needed to run
the ordinary office light. They consume
about six watts of electric power
| apiece. No one will suppose that an
instrument so small and requiring so
little electric power can Of itself keep
a heavy hydroplane from upsetting,
| and, of course, ii does not. These four
horoscopes simply set into motion the
motors that change the planes, known
as servo motors, and are electrically
controlled.
The whole stabilizer is thrown on or
off at the will Of the operator by foot
pedal which, by the way is the only
foot control on the Curtis boat. When
the stabilizer is active, the pilot has no
other responsibility than to steer his
rudder. A strong example Of this was
given when Sperry took up a man who
had never operated an aeroplane be-
| fore, and, as he had no other conditions
or responsibilities, he made a most
creditable flight. With this stabilizer,
it will be seen, the military aviator can
lock his rudder, make sketches, or take
observations, and so have a much more
comfortable feeling than under the old
conditions Of flying.
One Of the great difficulties in hand
operation of both the elevating planes
and side controls Is that the machine
has to make a very appreciable devia-
ton from any normal flying position
before the operator Is conscious OF 1t,
and he, in turn, makes a correspond
| ingly large corrective setting Of the
planes. So the average flying in any
strong wind is a series Of dips to and
fro, or sideways. AS the skill of the
aviator becomes greater the dips be-
come smaller. But to some extent they
are always there.
With the gyroscopic stabiliZer the
servo o-motors are brought into play at
the first tendency Of the machine to
tilt or dip and the deviation is correct
ed without the airman having any
| knowledge Of it's start.
The generator that makes the alter
mating current for the gyroscope can
also supply power for wireless mes
sages, and thus keep the operator in
touch with his base. Lieutenant B. n.
l.. Bellinger. in some experiments per-
formed with Lawrence Sperry last
summer at Hammonsport, has already
demonstrated the practicability of the
invention for military use, and several
have been ordered by the United
States government
Amazing delicacy of action has been
reached. Among other adaptations OF
the Sperry gyroscope is that Of record
ing the roll and pitch Of ships. In tests
on board the United States steamship
WOrden pendulous gyros were used for
~. lii