The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-07-03
CLOUD FLYING is
DANGEROUS FEAT
FOR AER0PLANES
British Officer Sounds Call
for Level That Will Gauge
Horizontal in Clouds

London, July 3.-Dangers of fly
ing in heavy clouds when it is i'm
possible to keep the airplane on even
keey and the. aviator has only his
compass to depend upon were des-
cribed by Captain B. C. Hucks, of the
Royal Flying Corps, in an address on
Modern Airmanship'' which he re-
Gently delivered before the Aeronau-
teal Society. Describing an expert
ence of his own he said his airplane
"tumbled about in the cloud and
that he emerged from it flying nearly
upside down, Captain Hucks was
emphasizing the need of an instru-
ment that would show an airman in
the clouds whether he was flying hor-
izontal1y. He said:
Il set out on a very cloudy, windy
day to do a test climb to 10000 feet
on a late typetwo-seater. On reaching
1900 feet we got into a dense rain
cloud, when the compass apparently
began to swing although actually it
is the machine that begins to swing.
not the compass. Efforts to check the
compass had the effect of causing it
to swing more violently in the other
direction. The air speed then rushed
up far beyond normal flying speed.
All efforts to pull. her up checked her
tried. Back went the air speed to
zero. There was an unusual uncanny
feeling of, being detached from the
machine and I knew her to be literal
! ly tunlbling about in the clouds. All
efforts to settle down again to
straight flying seemed to be unavail-
ing, until we emerged from the cloud
very nearly upside down.
| "a few days ago a squadron COM
mander told me that on one occasion
when in France everything loose in
his machine fell out while in a cloud.
A week or so ago, on the south coast
a machine adisintegrated itself in a
| cloud and the main planes landed
half mile from the fuselage. In g
cloud you can see nothing whatever
but your machine. There is no fixed
point visible.
1.-THE only means by which you car
tell If you are flying in a straight
/ course is by your compass and you
air speed. The compass should give
you your direction horizontally, you
air speed. your direction vertically.
Before your compass starts tt
move your machine has already start
ed to turn. You rudder the opposite
way to check it, over-correct it, ant
turn sharper the other way on a banl
turn; then the nose drops and speed
lgoes up. Pulling back your elevator
Ileve ras little or no effect. for If yol
are banked above an angle of As de
grees the elevator becomes the rud
der. All this occurs without the pi
lot being in the least aware OF the po
sition his machine is taking relative
to the ground"
L. Captain Hucks said the rate Of i'm
provement in aircraft was SO alarm
ingly rapid that manufacturers cou1t
scarcely keep pace. Comparing thu
average performances of five differ
ent types of machines used at the be
/ ginning of the war with others of lat,
patterns he said that maximum spec
for level flying had nearly doubled
Horsepower was more than doubled
Airmanship had advanced NOR,
than it would have done in eight O
ten years of peace conditions and tn
$ advance seemed to have been alonl
| what might be called conventions
ines-that is, Improvement on stan
dard designs, and no good results ha.
been obtained from any departur
from that standard. To his mind i'm
provements in engines were respon
sible for present-day performances t.
a far greater extent than improve
ments in machines.
He said the most marked develop
ment in the modern machine is it
capacity for climbing. At the begin
ming of the war. he said, the aver
age height flown on active servic
was 1000 to 5000 feet. Today
I height of 10000 feet is reached an
| if progress continues heights a grea
!, deal beyond this figure will be reach
ed as a usual thing.