The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-06-24
Airplane Manufacturer Has
Asked Only $500 Bonus j
for Trip to Europe
CONFIDENT THAT
FEAT is FEASIBLE
Lloyd's Refused to Bet Against the Sue
cess of Air Voyage Across the At
lantic-Six Ways to Cross the Ocean
Outlined

Outlined.
NEW YORK, June 24.-Following
The announcement that Major Gen. Will !
liam Brancher of the British royal air
force had come to this country to ar
range for military airplane flights this
country to Europe, to pave the way for
sending American aircraft abroad on its
own power, the Aero Club of America
has made public it's negotiations with
manufacturers to attempt an early
Transatlantic flight. One of the propos-
ais of the Aero club was made to Will
liam H. Workman, representing the
Handley Page machine, who accepted at
once.
The Aero club officials were surprised,
ufacturer thought the matter of send
ing plane across the ocean was so
little outside of day s work that he
asked bonus of only $4,000 outside of
the cost of the machine for undertake
ing the trip from this country to Eu-
rope. The Aero club had earlier found
an indication that the opinion was gen
eral that the fight was sure to be ac
complished without great delay when
they made inquiries at Lloyd s in Lon
don as to their willingness to insure a
prize of $4,000 which the club
planned some months ago to offer for the
| first successful transatlantic flight
The reply was that Llovd's was not pre-
pared to make any bet against the
| FLIGHT being made.
In his letter accepting the propositiin.
| Mr.. Workman asserted that he believed
that airplanes could be sent from this
country to Europe in any number on
their own power, thus solving the diff
ficuty of transporting them to Europe.
The calculations of the club s advisers,
which were indorsed by Mr. Workman.
were that a successful fight to Europe
woulslit hyo wes and tear n consume Jess
than 100 hours of the life of an airplane
or seaplanc, leaving it life of from
400 to 800 hours to be spent in fighting
the Germans.
The club submitted its plans for a
fight to Lieutenant Belloni, who is in
| tnlN tOuhitN ~ VI ut
manufacturers of the Caproni He was
reported to have tentatively accepted
the proposal, and is now preparing
terms for the flight by Capron.
The proposed transatlantic fight of
the Curtiss airplane America was under
preparation when the war started in
1914. Since then developments of aeri-
al navigation devices, as well as the
education of air pilots for successful
Ioverwater fights. has advanced SO that
the project presents few of the Difficult
ties which it did in 1914. The most
difficult problem that was considered as
facing the pilot of the America on its
proposed trip was that of keeping
posted on his latitude and longitude and
steering so as to avoid great deviations
which might cause him to run out OF
fuel while on his way to the Azores.
The matter of keeping to course has
been almost entirely solved by the in
vention of radio receiving instrument
by which it is possible to tell the exac'
direction from which radio waves ar.
given forth. This has been adapted t,
airplanes, and an air navigator with al
instrument tuned to receive message
from poipt in America and point il
Europe, would always be in possession
~ fixed point to sNer by
Professor Charles Lane Poor. profes
sor of celestial mechanics at Columbi:
University, working on the problem a
the request of the Aero club. had in
vented so-called ''position line indi
Gator which simplifcs some of TIL
other problems of air navigators. TIL
difficulty hitherto for an air pilot ha
been to make his calculations of posi-
ton quickly enough TO benefit him.
An air pilot who needed to know hi
distance from given point, the diret
: tion of his flight, the angle of asccn
;, or descent of his machine, his altitud
and other factors necessary in accurate
II ly correcting his course, has had [
spend several minutes assembling thes
data separately. BY the time the
were assembled his machine might /
ten or Fifteen miles from where it w;
at the beginning of the calculation.
that the result was necessarily crud
n Dr. Poor S instrument is an automat
calculator which finds out all the pil.
needs to know about his position, an
II works out the problem mechanically.
II Henry Woodhouse, a director of Il
II Aero Club, said that there were tbr
II routes for transatlantic flight and S
II WAYS IT could be attempted.
> "The first, he said, az is by means
- large aiiplanes capable of flying 80,
miles from this country to Ireland wit
out stopping. The construction of su,
planes is considered possible by prom
fnent airplane manufacturers These al
I planes would NY at great height n,
take advantage of the trade wine
Their speed would be about 100 mil
an hour, and they could make the II
IN about thirty hours.
THE second way would be by mea
OF lying boats or hydroplanes starti
from New York and flying to Irelai
stopping to take fuel from ships at {
cry 300 miles along the route TIL,
would be ships following their rs,
icOurse acrnSs tho Atlantic Tho .,