Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1919-12-09
Science and Safety IN Air
Travel
From the London Times.

| viii the aerial mail service, when its or
ganization has been improved, still continue to
be interrupted by such adverse weather as, dur
ing the past week, prevented on several days
the flying OF the mail machines between Lon
| don and Paris? Asked this question the other
day by a representative of the Times, Mr.. Holt
| Thomas, whose high-speed Airco biplanes carry
the London-Paris mail. replied with an EN-
phatic "No."
At present, he explained, we are flying daily
over what u.s. to large extent, still an unor-
| gained route; and it is no exaggeraton at all
to say that, when all the organization which we
are busily preparing is brought actually into
| play, as it will be before we have to encounter
another winter. such conditions as prevented
Lieutenant McMullin from getting through to
Paris on the FIRST day OF the ar-mail last Mon
day will have no adverse effect at all on the
flying of machine, either from the point of
view of safety or of adhering to scheduled time.
Wireless telegraphy will help US enormous
ly; and~we have now the services OF one of the
most practical experts in this country, who is
concentrating his attention exclusively on the
question as to how directional wireless and the
wireless telephone may be made to help us in
regular daily flying, and to overcome such diff
hcultes as at present cause delay. We are be-
ginning to equip our machines, for example,
with an improved wireless telephone apparatus,
and our pilots at Hounslow, in their spare time,
are learning to use the instruments so readily
that it becomes second nature to them to do so.
When we have this system working properly
It will mean that during our hours of flying, say
from II o'clock to p. nl, every land operator
will be listening for messages from the air. and
pilot having set out say, from Hounslow, and
wishing to know exactly what the weather is
like in the channel, will simply take up his re-
ceiver and call Hello, Lympne:' All the other
stations on the airway will hear, but only
Lympne will reply, and in moment the pilot
will be given the information he requires. 1t
will also be quite easy for one pilot to speak to
another while two machines are in flight
In each machine, also, we shall place light
telescope mast. This will be jointed, and will
lie in the fuselage without taking up any room.
descent he will on alighting take out his mast,
joint it together, and place the aerial" of his
wireless telephone on the top of it. Then, when
he has raised this mast and stuck the end of it
in the ground--it will be about 80 feet high
when fully extended-he will be able to call up
the nearest aerodrome on his wireless telephone
and tell them just what field he is down in and
what his trouble is. In such case, if man
cannot ascend again quickly we shall send
another machine to him from the nearest relief
point, which will take on his mails. We shall
soon have system, both on the English and
French sections of the route, whereby pilot
who has a forced landing can get into touch
Immediately with the nearest land agent
of the service, who will take over his mails at
once and send them on their way in a fast
motorcycle.
Land transport is also helping us to the ex-
tent that, should load of urgent ar-mails
reach wayside railway station from any ma
chine which has made compulsory descent
near by, it will be permissible to stop the next
express train and put the mails on board. 1t
is our aim, in fact, now we are carrying his ma
jesty's mails, and while we buying our ex-
perience and perfectlng our organization, to EN-
sure that even should an aerial journey be in
terrupted on any stage we are still able to send
the mail bags through toJtheir destination faster
than would be possible by any ordinary means.
The point is now demonstrated very clearly
that, with skilled pilot and fast machine,
the only sort of atmospheric condition which
seriously interrupts flying is such as we en-
counter sometimes on a bad November day,
when an opaque mist, beginning almost at
ground level, may extend upward in an un-
broken mass, to an altitude of something like
10000 feet Such day, with this pail of mist
stretching over practically the entire route be-
tween London and Paris, we were unfortunate
enough to encounter on Monday last Only a
little time ago the very thought of even at
tempting a flight under such conditions would
have been pronounced madness. But our pilot,
with eight bags of mail, left Hounslow on time
and, flying below the heavy banks of mist, man
aged to get as far as EPSON Downs. But here
a Ver1taDIe wall or mist rested upon, and en-
shrouded the tops of the hills.
A pilot in an aerpolane, flying on through a
thick mist is as unhappy as pedestrian in a
dense fog-only more so. Not only is there the
question of finding his way, but he is faced also
by the embarrassing fact that, through not
being able to turphis eye upon any horizon line,
he cannot Judge the attitude or inclination of
his machine in relation to the ground below,
with the result that he may get into side slip
or spin, and find suddenly that his machine has
passed out of his contro-a condition of affairs
which may spell extreme peril, seeing that he
may come into violent contact with the ground
before he has time to recover his control over
his machine.
This being so. and the weather being what
1t was, our pilot was wise in returning to
in machine travelling at the rate of more than
100 miles an hour. ] mention this case spe-
clcally, because such weather represents about
the only condition now which really troubles us,
and also want to describe, quite briefly, how
we now feel sure that even such weather, which
may stop us during our experimental flying in
the winter of 1920, will not do 80 when we
have the organization we shall have perfected
by the winter of 1920-2l.
Let us assume that pilot, flying on an or
gained a1rway is faced by conditions such as
interrupted Lieutenant McMullin's flight The
whole point, as / have said is not represented
by any inability of the aeroplane as machine
to go on flying. The fact is merely that visible
is so bad that the pilot is practically blind
man. What, then can science and organization
do? In the first place, it may be expected to
give us an improved and perfected system of
directional wireless, the installation of which
M and ~ al cfa