New-York tribune., 1919-06-02

flights starting from the United States
and landing in either England or
France. But to make such voyages it
will be necessary to revolutionize air
plane construction in several ways.
"A transatlantic fier capable of
crossing from Atlantic City to Paris
to win the $4,000 award offered by
Raymond Ortig, of New York, will
have to be three times as large as the
NC-4.
Big Gain in Lifting Power
Zone of the most important features
Of the NC type machines, which has
been overlooked, is that the lift was
thirteen pounds per square foot of
wing surface, whereas the maximum
lift per square foot of wing surface
in airplanes heretofore has been only
nine pounds
This four pounds represents great
gain when it is considered the NC
weighs more than $4,000 pounds. This
gain makes it possible to think Of
building an air liner capable OF cross
ing from Atlantic City to Paris"
"Such an aeroDlane viii have to lift
load Of more than 100000 pounds.
including the commercial load, and
therefore it will require not less than
10000 square feet OF wing surface.
This can be done, although it will re-
quire a different arrangement OF the
wings from that now followed.
"The problem is, How are we going
to get the lifting surface? TO figure
roughly, we VIII need machine that
will lift, including its own weight,
about 100 900 pounds. TO do that it
must have about 100000 square feet of
lifting surface. A biolanc which would
do this would need a wing span Of III
feet and a chord of more than twenty
eight feet But these dimensions are
unwieldy And. anyway, we are not
going to stop with machine that viii
lift fifty tons.
Multiple Wings Suggested
"Thc only way to get them is to
have more planes or wings. Caproni
has done this with his great triplanes
But is there any reason why we should
stop with three wines? Why not have
four, five or u dozen?
"Thc Avron triplauc at the Boston
Harvard meet September. 1910, had
the tendency to topple over. That es-
tablishcd traditional prejudice
against triplanes and quadruplancs
But although the prejudice still re
mains, the height of aeroplanes is in
creasing year by year.
"But there is a limit to piling one
plane on top OF another, for The reason
that you soon make the machine top
heavy. If we tried to build a triplane
with 100000 feet of surface it woulc
have to be about fifty feet high. and
! shouldn't like to be in it when it
tried to land.
"But suppose we make it a quad
ruplanc. and instead of putting oui
four wings one above the other w
put one pair in front and another pain
in back of them. We can ada more
wings at will, grouping them in set
so that we can increase the lifting sur
face beyond anything that is consid
cred possible now and yet without max
ing a top heavy machine.
Congress should allow the fund
necessary for the army, navy and post
Office to conduct the experiments nee
cssnry to develop these huge planes
To the navy these large planes viii be
regular flying torpedo boats, carrying
several full sized Whitehead torpedoos
and going at 100 miles per hour; to the
army it will mean having airplanes
capable Of carrying three-inch guns
which would be potential weapons fol
coast defence and for preventing land
ing of enemy forces on American soil;
to the postoffice it will mean deliver
ing of mail between New Yorl, and Sar
Francisco and from the United States
to England, France and Italy withou'
stops"