Evening star., 1919-03-27
DEPICTS TRANSSEA
TYPE0F AIRCRAFT
Curtiss Expert Says Only a
Four-Motored Flying Boat
Can Make Trip.


| FIGURES MAKE IT SURE
How easily the transatlantic fight
can be accomplished with the proper
preparation is shown in a statement
just issued by Frank H. Russell. gen.
eral manager of the Curt!ss Engi-
neering Corporation. at Garden City,
Long Island
1.-THE only airplane capable of reach
| ing Europe under present mechanics
conditions is a mammoth flying boat
propelled by four or more high-pow
cred motors" says Mr.. Russell, land
no alarm need be felt by reports that
! British airplanes have been shipped
to Newfoundland with the avowed
purpose of soaring back to England,
because if a land machine should ac-
complish this feat it would be only
, by the merest fuke, and the man at
tempting it would be taking grave
chances. The type of airplane which
will be the first to cross the Atlantic
| is not, as is commonly supposed a
puzzle or mystery. 1t can be deter
| mined with mathematical certainty"
Not Real Crossing.
Mr.. Russell says that if an airplane
should manage to get across the
| ocean, stopping every few hundred
miles. to load up with gas, or in
| other ways accept assistance from
! hundreds of boats strewn along the
| course, it would not be a crossing in
the truest sense of the word.
THE first transatlantic aeroplane trip
will be an independent. self-reiant job,
| or it will be a freak instead of a scien-
| tific achievement" he says. "If it must
| be petted and pampered across, if it
| to floating depot drifting about in the
great deep. ii may win the $4,000 prize,
but the real credit will go to later
ship which shows that it is capable of
| its own power"
| He says that it is the same way with
a seaplane that might be able to cross
with the wind at it's back, but not be
| of such a wind. 1t would not be gen.
! uine triumph. Mr.. Russell says that it
| is easy to decide on the type because
the flight is purely physical matter.
Gas the Hardest Problem.
| Gasoline, weighing six pounds to the
/ gallon, is conceded to be the greatest
problem. 1.-The maximum that any aero
| plane will safely carry" says Mr. Rus
In other words. the load of a machine
must not exceed so per cent of the total
| weight to be carried. If we start out
with a ninety horsepower motor and ac-
LSv,Ny yAre fhn diCfp 1r
crossing the ocean as 1,S00 miles. 1000
miles would have to be covered, allow
| ing for drift. At 100 miles per hour,
which is certainly a high rate of speed,
a ninety-horsepower motor would re-
quire twenty hours supply of gas. Con-
| suming about nine gallons an hour, the
motor would thus need $50 gallons as it's
total supply, or total of 1,116 pounds.
This would make the aeroplane weigh
| ABOUT 5000 pounds. which is too heavy
load for a ninety horsepower machine
ito carry economically
Three Motors Not Enough.
Mr.. Russell says that even the
tthree-motoEed. type Of mammoth fly
ing boat would not be altogether feasi-
Bile. A boat of this type would re-
| quire approximately $4,000 pounds of
gas. The type of seaplane now de-
cided on by the Navy is able to carry
load of $4,000 pounds, but in case
one of the motors should fail the
plane would not be able to support it
self unless it was far enough across
to have used Sufficient gas to tighten
it materially. Therefore, if one of the
motors should fail before it was more
than half way across, the plane would
have to descend.
The machine with four or more
motors. says Mr. Russell, seems to be
the only. solution of the problem. With
the nFnNnYti0n nf weight rrS111a "
lessening as the gasoline is used and
the power the same, the flight would
seem feasible under these circu,r-
stances. 1t would soon reach a point
where even in case one motor failed
to function che other three would be
capable of continuing the flight.
Could Fly Against Wind.
Such a type Of craft. he says, could
easily carry ample gasoline TO fly
from Newfoundland to Ireland, the
portant, make the more difficult trip
against the west to east winds which
prevail at practically all times. The
need of patroliing boats could be more
or less done away with by this type
| of machine, as with the enormous lift
| ing power that four motors of 400
| horsepower would give a flight of
| 1000 miles could easily be accom-
| plished.
| THE problem of what aeroplane can
make the transatlantic flight thus
| finds it's solution" he says, and l
need not say that boats are now being
constructed on both sides of the water
which will meet these requirements.
Their builders know why they have
waited, and when an adequate aero
plane makes the journey the public
! will realize what aeron3utical engi-
| ueers had in mind when thew nut off