The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-10-21
.AIEPLAnE SOLVES
 WAY 0F MAKING AUTOS LIGHTER

AirpIanes are really flying auto
 m obiies, ndamentally. they are ve-
 hicles, capable of running over rough
 ground at high speed. Before leav-
 ing the ground they must attain
 ground speeds of from 35 to 45 miles
 per hour and must slow down from
 such speeds on the surface before stopping. But for their power, they
 are much lighter than automobiles
 as we have them today. A 150- horsepower airplane, capable of carrying three passengers at 70 miles
 per hour weighs less than the com mon 22-horsepower runabout, ready for the road. A considerable part of
 this weight, furthermore, consists of
 wings. center section and tail, which
 are not essential parts of the ma
 chine as a motor car. Stripped of
 these elements, such a plane would
 probably weigh about 1900 pounds.
 1T the tail-skid of such a fuselage
 were replaced with a single steering wheel, our airplane would be an au- tonobtle capable of high speed on the ground, and over rougher ground, in fact, than most motor cars habitual- ly traverse.
 Let us take aircraft engines alone and see what has heen done to get enormous powers with little weight Our automobile engines develop on the average of one horsepower for every 10 to 20 pounds of weight, while the Liberty engine developed horsepower for every two pounds
 of it's weight and the Liberty by no means showed the lowest ratio It
 might be pointed out that in these aircTaff engines
 materials were expensive, but that was due to the haste necessary in getting these engines in production. There is no reason why certain of
 the lessons cannot be applied to au-
 tomobtle engine construction and our
 power plants made one-haIf to one
 third lighter than they are at pres
 ent, without increasing the cost ma
 terially over those we now have
 The foregoing being SO, why cannot
 our road vehicles be made lighter
 our stripped fuselage weighs but 500
 pounds per passenger and is need
 lessly heavy at that, because 1t has
 frame and brave wires and size
 of tail section sufficiently large and
 strong to withstand the terrific
 strains imposed in flight It also has
 larger engine than we see in motor
 cars as a rule. A 25-horsepower en-
 zine, driving through gears to the
 wheels and equipped with a variable
 speed transmission gearset such an
 automobiles have would be ample for its propulsion and the entire power plant need weigh no more than 15o pounds.
 Cutting out the unessentia1s of the fuselage for use as motor car would reduce it's weight to about half with equal strength for the road shocks, so that even with four wheels instead of three and more substantial springs than the rubber shock ab- sorber used on the airplane landing gear, the entire car could be built l 10 weigh less than 300 pounds
 Of course, applying to motor car ] building the lessons learned and con- | stantly being learned from aeronau- tics does not seem directly adap ing l the fuselage as a road vehicle But 1t 1 does mean that future motor cars 1 will employ more scientific disposi- l ton of old materials of construction ! and the adoption of some that are | new to automobile practice. Smaller | engines than found in most cars will mean lower operating cos: and wlI i both permit and be permitted by | lighter chassis.
 | The light car of the future will put i the strength of every part to work. | so that all parts may be made light 1 The future car will not only be light l and economical, however, but | through scientific distribution Of ] weight and propor tioning of power | to weight, 1t will be as comfortable | on rough roads and will perform as | brilliantly as the heavier cars of to. | day.