South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1919-02-09
Navy Airplanes and Seaplanes
Make Great War Record

plane bases. In his paper Com
mander Richardson gave a descrip-
ton of the various types of airplanes
and seaplanes as developed during
the course of the war. Every effort
was made TO produce suitable sea-
planes to do effective submarine pa
troll and convoy work. The two
types of seaplanes used most extern
sively were the II. So. a single mo-
tored plane, and the H-16. which is a
copy of the English seaplane of the
same type. The 5-F-L type was
completed too late to see active
service. No attempts were made By
the navy to develop land planes. the
regular army planes were adopted,
including the English Handley-Page
the Italian CaprOni, and the army
ID III 4 and ID II 3. For training of
pilots the Curtiss No was in favor
equipped with the Curtiss o Y Y 100
h. p. motor. This is a biplane with
a single center float and wing tip
balancing floats. The Curtiss + boat
also was used for instruction.
The commander explained that
while in general there was no great
difference in the design of air and
seaplanes. the weight of the latter
was necessarily greater and required
different landing gear, and APP
paratus enabling the seaplane to
leave the water and take to the air.
A number of charts were shown to
hD % -
Gus planes taking into account the
lifting capacity. speed through the
air. resistance to penetration of the
air. and power required for travelling
at a speed from so to 100 miles per
I hour. Details of air propeller de-
sign were also discussed. With a
liberty engine developing $50 n. p.
at 1900 revs. per minute. a speed OF
so miles per hour was attained.
Considerable development work
was done to determine the most ad-
vantageous form of float. Tests were
made i'm the model basin at Wash
ington, using models one-twelfth OF
normal size. When the tests were
repeated with full sized floats. the
results were found to check accu-
rately.
The commander advocated the
geared down propeller arranged 20
turn at 60 per cent of the speed of
the engine. This would allow the
use of a Is foot diameter propeller
instead OF nine feet. and would raise
its efficiency from 60 per cent TO IS
per cent.
The II ST. is capable of carrying a
load Of $500 pounds at full speed.
The H-16 is a twin-engine seaplane.
1t carries a pilot. an observer and
a wireless operator. a number of
guns. and four bombs. The F-5 is 10
per cent larger than the H-16. More
recently a new type. the n CT. with
three large engines has been per-
| fected. This is a compromise be-
tween a hydroplane and a flying
boat and is adapted for carrying a
large caliber non-recoil gun at the
bow. A number Of this type are be-
ing built at present. The command
er is OF the opinion that the future
will see much larger seaplanes. He
saws the structural design Of aero
nautic engineering is now well in
I hand. and the use Of wind tunnel ex-
periments and full sized experiments
have brought also the aero-dynamic
engineering features 10 satisfactory
state OF perfection. so that the per-
I Torrance of new designs can now be
predicted with a reasonable degree
Of accuracy. even before construc-
/ ton has begun.