Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-10-23

I Beyond attitudes of $4,000 feet. the
ayiator must begin to take oxygen.
From that point upward. his life hangs
absolutely on the precious oxygen
TASKS. Al one moment in his flight,
Macready was in sudden peril because
bis oxygen tube clogged W tn ice from
bis breath. His emergency oxygen flask
alone pulled him through. ,
AS the yiator approaches 10000 feet.
the gas engine of his airplane begins
to struggle. also for want Of oxygen;
for at that level there is only half as
much oxygen i'll the atmosphere as
there is at sea level. The speed Of the
engine slows down because there is not
enough oxygen for combustion
Higher than 10000 feet, higher even
than $4,000 feet, airplanes could not
go without great d fficulty before the
supercharger was devised to give their
engines the same life sustaining ele-
ment that man himself must have
Engines Vitality Exceeds Mans
| Aided by the supercharger. however,
the rplane can now master the heights
unattainable without it. The super
charger has given the gas engine of
| the arpial.e artualy more vitality than
the man who rides in the airplane, so
! tiat ioN' as i>tultHdHt -AdtfPduF saws.
! 1t is no longer the inability oi the
engine to function at high attitudes, but
OF man to live at high attitudes, which
limits the further heights to which
av .ators may soar.
! Dr. Sanford a. Moss, who designed
the General Electric supercharger, has
made the apparatus work by means of
| a complete cycle Of operations. The
fed-hot exhaust gases from the airplane
engine, which formerly passed off into
the air as wasted energy. are now made
to discharge against a small turbine
wheel. causing it to revolve at between
~ and 30 thousand revolutions min
ute.
The turbine drives centrifugal air
compressor which congresses the
small percentage of oxygen in the rari-
iled air to sea level density and feeds
IT into the carburetors of the engine
That enables the, engine to continue
running at full power: to continue
driving the propeller of the airship;
and to continue discharging exhaust
gases. which, in turn. continue to oper-
ate the turbine wheel.
The romance Of achievement, pro-
duclng yet more achievement, is the
story of the supercharger. 1t was sew =.
eral years in the developing The
original somewhat crude apparatus was
little more than an experiment
Tested Out on Pixies Peak
It was first tried out at sea level.
Then it was desired to give it an alti-
tude test, yet the machine was not vet
ready to be mounted on an airplane.
80 the whole outfit was shipped out to
Colorado and taken up over the %
mics OF winding auto highway to the
summit of Pixies peak, an altitude of |
IA. 100 feet.
There. for nearly two months. tests
were conducted and improvements made !
IN an atmosphere that contains only 90 |
per cent as much oxygen as is found at |
sea level ~
Inc improved supercharger resulting
rom this work was that with which |
Major Schroeder flew up to 3S.1SO i
feet. The supercharger with which |
Lieutenant Macready flew even higher
was still further improved machine,
and was built by the turbine depart
ment Of the General Electric company's /
Lynn works.
The new Caldwell type of airplane
propeller. which. shared with the super
charger in the triumph of this flight,
is itself 3 valuable invention. Hav-
ing very high pitch and a great di-
ameter and length, this propeller will |
revolve faster and faster the higher
the plane flies. At the very highest
attitudes it attains its very greatest ef-
ficiency.
Both of these products of scientific
research joined with sheer human cour-
age to conquer the hitherto -nncon-
querabfe.
Pilot Bundled In "Armor"
Macrcady, piercing the trackless at
was clothed so that no part
Of his body was exposed to- the air.
Over his military uniform he1 wore a
heavy suit Of wooden UNDERWEAR, and
over this leather-covored suit heavily I