The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-05-08
Airline Stations to
Dot The Atlantic

New York, May 5.-The last seri-
Gus obstacle in the way of transat-
lantic airplane passenger, express,
and mail service appears to have been
removed with the recent discovery of
4 practical method of securely anchor
ing mother" ships to the ocean bot
tom in water three, four, and five
miles deep.
With this discovery, making posi-
lc the first tangible plan of establish
ing floating way stations at 500-milc
intervals along the ocean routes,
comes the announcement of gigan-
tic new American project for Il trans
atlantic airplane system to provide
transport at a cost no greater than the
rates on first class liners and to re-
duce the time of the 3,0OO-mile pas
sage from New York to Plymouth.
England, from an average of eight or
min" days to from "a to SO hours.
The proposed method of decp-sea
dIIHCiIl 10 lile lilNcllIlOn ol T.. Il.
Armstrong, Il noted engineer of Will
mington, Del, and is described in de
tail in the issue of Popular Science
Monthly for May.
Heretofore Il depth Of about 200 feet
was considered the practical limit for
safe anchorage, because of the great
weight of sufficiently strong chain
or cable at least 600 feet long.
The Armstrong invention provides
means for deep sea anchoring of sta
ton ships equipped with landing plat
form, compensating automatically for
the longitudinal pitch of the vessel
itself gyrostabilized to eliminate the
roll incident to rough seas.
This method of anchorinG departs
from the customary method of linking
the anchor directly to the vessel by
means of Il cable. This method is de.
ciarcd to be impracticable because tho
great weight of three miles of stccl
cable or chain would so seriously
hamper the movements of the shin
in response to wind and waves as tc
court almost certain disaster.
Instead, the inventor attaches his
cable to an anchorage float, similar
to the buoys used us channel markers
but SO proportional that its displacr-
mcnt Is greater than all combined sub
merging forces to which it might be
subjected. To this float is attachc,
the anchoring cable of such weight
strength, and length that the lifting
effect of the float, added to the maxi
mum force of the anchored vcSsc
pulling against it, is insufficient t,
raise all of the cable from the bottom
To the float is attached towing
hawser, the other end of which i!
made fast to a towing engine in the
bow OF the vessel to be anchored. The
engine would be designed to automat
ically take up the slack in the hawser
while the propelling equipment of tn,
vessel proper would be employed, OF
the other hand, to relieve the strain OF
Under abnormal climatic condition.
the entire apparatus is designed to re.
spond to the drifting force of the wine
and waves merely lifting a greater OF
lesser part of the anchoring cabl,
from the bottom of the ocean.
The route selected for the proposct
transatlantic service, with provision
for five anchored supply and navgat
ing stations 500 miles apart, is almost
identical with the southern or summer
steamship route to England. and i.
so located as to escape the fogs anC
iccbcrgs of Newfoundland and storm
conditions so prevalent in The region
Cf the Azores.