New Britain herald., 1927-11-05

CedlnS ones nave Italt Nltn the history and outlook Of aviation in this country and have been develop cd along the lines Of commercial and individual airplane opcrationsD
 By FRANK J. CARMODY.
 Standing a plane on it's nose or tail. or doing some other breath taking acrobatic trick, may look like the apex Of flying skill. It is not, however. One of the apparently simplest operations of the good pilot really is one Of the most difficult. Briefly, il is that Of landing the plane safely.
 For, as one Of inc most d'tcrous ot the army pilots puts it, para phrasing a once popular song:
 If you cant land them as they should he landed, then you'd better not fly them at all."
 Difficult to Land.
 fEo is right A plane almost will pull itself off the ground if the throttle is opened, but the same simple gesture will not bring it
  manner it's occupants would like. That is. safely. In the army air service flying schools the instruction m landings is one of the most rigor- ous parts of the difficult course. After learning the other maneuvers, the student is called upon 10 make landings by the score. Time after time, he brings q plane down until he assumes that if it is true that practice makes perfect" he has reached perfection. But, invariably. he finds still more practice neces- sary.
 Landing speed" prominent item in the performance of any plane, has been given considerable attention by airplane manufacturers during recent years and is widely used and developed, According to the performance specifications of several makers, their products today may be ''set down" at speeds as low as 25 or 30 miles an hour. which is quite in contrast with the landing speeds of military and racing ships The latter one, running from 50 to around a miles an hour when their landing gears touch the earth.
 From this 1t. may be judged that the landing speed-and in q sense. landing ease-of a. plane depends largely upon it's design. In general, slow flying ship Is slow in landing. The fast craft comes down at break neck speed. with the skill of the pilot a strong safeguard against un- toward incident
 Shape and Size of Wings.
 The shape and size of the wings and the load imposed upon them are thc chief factors governing the pace at which a plane descends. The comparatively flat. small wings Of tho pursuit attack or race plane with less lifting power and. pro- ror;;cnat"'y heavier load. must have a'~h momentum if it is to be stable 'rhcn it comes down. That the ship saoull carry heavier load per square foot of wing surface may seem surprising. II is due to the
 
 as possible for performance. while in in" case of the commercial ship thrr nlnai be as large as possible for lGi"'jlfy, For instance. the wings of tiny Italian racer that won 5' iIrr cup races two years g.. l q load of 2j pounds per s @oot probably record
 ., CoI4uy. tho arn1y's largest bomber, have impsocd upon them q load Of only 1o.9 pounds per square foot. But, while the Condors weight, loaded, is 16,300 pounds. Its wing area Is .49S square feet. Incident ally, although it's peculiar design stands it apart in performance from other airplanes, the huge bomber has landing speed of j6 miles per hour.
 The wings of the commercial air craft are not small and flat, how ever. They are large and their up Der surface. or surfaces. are convex shaped 10 impart the greatest pos sible amount Of lift. Varying, of course. with the type of service for which they were designed. wing loads are proportiOna-ely low For instance, one plane quite popular in hight-secng and taxi work, although by no means a fast traveller may be landed at 32 miles an hour. It's top .. speed is 95 miles per hour. The wing load in this plane is but 4.% pounds per square foot Another plane for which landing speed of a miles is claimed carries q load Of i45 pounds
 Low Speed Landings.
 Briefly, it is apparent that if a planes wings are designed for 2 maximum lifting power and rat" only T small burden imposed upon them f may be landed at low speed and that there is A very d"fImt" connection between this speed and thc planes general air performance. r. womb soaut then. that q pilots ability 10 land plan" safely Wonld I"pcn1 altogether upon the ships cIsr of landing. This is not alto
  factors or coming down at th" right .po"d. tho proper arEj" and in ih" correct relationship 10 the prevail Ing Wjnd~hoal into it, nearly all ways. 10 assure proper balance Lo'h la'elally and longitudinaly. It IS at this point where all th" prac- t.ra serves 70 tho greatest if ct.
 Practice l. Needed
 Orly uy practice does the operator a"mi", th' assurance against lnnd- ing th" rl.u's nos" into the earth by coming down at too high q speed, 100 sharp an angl' or counter 10 fh" wind in such q way that q twisting current may tip the plane over on q wing or on is nose. Recognition oi the inportanc" of landing has led the United states nrrartmeut Of