Evening star., 1927-10-30
PLANE BUILDERS ENTER
"SAFE" SHIP COMPETITION
Cuggenheim Prizes of Sl5O.OOO Offer
Incentive to Firms AS Fund Seeks
Perfection of Flying Craft.

gies largely to progress in perform
ance.
The Fund further states that when
engine failure does occur in cross
country flying safety depends on the
4 Variability Of an emergency field.
I've emergency field may be broken
up in surface and very small. The
average airplane lands too fast and
rolls too far in such terrain. More
over, the field may be not only
small. but surrounded with obstacles,
such as trees and wires. The only
possible approach then is on a steep
glide. But steep glide in the
alrplane of today on landing fire.
means disaster" says the
Fund.
Dangers i'm Take-Off.
'In getting out of the small field
the converse of the above circum-
stances Is found" continues the
Fund. THE take-off run Is too long
and the plane while climbing rapidly
may not climb steeply enough to
clear surrounding obstacles. A fire.
quent source of accident is when a
plane is climbing rapidly and the
engine suddenly fails. The plane
may stall and the pilot lose control
and go irto the dreaded spin.
TN fog flying the pilot no longer
has the horizon to guide him. He is
completely blind and gusts of wind
and disturbances may make his in
strumenS no longer reliable. He may
then be flying in the most extraordi-
nary and dangerous attitudes without
being aware of it, unless the plane
is such that it is always stable and
will keep on even keel independent
of the pilots Efforts
Government resources in aeronart.-
cal researches have, in the main. been
applied to the development of the Ma
tion's military airplanes. In that re-
spect they have succeeded. for the
military plane is in a category by
itself. The majority of commercial
planes if adopted overnight for mill
tary uses" would be worthless in the
opinion of many technical experts
here.
From the Governments expert
ments. the industry has cleaned facts
and principles which it has been able
to apply to its commercial planes.
Naturally, the Government could not
design and build a commercial plane
when there are so many manufactu-
4
sideration of many problems of flight
and worked them out in the Langley
Memorial Laboratory of the National
Advisory Committee for Aeronautics,
at Langley Field. Va. The aircraft
industry is a welcome visitor to that
laboratory at any hour of the day.
and, further, it is welcome to carry
away with it anything that will serve
its purposes.
Prize Offers Incentive.
Until the Guggenheim prize came
along, there has been no genuine in
centive for a manufacturer to spend
large sums of money in experiments
and research in an effort TO put out
the ideal pAace. 1t was not until a
few years ago that planes were being
designed and manufactured solely for
commercial purposes, and when that
time came the only precedent to fol-
low was the light training plane used
by the Army and Navy during the
war. Upon this. however, refines
ment after refinement has been made.
The blplane has been excluded almost
altogether, and with the advent of the
air-cooled engine. the monoplane has
stepped into the forefront as the COM
merical airplane for carrying passen-
gers and heavy loads.
The British firms which have en-.
tered for the prizes are: The De
Hayilland Aircraft Co., Ltd: Handley
Page, Ltd: Vickers, Ltd; Glostershire
Aircraft Co., Ltd, and an unnamed
company which is conducting expert
ments with the ''autogiro," a craft
with revolving wings. not power
driven, and which does not rise vertic-
ally from the ground like helicop.er,
contrary TO opinion.
The two American firms are
ederWentworth Associates of
Chicago, and the Hall-Aluminum Air.
craft Corporation of Buffalo, n. Y
The former is headed by Maj. r. w.
Schroeder, formerly of the Army Air
Corps, who began his aeronautical ca
reer in 1908. He held the worlds
altitude record several times and was,
chief test pilot in the Army Air Serv-
ice from 1913 to 1920. John Went
worth was an Army aviator during the
war.
Charles Ward Hall of New York Is
the principal stockholder of the Hall.
aluminium Aircraft Corporation. Hes
has long been identified as a promi.s
nent designer of aircraft.
Foreign Firms Compete. ,
The De Havilland Co. is one or
the oldest in Great Britain and it's
chief designer is Godfrey de Havi.,
land, who began his aeronautical ex-
perience in 1911. During the World
war, his company was one of the 1arg.<
est manufacturers of aircraft in,
and he was responsible for the
famous D.H.'s now in use in the mill
tary services of Great Britain and
America. although rapidly dying out y
More than 60 different types and
models of the OH. have been designed
and manufactured. De Haviland air.
craft won first prize in 1923 at the
international competition for CONNER
cial efficiency at Gothenburg, Sweden.+
Handley Page, Ltd, was organized
m 1909, and is probably the oldest air.
plane company in existence today =
which has enjoyed unbroken continu-
ty of management throughout it's his,
-ory. One of the most important de-.
relopments of Handley Page has been
he slotted wing principle, which;
allows a low landing speed and quick
.ake-off with heavily loaded aircraft.
The United States has purchased the
rights to manufacture the slotted
wing.
Vickers, Ltd. is one of the worlds
most famous armament manufacture
ng concerns. The aircraft depart
nent. with its flying school and ex.
eerimental flying establishment, was,
organized in 1911. The first airplane
20 cross the Atlantic Ocean was the
amous Vickers Vimy, flown by Alcock
md Brown. The company's planes,
'ange from the single-seater Vickers
Vlget up to the Vickers Victoria,
which is troop carrier with capac-
ty OF 80 men with full equipment.
Speed Plane Makers.
The Glostershire company was Or
sanized in 1915. Since the close of
he war the company has specialized
n high.Speed aircraft OF tfs own e..