Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-07-06

is flying and we had none of the
anxiety and discomfort.
! We had other comforts, too. We
had telephone with which we could
! talk to each other and hear above the
din Of the motors even when by shout
ing we could not make ourselves
| heard without It, All these and many
other inventions have contributed
| and will contribute to the making OF
the transatlantic air liner of the flu
ture.
This air liner in going from west to
east should reach Paris in one day
from New York. Storms would not
bother it. It's greatest enemy would
be fog, for the greatest enemy of air
craft today is fog.
But even fog can be rendered harm
less. This future plane will be guided
directly to it's landing field by radio
direction finders, and, knowing exactly
where it is will have no trouble III
landing unless the fog goes right down
onto the field.
To provide against such case, the
plane should have enough gasoline
left either to fly to another field not
covered by fog, rs to which lnlorma-
ton would be relaycd by radio, or to
Nv 3fOuUu until tHc IpS NlnE'Nt SINs
This is not a wild dream, because
our plane America, when it arrived at
lie Bourget, had enough gas left to
fly 500 miles, and in addition the
America had mail and extra load of
some hundreds of pounds on board.
OF course, it is possible that within
a few years something will be in
vented TO dispense fog from landing
field or some light will be invented
which will properly penetrate it. Tn
til these inventions are perfected.
however, fog still remains aViatiOn'S
greatest enemy.
Storms win not always prevent prog
ress through the air, and frequently
winds can be taken advantage of to
increase greatly the speed of an air
plane.
Navigator Will BE Expert.
In crossing the Atlantic by air the
flying will have to be donesat various
attitudes. The navigator Will be an
expert meteorologist and his knoWl-
edge Of wind directions. wind strength
and so forth will be greater than that
possessed today by any flyers. He will
fly at that altitude where he will have
the winds with him or where they will
be weakest against him. There al
ready exist instruments which, to-
gether with radio direction finders,
will give him his speed over water or
over land.
The engines of this great plane will
be accessible to the mechanics, so that
in case of motor stoppage in the air
the mechanic can have chance to do
repairs and get them going again.
This is by no means impossible even
now The two cupboard engines. of the
America could be reached by little
catwalk from the cabin and certain
minor repairs could have been made
in the air if needed. There was also
a catwalk going outside over the hood
of the plane to the nose engine.
There was no occasion to use these
on our flight, but the knowledge that
if necessary we could do repairs gave
us an added feeling of security.
The earth induction compass as
made by the Pioneer Instrument Com
pany is the airplane compass of the
future, because that part of the COM
pass which is affected by the magnetic
meridians can be placed far out on
the wing of the plane, so that the COM
pass is not thrown out by the mag
netic material of the engines and the
metal parts of the plane, as is usually
the case with ordinary compasseS.
Leads from this earth induction COM
pass out on. the wing can be brought
in to the navigator and pilot to steer
by.
See Freight Carried.
Some of these transatlantic planes
will be freight ships, and in that case
perhaps at least a part of the freight
could be carried in the wings. In the
America we had compartments made
in the wings in which we put some
Of the most precious material on
board, such as the piece of the origi-
nal American flag which we were
bringing to President Doumergue.
The wings of these future planes
could be made thick enough for pas
sengers to be carried within them. In.