Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-07
Flying

The most comprehensive fog-f1ying expert
ments which have been recently made are
those under the supervision of the Daniel
Guggenheim Fund for the Promotion Of Aero
nautics.
Lieut.. James H. Doolittle is in charge of the
full flight laboratory, with Prof. William Brown
of the department of aeronautics at Massachu-
sets Institute Of Technology as technical
assistant.
THE purpose of these experiments says
Harry F.. Guggenheim, president of the fund.
sis to make the airplaue entirely independent
of meteorological conditions-regardless Of
what type of weather may develop in transit or
may exist at landing fields.
The planes are being equipped with all the
latest developments for maintaining stability
at all attitudes, for finding the exact altitude
above the ground and for determining direction
when flying blind. -
With instruments already perfected, an air.
plane can take of In the fog, hy In 1t with
a reasonable degree of security and, If guided
by a radio beacon, can approach a landing
field. Actual landing in a fog is stil ex-
tremely hazardous"
What Mr.. Guggenheim says about landing is
confirmed by aviators. The field at Newark,
N. j, is equipped with an electrical ear"
which turns on the field lights when an air.
plane seeking the field calls for illumination.
Planes calling at this airport regularly for
night landings can be equipped with a bowler
tuned to a frequency to which the receiver ON
the field will respond. The aviator presses a
button, which sends out a signal to the re-
ceiver, and through a series of electrical relays
the lights flash on and the flyer is able to pick
up the boundaries of the field and glide safely
down. But If fog covers the field the aviator
is hampered as elsewhere.
At Croydon, England, fog frequently inter-
feres with flying operations. Experts there
have been experimenting with a sort of cable
antsnna around the field. As the plane
passes over this wire is receives a radio signal
and the pilot learns the boundaries of the
airdome, which aid him in deciding where to
start a glide into the field. Up to the present
the scheme has not worked out very ~satisfac-
torily.
AT THE present time, light which reaches
the top of the cloud blanket is reflected
often in such a way as to dazzle the aviator.
Motorists who have driven through foggy low
lands at night. with balls and puffs of dense
white stuff hiding the highway, will understand
something OF a flyers sensations trying to find
an airport in the fog.
5, Fog dispersal with electrically charged sand
has been under investigation by army planes.
but no practical result has been developed
from the experiments.
At the Philadelphia Navy Yard, A.. J. Flow
ers, assistant aeronautical engineer, has been
studying the elimination Of fog by the use of
electrically charged steam.
One set of experiments involved the use of
an airplane propeller driven by a 4OO-horse-
power engine and mounted on a swivel. This
was used to project electrically charged air into
the fog and precipitate it as rain.
Another method dischor0ad haokoS IL.
trified air into the atmosphere from q boiler
under ITO pounds pressure. It was found that
the use Of steam gave a finer spray Of air and
that the atomized particles spread farther
when heated and broken into finer globules.
Important principles In fog precipitation
have been determined by the Navy tests. It
has been found that fog must be electrically
charged and that a projected electrostatic field
to drive the fog particles together is essential
for electrical precipitation over an open "a.
Further experiments must determine such
points as the distance to which the electrostatic
field can be projected, whether the charging
corona should be set up by direct or alternating
current and the proper voltage to use.
The successful completion of these impor-
tant experiments" said a Navy official, will
remove one of the greatest menaces to safe air
navigation. The opportunity for the use of
precipitation apparatus is great, and no doubt
uitlfnately WILL be used In great cities to lessen
trafice congestion and dangers on foggy days,
and also in harbors and channels where ship
ping becomes delayed by reasons of fog"
The radio air telephone, recently demon
strated by the Western Electric Company, will
also aid the aviator. If the pilot is lost or
seeking a strange landing field, he will be in a
position to ring up the airport and ask the
supervisor for significant details of the terrain
which win help him find his objective and aid
in making a safe landing at the field.
Recently a plane equipped with only a send
ing phone lost its way over the English Chan
mel. In response to his monologue, a ship
came hunting him in the clouds, encircled him
and then shot ahead to show the way. tn
passenger plane followed the guide ship into
Croydon.
At the present moment. however. the iob Of