Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-07-14
|REFUEL|NG IN AIR
TO SOLVE FLIGHTS
Observers Certain Ocean
Planes Can Now Take Off
With Safety.
BY LEMUEL F. PARTON.

Special Correspondent OF The star.
NEW YORK, July 13.--While East
ern public opinion is generally critical
flight, as contributing nothing to aero
fight, as contributing nothing to areo-
nautical science, aviation experts and
technicians disagree. They conclude
that these endurance flights have re-
duced transatlantic flying mainly to a
problem Of fuel load, and that the two
tough hombres," planning to spend
their old age in the air, have solved
this.
Let a transatlantic plane get on the
ground with a light load Of gas, and
then take on the rest Of its load while
in flight, say the experts.
Heavy Load Great Obstacle.
1t was this starting obstacle of heavy
gas tanks which wrecked Rene Fonck,
magnificent flyer with a magnificent
plane, and 1t was the necessity of jet
tisoning part Of the gas at the take-off
which landed Williams and Yancey in
Spain, instead Of Rome. It is agreed
here that had the latter two flyers filled
up their tanks by refueling in the air,
after their ascent in Maine, they would
have hit their target.
From the expert viewpoint, trans
oceanic flying still Is in the stunt cate
CORY, and sporting rather than scientific
considerations are uppermost In the
discussion. However, the purely COM
mercial wing of the industry is keenly
alert TO the possibilities of safe ocean
crossing, and 1t regards the refueling
achievement as one of the most definite
contributions to air progress during the
last year.
Engine and wing design has hit the
limits Of the original lift. with the
full gas load, rather than of sustaining
power while in the air. Where flights
of any considerable distance have been
involved, the range and pay load fac
tors have been heavily cut by this ter
rife hurdle at the start. With the pos
sibility of rising with q light fuel load
and taking on the rest in the air, tech
niQue shifts primarily to sustaining
power, and this can be greatly in
creased.
Problem Is One Of Fuel.
Mandell and Reinhart, the Culver
City flyers, traversing a distance equal
to the established air route around the
world, have proved that the problem Of
sustained flight is one Of fuel, rather
than endurance of the engine. There
are some engineers, however, who deny
that the flyers have established any
thing not already known. They insist
that the staying power OF the engine
could have been, and, in fact, has been,
quite as thoroughly demonstrated by
running 1t on block.
There are others who maintain that
only in actual flight, involving all
factors Of stress and strain and vary
ing weather conditions, can satisfactory
tests be made. and for this reason they
find the Culver City achievement highly
important. But, regardless of the
scientific value of the flight, 1t has been
shown that there is enough vitality in
an airplane engine to challenge human
endurance and that longer sojourns n
the air, over land and water, depend
mainly on giving the engine something
to feed upon.
Culver Flight Called Last.
Army officers, who pioneered the re-
fueling system, are of the opinion that
the methods are still primitive and that
vast progress will be made in safe and
expeditions air deliveries of fuel. The
refueling achievements have come swift
~, but 1t is believed here that the
Culver City flight will be the last of
the endurance contests. The data are
now all out in the open and If young
men hereafter insist on growing whis-