Evening star., 1932-02-14
High Flying
Continued from Fifth Page

COHtIUueU JTOM RUN rage
but the control cabin is made absolutely air.
tight by double walls and the motor is pro-
vided with powerful air compressors to make
up for the rarefaction of the air necessary
for carburetion.
1.-The pilots, too, have ample provisions of
oxygen for breathing purposes. AS for the
Farman plane like my balloon, it is provided
with the portfolios and openings through which
the pilot will be able to put out his head
at certain attitudes at which this is possible.
1t is estimated that this plane will be able
to reach speed of 200 miles an hour at
height of or 81 miles and and a speed Of
400 miles in the stratosphere at about miles
up The greatest difficulty SO far is in obtain
ing an absolute airtightness in the cabin for
the pilots and passengers while allowing for
the possibility of transmitting control maneu-
from the interior to the exterior.
I'm spite of these difficulties, my firm opinion
is that theoretically and practically aerial
navigation in the stratosphere can be achieved
in the future. The fact that Kipfer and
myself remained 16 hours in the stratosphere
without being inconvenienced by it has con.
can easily be realized The pressure maintained
in the cabin about the same as that
which usually exists at a height of miles.
see, therefore, no reason why by taking into
account the big diminution of atmospheric pres
sure which takes place at height of 10 miles,
we should not be able to fly at the speed
Of 400 miles per hour, provided, of course that
we are able to allow for the rarefaction Of
the air.
I'm these regions beinQ nine times
less dense than in the lower strata, all the
driving and resisting forces are nine times less.
In this manner. if only We compensate by
compression for the loss of driving force, the
speed will be thee times greater in the strato-
sphere than below it. At to miles up the
speed. however. will be only doubled.
"At 10 miles up an airplane will go three
times quicker than at height of little more
than mile; its consumption of essence per
mile will be invariable, but it will be three
times bigger per hour, from which We may con-
clude that navigation in the stratoSphere is only
practicable for big flights and in the case Of
powerful planes which can carry big provisions
of fuel. There are 'plafonds for aviation in
the stratosphere just as there are 'plafonds' for
atmospheric aviation. The height of 10 miles
is the most favorable. Beyond this the power
of the engine would be too strong
AT to 10 miles there are neither wind
nor clouds, and if there are any currents they
are regular. In short in spite of the SkepticiSm
of many people, I am convinced that in very
short time we will be able to fly regularly from
Paris to New York in 10 hours.
u7HERE is at the present moment a great
deal of ink being split and any amount of
speeches being made in favor of disarmament.
Naturally, like every other sane man, warmly
aFo
for all the problem of peace. I am not
politician. I am merely pacifst. Would not
the best way for obtaining peace be found If
nations discovered a machine of such for
midable destructive power that it would kill
or rather wipe out every living human, vege-
table or animal substance in an area of 80 or
IS miles, this engine being immovable? If only
nations provided themselves with such ma
chimes and placed them along their frontiers,
the danger of attack from the air or from
land would be so immense that no one would
ever venture into In this manner we
would revert to that period in the Middle Ages
when the art of defense was so superior to the
art of offenSe that any hostilities which took
place were of limited character and compara-
lively unimportant. However, this has nothing
to do with the stratosphere except that do
think that even when flying at the very highly
possible altitude plane would still be exposed
to the destroying power of the engine have
visualized."
(Copyrght. 1922