Evening star., 1933-04-16

years after the war Martins were In
all the squadrons. As they wore out,
however, other types came In and for
years there were no Martin bombers In
the service.
Discussing, in the heavy lombard
ment directive, the Boeing B-9, Maj.
Howard said: This airplane represents
tural and maintenance standpoint over
the first articles that were received at
! the division. The use Of a geared
engine has been definitely proved to be
advantageous for airplanes Of this class.
For example, flight tests of the Curtiss
b. airplane with direct drive, a rs
reduction gear. and 81 reduction gear
fer the propeller indicated an increase
In high speed of approximately 20
miles per hour for the 81 gear over
the direct drive.
"One of the original experimental
models of the B-9 is being equipped
supercharger. The exhaust-driven su-
percharger improves performance above
10000 feet, but it is questionable
whether this type Of installation IS
justified from a tactical standpoint"
Transportation Benefited.
The B-9 became the prototype for
the new Boeing high-speed transport
plane, one Of the sensational air trans
port developments of the past year.
Sixty of the Boeing transports have
been ordered by United Airlines and
they are expected to usher in new era
in high-speed transportation, reducing
transcontinental travel time to day.
The B-2 Curtiss Condor has become
obsolescent in the Air Corps because OF
the development Of higher speed planes.
Less than a dozen Of the big Condors,
each Of which can carry 1000 pounds
of bomb load, now remain In the
service.
The standard equipment of most of
the Army's bombardment sQuadronS to-
day is the Keystone twin-motored BIZ
plane. Three versions Of the keystone
in the power plants. They are the
B-3A, mounting two 525-horsepower
Hornets; the B-4A, mounting two SIS
horsepower Hornets, and the B-6A,
powered with two Wright Cyclones.
The Keystones and Condors, though
very good airplanes, have become SO
far outclassed in speed by the develop
ments Of the past two years that their
doom is inevitable and their replace
ment by later models is only question
of the appropriation Of sufficient funds
AOl Vic Pu1pOSC.
The development Of the new bombers
Of pursuit plane speeds heralds a new
day in bombardment tactics and
possibly in the tactics of all branches
of the air combat forces.
Robot Pilot Improved.
Wiley Post, who flew the Winnie Mae
around the world in eight days, brought
a vastly improved automatic pilot to
the Capital for demonstration in his
famous plane yesterday. Though de-
velopment of the automatic pilot for
airplanes dates back 20 years, it is
only within the past year or two that
it has been put to practical use.
A year ago gyro-electric type auto
matte pilot was installed on a Condor
of Eastern Air Transport and put into
air transport operation on the coastal
airway through Washington. Since
that time the science of automatically
controlling flight of an airplane has
advanced very materially, as demon
strated in the robot" which now spells
Post at the controls of the Winnie Mae.
The efficiency, durability and sim
phcity of the automatic pilot have been
immensely improved. The weight has
been cut by nearly half. In place of
the former method of operating the
controls by electrical motors, actuated