Evening star., 1934-11-25

The new Douglas airplanes
less than Seven-hour schedules
however, are not excelled by sil
today, in the opinion of aviation
The new Douglas transport
general design and relative pert
and the new Lockheed, have WI
few months and have smashe,
abroad.
One Of the nine new Douglas planes
of the E. A. L. feet holds the present
transcontinental air transport speed
record Of IL hours, 8 minutes and so
seconds. A sister ship finished second
in the London Melbourne race of
last month in competition with spe-
cial European racing planes and an
American Boeing transport airplane
Of somewhat similar design finished
third. The fact that both these air.
planes were standard American trans
ports and that the second-place win
ner carried passengers and mail dur
ing the race is held by many Euro
pean aviation leaders as a fact OF
greater significance than the British
victory.
The new E. A. L. Douglas transport
Is powered with twin 710-horsepower
supercharged engines, driving con-
trollable pitch propellers. Maximum
efficiency is obtained at about $4,000
feet altitude, where speed of 225
miles per hour is attained, according
to a performance report. Air brakes,
or wing flaps, reduce the landing speed
about 10 miles per hour, to So miles
With single engine operating, it is
claimed, the plane can take of and
climb to 5000 feet without exceed
ing the normal operation limits OF
the engine.
The Douglas is designed for high
altitude, long-range operation and
will be employed only in limited stop
service Speed increases with alti-
tude, with a maximum of 2l3 miles
per hour between 5000 and $4,000
feet, increasing to the 225-mile maxi
mum at $4,000. near the absolute CELL
ing of the airplane, it is said.
The cruising speed, at only 62.5 per
cent OF the rated horsepower of the
engines, is said to be 200 miles per
hour and normal operations probably
will be flown at about this speed, leav-
ing a reserve of more than third OF
the power for fighting adverse winds
Fuel capacity permits operations up
to a range Of 800 miles, nonstop.
Plane 81 Feet Long.
The plane has a length of 81 feet,
a wing span of IS feet, and a height
of 16 feet. The passenger cabin is
26 feet long, 5lz feet wide and 6 feet
3 inches high, in addition to which
there is a cargo Compartment 36 u
feet long and of the same width and
height as the passenger cabin. The
plane acrries "A passengers and a
$4,000 pounds; loaded, 1880 pounds
or nearly nine tons.
Retractable landing gear is used but
is SO designed that the airplane may
be landed safely with the wheels all
the way up, with damage only to the
propellers. Since the wheels are moved
forward Of the center of gravity ir
retracting. there is no tendency to
nose the ship over in case Of wheel-ur
landings.
The new ships are operating on
eight-hour elapsed time schedule be-
tween New York and Miami, with
stops at Washington on all flights.
Time between Washington and Miami
is about 6l2 hours. Day and night
schedules will be maintained. Next
month Douglas service is to be inau-
gurated between New York and New
Orleans, through Washington, and be-
connecting there with the New York
Miami line.
For the first time the public has
been given real idea of the speed
Of the new Army Air Corps pursuit
airplanes. For several years speed
and other performance figures have
been shielded behind a screen of mill
tary secrecy which remained unbroken
A few days ago, however, the All
Corps resumed competition for the
Mitchell Trophy, put up for compe-
tition by Army pursuit pilots. The
results were astonishing to many lay
men who have heard only vaguely OF
the performance of the new pur.
suffers.
The Mitchell race this year was con-
fined to the new P-26A low-wing Boe-
ing pursuit monoplanes. The aver
age speed Of the winner, Capt. Fred
C. Nelson, was 216832 miles pei
hour for four laps of a 2O-mile tri-
angular course. The slowest of the