The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1936-10-16
GREATER SPEED
BECKONS FLYING
CORPS MEMBERS
AERONAUTICAL ENGINE Frs
ARE SEEKING NEW REC
ORDS AND INCREASED
SAFETY IN OPERATIONS
By DEVON FRANCIS
(By Associated Pressl

NE w ANh, ~. -, Oct. 10
Jack Herlihy used to chase horses
and cows out of pastures before
he could "set down" his biplane.
In 1928, long before he had APP
preached his present record of
100000 miles of flying, he was
surveying possible airports.
Herlihy had vision, but some of
the great flying fields he helped
select will be too small for the
ships which the great air transpor;
companies of the United States
will be flying in 1898.
The passenger capacity of to-
days airliners will be doubled in
about ID months when 40-seat
airl:ners are expected to go into
service.
Big Airports Aid Safety
Big airports assist the aeronaut-
ical engineers in attaining their
principal detectives - increased
safety and greater speeds. They
also seek greater economies of
operation.
In the field of safety, the auto
matte pilot is the flier's right bow
er. The human pilot guides his
great machine aloft, then twists a
knob on the instrument panel and
releases the manual controls.
The plane now is in the hands
of "the machine that thinks, the
gyro-pilot.
Take a peek at it's mechanism: :
There are two small gyros, actual
ed by air streams. One is for lat
eral control, the other for vertical
flight. The gyros respond to the
movements of number of air
currents. Through boosters" to
increase the strength of its COM
MAIDS, a gyro accommodates the
airplane to any air conditions, to
wind drift to shift in the load in
the fuselage.
Dozens OF Instruments
Augmenting the gyro as safe
ty device are dozens of instru-
ments, better airports and ground
crews in constant radio communi-
cation with the plane. Plane de-
sign itself has contributed large
factor in a decade of air engineer
ing.
Ice on propellers and wings is
no longer a problem; skeins of oil
and flexing rubber shields on the
leading edges of the wings destroy
the ice which once altered the
contours of the wings and made
planes unstable.
"Beam" flying utilizes a system
of dots and dashes transmitted by
radio, spread fan-like from trans
hitting stations. The beams adj
wise a pilot whether he is con
course" or to the left or right of
his scheduled line of flight. So
perfected has the beam system be-
come that instrument panels now
are being built with visual indica-
tors. <
Retractable Gear Helps
Landing gear always was prob
lem. 1t retared flight. New con-
struction designs enabled aero
nautical engineers to increase air
speed as much as 25 miles an hour
with retractable gear. The mo-
ment a pilot throttles his motors.
siren blares in his ear and red
/ lights dance on his instrument
board if his wheels are not in land
ing position.
The 1913 transport pilot has
no less tran rs dials on his instru-
ment board. Half of them are
, duplicates-for safety. Just =
| sample, for the mosors alone
Gauges for oil pressure, ill tenn
perature, carbureter intake tenn
perature, fuel, vacuum (actuating
the gyros and de-iccrsl, cylind.r
head temperature and tachometar,
which shows the number of engine
revolutions.
1t has been only decade since
private companies took over the
air mail from the government, but
that decade has been one of
achievement. On land the 5000
to 1000 pound machine has been
increased in size to $4,000 pounds
and more. Machines now under
construction viii weigh more than
$4,000 pounds.
On the sea, where the problem
, of landing a great mass of weight
/ is much simpler, huge flying boats
ply the air over the Pacific and
along the coasts o. South Ameri-
ca.
Soon they will span the Attain
tic.