COMMERCIAL AVIATION.
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Some Topical Notes and Comments.
THE FACT that we all knew that the Atlantic would be crossed by air in one flight before long should not be allowed in any way to discount the admirable performance of Captain Aleock and Lieutenant Whitten Brown with their VickersVimy machine with two Rolls-Royce engines.
The Atlantic Crossed.
The credit for the first successful direct flight thus goes to Great Britain. In course of time the. crossing of the Atlantic will be an every-day affair, but that time is not yet. The pilot's own account of his journey shows that the thing is not likely to appeal as a pleasure trip and remains far too dangerous to be regarded as a commercial proposition. The navigator
states that only twice during the journey was he able to take his position by observation of the sun or stars. For the greater part of the time he was dependent, in default of directional wireless, on dead reckoning, with the doubtful assistance of an unreliable speed recorder. The pilot tells us that the fog was so dense that, at times, he was compelled to descend to within 300 ft. or less ef the sea. For four hours the machine was covered in -a sheet of ice carried by frozen sleet, and this occurrtd at midsummer during a spell of exceptionally fine and warm 'weather. The conditions were so bath-that the pilot had no sense of his horizon and the danger resulting from this state of affairs was very great. Moreover, the speed indicator did not work satisfactorily and the wireless. messages received en route were not decipherable.
Despite all these difficulties, the pilot and navigator brought the machine across and landed almost exactly at the pre-determined point. It was a wonderful performance in which an element of luck went hand in hand with much skill and daring. It seems to show that, if the weather is not so bad as to render a start and a subsequent landing prohibitively dangerous, then it is not bad enough to be fatal to the machine or to render navigation impossible. In one respect, of course, the weather was favourable inasmuch as a strong wind blew . almost directly with the machine. For the rest, all the conditions appeared to have been adverse, and this despite the expert opinion that no more favourable weather was likely to be met with during the year. This shows us how little we really know of the weather conditions at high altitude over oceans, and how much we have to learn before transatlantiC aerial flight can be regarded as a commercial proposition. With machines of the present type, the useful load that can be carried is practically negligible, almost the whole of the lifting capacity being taken up by the burden of fuel supplies. Hence it is quite evident that the development of the freight and passenger-carrying flying machine will be analogous with maritime development, for the first steamer to cross the Atlantic (the " Savannah," which left the port of Savannah on May 22nd, 1819) was a toy compared with the modern liner.
For the purpose of recording a great historical event which will ultimately lead to important commercial developments, it may be stated that the machine was built at the Weybridge Works of Messrs. Vickers. It has a span of 67 ft. and an overall length of 42 ft. 8 ins., the overall height is 15 It. 3 ins., and the width of the planes 10 ft. 6 ins. The power plant consists of two standard Rolls-Royce engines of 350 h.p.
As to the men, Captain Aleock comes from Manchester and received his technical education at the Empress Motor Works in that city. He took his flying certificate in 1912 and did valuable -work first as an instructor and later in long-distance bombing on the Turkish Front during the war. Lieutenant Whitten Brown was born in Glasgow of United States parents.
He was trained at the British Westinghouse Co. and has since made a careful study of aerial navigation as applied to surveying. • It is dear that our immediate needs in connection with long aerial journeys are, firstly, a very mate rial improvement in our knowledge of meteorology and, secondly, the perfecting of the more delicate part of the equipment. Engines are already very near perfection. The aeroplanes themselves have made •great progress. in the same direction, though there is a good deal to be done in the way of the development of flying boats of large capacity.
BEMBILIDGE.