Evening Star Newspaper, October 14, 1928, Page 86

an Lo PERFECTISWORD APPLIED TO PLANE WNo Such Thing as “Fair Con- dition” Permitted, Says Transport Executive. There are no airplanes in “fairly good @ondition” flying in the T transport se: kinds of airplanes—those in first-clas: condition and those in bad conditio Those tha. .night be classed as “fairly good” must, from the point of view of air tra ort, be listed as serviceable. This is the ulti Col. Paul Henderson general manager of port, given before acr ical safet month in New Yo The control of aircraft in scheduled air transport services means hard we on the part of the ground personnel— work made up of a muititude of details, much of which is mere drudgery—Col. Henderson said. He pointed out that ground vehicles will operate, perhaps with not 100 per cent efficiency, but at least with some degree of success, with many minor things the matter with them. A leaky packing box will not stop a locomotive; cylinder will not cause a k to fail. Minor difficulties larly with aircraft ust result in aban- for the sake of th ) onference held this engines donment of #afety, he declared. Precautions Before Start. “As a consequence, every litlle ad- Justment, every bolt and nut, every piece of fabric, every valve, valve spring, every bearing, every turn- ®uckle on an ail ne, must be exactly right before a scheduled trip is under- Raken,” Col. Henderson said. “Because of the importance of small things the control of aircraft in air transport, if it 3s properly organized, becomes an inten- wive effort, all directed at the job of Wnaking certain by frequent inspections | nd reinspections that every part of the hip is as it should These inspec- fions must be carried on by men who Jnow what they are about. Inspection by an uninformed inspector would be ®s bad as no inspection at all.” i He explained that aft ery trip, | 1o matter how long or how short, each | National Air Transport plane is in-| spected in scores of essential details ®y two men, each working inde- Bendently and acting as a check on each other. Each inspector signs an | inspection card and is responsible for #he thoroughness with which the work %5 done. They cover the plane from | wose to tail. Repairs on aircraft fall into two classes; service repairs and overhaul Tepairs. Service repairs are those nec- essary from day to day because of breakages and wear and tear. Over- baul repairs consist of the complete ®earing down of the unit, measuring with great accuracy of ail its parts, rejection of those worn beyond certain tolerances or corroded or otherwise in bad condition, and the complete re- building of the unit with new parts wherever needed. Much Detailed Work Done. “Somebody,” Col. Henderson con- | tinued, “has been quoted as saying | that ‘there is a good deal more to aviation than ilying” An hour or two | spent around the repair base of the National Air Transport would convince | any one of the truth of this statement. | “The actual fiying of the airplanes, | their dispatching, and so forth, is a relatively simple matter except for that part of the task intrusted to the pilot, and no statement of mine can exaggerate the skill and intelligence Decessary on the part of the pilots. | fiey are sent off on their scheduled except when the weather condi- make that impossible. They ar- | give on time or ahead of time or be- | hind time, depending largely on the | iweather encountered en route. ‘Tail winds make for arrivals ahead of bchedule. Headwinds make for late grrivals, Fogs, snowstorms and heavy ¥ains result in delays and call upon every ounce of skill, courage and abil- ity which the pilot has, The aim of every “transport operator 18 to keep his fiying equipment in such condition as will insure on-time arrivals, except for the unknown influence of the weather. “In August just passed in the flying f over 225.000 miles N. A. T. ships ad- red to the schedules set down for $hem with practically 100 per cent effi- ciency except where their flight was in- | Perfered with by wind or fog. In other | Words, we appear to have licked the me- chanical jcb of schedule flying. We | tll:e" gone a long way toward licking | weather, but still have an equally | fong or longer road to travel from that | mcuhr angle. A year from now I that at a meeting of this charac- r much progress may be reported in e matter of overcoming the obstacles rought about by rain, fog and snow. Safety Is Supreme Goal. “This meeting is a safety meeting. Every act of everybody seriously en- ®aged in air transport is prompted by | #$wo things—safety and efficiency. How well we have been able to watch out Bor the safety of N. A. T. operations nay be evidenced by the statement that since May 12, 1926, N. A. T. airplanes | . have flown a total mileage approxi- | - mating 3,000,000 and that we have had but two fatalities. Each of these fatal cidents was brought about by weather. very indication is that in one instance Enher the pilot or the airplane was tion: ick by lightning, and the other, a 'y severe and unexpected late Fall ghunderstorm, so confused one of our #lots as to result in his flying into the ound with his ship wide open. “In each case the fatality was brought Bbout by something over which neither &he pilot nor any of the personnel of the WNational Air Transport had any con- $rql whatever. Better weather reports gngh! have prevented one of these ac- idents. I feel that nothing in the orld could have prevented the other. lowever, 3,000,000 miles of scheduled fying, the greater part of it at night, with two fatalities, is, I am sure, at this stage of the development of this ert a commendable record from the point of view of safety.” . CASTOR OIL GOES. Petroleum Products Replace It as Airplane Lubricants. ly has been sup- ricant motors in_this country, De it 11 is used for s, ac- by the brication field by the great petroleum panies are responsiole for the cecline of castor oil &s a lubricant, the foundation declared. The perfected petroleum lubricants meet the gnd racing automol Jormerly could be ©of castor ofl. Morec olls eliminan (he disagreeable features in the use of castor oil. Such as its moxious odor and its detrimental effects on the motor due to oxidizing and turn- #ng to acid. motors which New Air Line Planned. s of airplane | RANKS WITH The acronautical collection of the | &mithsonian Institution, which is par- tially housed in the corrugated iron shed south of the Smithsonian Build- ing. as a result of a number of recent accessions, now ranks as one of the | most complete aviation museums in the world. The building long since has been outgrown and many of the most inter- © objects in th> collection are housed in other buildings, notably the Sp! of St. Louis, Col. Charles A. Lindbergh’s famous piane, which is ex- hibited in the entrance hall of the Arts and Industries Building, and the planes of Langiey and other air pioneers, which e housed in another corridor of the me building. The collection in the Aircraft Build- ing, as a result of the recent acces- {sions, has become fairly representative {of the aeronautical development of the | country. Exhibits of original planes {and motors are supplemented by ! models and photographs, covering vir- | tually every phase of this country's ef- | forts to conquer the air. Curtiss Racer. Among the more recent additions to | the collection is the Army Curtiss racer, jofficially designated as the R-2-C-1, in ‘\l‘hlrh Lieut. James Doolittle won the Schneider Cup race in October, 1925. | The plane was fitted with pontoons for !that event. It is shown, however, as originally built, with wheels for ground |landing. One of the pontoons with {which it was fitted for the race is !shown. This plane is credited with a | top speed of 249.97 miles per hour. Fin- ished in black and bronze, it is the pic- ture of speed incarnate. An interesting collection of airplane wing ribs of every conceivale type has been acquired and placed on the south wall of the building, together with rough propeller blanks, showing the stagcs of propellor construction. The wing ribs show graphically the steps taken by engineers in their battle for lightness combined with strength. One of the ribs, 15 feet long, is of wooden truss-type construction and, although weighing only 2.23 pounds, will carry a load of 742 pounds. New Balloon Exhibits. The Museum also boasts a new ex- hibit, composed of the balloon basket and aerostatic apparatus. with which the late Capt. Hawthorn C. Gray, Army Air Corps, on Nov. 4, 1927, reached the greatest height ever attained by man— 42,470 feet, or more than 8 miles. This exhibit includes all of the recording in- struments used by Capt. Gray on his flight, in addition to his other equip- ment. Another interesting exhibit is the 5000000 AVIATON FELD SOON READY New Jersey Project to Have Every Facility for Safety and Comfort. One of the most important aviation construction programs in the' Eastern United States is nearing completion on the Hackensack Meadows, where the $6,000,000 Metropolitan Airport is being constructed on the outskirts of Newark, N. J.,, 20 minutes from down- town Manhattan. Mayor Thomas L. Raymond of Newark, who has personal supervision of the project, has an- nounced that the first section’ now is being used for full air mail operation on both the Western and coastal routes, materially expediting the handling of mail matter. This initial unit occupies about half the entire airport area. It has two landing runways in the form of a cross, each arm_ 2,000 feet long and 800 feet wide. Down the middle of each runway has been laid a stretch | of tar-bound pavement 200 feet wide, affording a smooth hard surface under all weather conditions for taking off and landing. The remainder of the field will be leveled and made suitable for landing regardless of the runways. The first of a number of fireproof hangars 120 feet square -and large enough to house 12 to 14 single-motor planes, has been completed and build- ings are being constructed to house headquarters of the air mail lines, a post office, radio station, meteorological bureau, airport administrative offices and headquarters of the aviation sec- tion of the New Jersey Nattional Guard. Banks of Floodlights. Two banks of floodlights, with 10 lights each, are being installed to illuminate the first unit of the field for night service. Further equipment for night flying includes a 36-inch re- volving beacon, boundary lights, run- way boundary lights, approach lights and obstacle lights. A large separate field adjacent to the airport is being reclaimed from the marshes as a terminal for dirigi- bles and other lighter-than-air craft. A mooring mast, the fourth of its kind will be erected to pro- for large dirigibles such as the Na Los Angeles and the German and British dirigibles which soon are to demonstrate the feasibility of regular transatlantic airship pas- senger flights. |~ The diminutive Goodyear _dirigible Puritan, which was a visitor to this | city during the recent military exposi- | tion at the Washington Barracks, has made several passenger flights from the airport, carrying newspaper men and city officials. Pilots and officials from all along the Eastern coast have flown to the new airport to inspect progress of the construction program, among the recent visitors having been Earl Rowland, winner of the recent trans- continental air race, who landed at the |airport in his prize-winning Oessna monoplane. Safety Precautions Taken. Every possible precaution has been | taken to insure the safety and comfort of those using the field. All nearby | wires and cables which might prove | obstacles to planes have been placed | underground. ~ Parking space for auto- | mobiles has been provided and storage | space for visiting planes will be set {aside in the hangars. A dredged chan- nel leads into Newark Bay, affording landing facilities for seaplanes. | Upon completion of the new eight- mile elevated speed highway between the airport and the Jersey City en- trance of the Holland Tunnel the field will be less than 20 minutes from the New York post office, financial section and theater and shopping district. The field, it is claimed, is in a position to serve 10,000,000 people, 25 per cent of them in New Jersey. The city of Newark is planning to derive revenue from the airport by air service between Buencs ideo will be inaugu- the Department of Com- has been advised. The company 1ll use three cabin seaplanes, a Savoia #nd two Cants. of Italian make Eucn piane will have accommodations Hor four passengers and a limited quan- ty of freight. They will carry mail the regular postage rates between uay and Argentina, k by the Companio de | ng flying concessions of various from ground fees for visiting and from other sources. More than 20 airway and aircraft companies { have applied for space at the field. A | hotel for the accommodation of airport | visitors and two restaurants are to be constructed in the near future, | When completed the airport, will cover 1600 acres, all reclaimed marshland ad- | ioining the municipal docks and the Port Newark ship basin. on Newark Bay between Newark and Elizabethport, THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON. D. ¢, OCTOBER T4 1928—PART 4. SMITHSONIAN AIR EXHIBIT WORLD DISPLAY Many Sections Now Grouped in Other Buildings—Traces History of Craft in United States. Loening amphibian plane San Fran- cisco, one of the ships which made the Pan-American good-will flight around South America in 1926. The planc vis- ited 21 American republics, returning to this city May 2, 1927. It is equipped with an inverted Liberty engine, the motor being mounted upside down, with the crank-case on top and the cylinders hanging below. This mounting was de- vised by Grover Loening, the plane's | designer, to lower the center of gravity and to give the pilot clearer vision. The mounting is said to improve the sta- bility and ease of handling. ‘The first official transatlantic airmail bag also is shown. This is the sack in which Comdr. Richard E. Byrd carried mail to Europe in the America. which landed in the sea off Ver-Sur-Mer, France, July 1, 1927. The sack shows the results of the immersion, though its contents were salvaged and delivered. TESTS WILL GAUGE TIMING" OF CHUTES Moment of Opening to Be Filmed—Rate of Fall Fixed at 120 M.P.H. The Army Air Corps experimental station at Wright Field, having deter- mined that the fall of a person from an airplane with a parachute pack at- tached to his body is about 120 miles an hour and never greater, will run a series of tests to obtain exact informa- tion on the opening time of the para- chute under various conditions with the view of settling once and for all the discussion about parachutes open- ing at low altitudes. The opening of the parachutes will be recorded with a motion picture camera. How the Air Corps experts at Wright Field arrived at their figures as to the rate of fall of a body through space, has just been received here in a re- port of the tests. The experiments were conducted at night with a Douglas Torpedo plane equipped with Chrysler-desigred New “Silver-Dome’’ high- compression engine, using any grade gasoline. smoothness and New quietness of oper- ation at every speed. performance bril- New liancy, flashing getaway, astonishing power and pickup with marked economy of gas and oil. New - type rubber insula- tion of engine, new- type invar-strut pistons, new- type crankcase ventilator, etc. Neflv-type 4-wheel hy- draulic internal brakes with moulded brake lin- ing, giving instant and squeak- less stopping in any weather. New slender-profile ra- diator, new bowl-type lamps, with beautiful cowl lamps and cewl bar, all chro- mium plated. 3 New riding qualities from ; long resilient springs and hydraulic shock absorbers, front and rear. New roominess in the longlow-hungbodies, seating five adults with a sur- plus eof comfort. New richness of interior appointments, with high-grade mohair for closed carsand genuine leather, pigskin grain, for open models. New arched window sil- houette, new air-wing fenders,new charming color combinations. bomb shackles, bays for drop-testing parachutes. dummies were dropped, one the size of an average man weighing 180 pounds, complete with dummy parachute pack; the other the same in size but weigh- ing only 115 pounds complete. A 200-pound lead weight, with trail- ing dummy parachute pack so arranged as to simulate the resistance and weight conditions of high speed para- chute testing, also was used. The gen- eral method of testing was to drop = dummy with a light attached, while a camera placed on the ground, took pic- tures of the fall. In the first tests the camera shutter of the ordinary view camera was re- moved and a pendulum of proper length to swing at one second intervals was suspended in front of the lens. In later tests a “betwen the lens" shutter was used. This was held open by means of a spring and was closed once each second by a solenoid. The pendulum was removed from in front of the lens and arranged to make con- tact with a bubble of mercury at the bottom of each swing, thus closing the solenoid and battery circuit. This formed a more convenient and accu- rate timing device. The camera was set with the axis of the lens horizontal and the film vertical. When all was in_readiness the air- plane would take off and climb to the prescribed altitude. The pilot signaled with a flashlight when he was starting on the course which was marked by blinking lights on the ground. The timing pendulum was then started and releases and dummy | Two | CALL NAME “DENNE” GIVEN TO ZEPPELIN New German Dirigible Assigned Wave Tengths for Trans- atlantic Flights. In preparation for her proposed series of transatlantic flights this Fall and Winter, thc new German dirigible Graf Zeppelin has been equipped with in- termediate wave radio equipment, radio compass and short wave transmitting outfit, the Navy Department has been informed by the Zeppelin Co. The air- ship has been assigned wave lengths suitable for communication with ships en route and with coast stations. The dirigible’s gall name will be “Denne” and the wave lengths as- ailowed to swing until the dummy or weight had reached the ground. The pilot maintained his proper altitude with a sensitive altimeter. It was im- portant that he hold closely to the proper altitude and pass not too close to the camera, as the image would not then fall on the film. As he approached the first marker light on his course he switched on the dummy light and a few seconds later released the dummy. from communication with shipboard stations which can relay telegrams to coast stations, a general call wave for shipboard and coast stations, an emer- gency call wave for European coast stations and a short wave for traffic with other aircraft. The big - airship’s radio outfit con- sists of a mamn transmitter, undamped, of 140-watt capacity and with a range of 1,500 kilometers for radio-telegraph and 400 kilometers for radio-telephone: an _emergency transmitter, undamped, of 70-watt capacity and with ranges of 750 and 180 kilometers, respectively, for telegraph and telephone transmission; a sp Ily constructed receiver ar- ranged in three steps for wave ranges of 150 to 500 meters, 400 to 4,000 me- ters and 3,000 to 25,000 meters; a radio compass mounted in the buffer bag under the control car but operated from the radio room on a wave range of 300 to 4,000 meters: a wind-driven gen- erator_and reserve generator; batteties for emergency use and a charging outfit for the batteries: two antennae wires 120 meters long, to be suspended beneath the control car while in flight, and a short wave sending and receiving outfit, designed primarily for experi- mental work. While a British aircraft carrier was still at sea off the coast of Africa re- cently the aircraft tock off and pro- ceeded to Heliopolis and Cairo to make an independent tour. signed to it provide separate ranges | |ACTRESS OFFERS TROPHY: FOR THEATRICAL FLYER Vivienne Osborne Gives Cup for Player in Plane Winning Non-Stop Race. Vivienne Osborne, Broadwav theatri- Ical star, has offered a gold trophy to the actor or actress flying in the win- ning plane in a non-stop race between New York and Cleveland, to be held in connection with the national air races next Summer. An advisory committee, which in- cludes such famous airmen as Col. Clarence Chamberlin, Capt. George Haldeman, Capt. Charles B. Collyer, Sherman M. Fairchild, president of the Fairchild Aviation Corporation; Charles Laurence, president of the Wright Aeronautical Corporation, and Charles Colvin, president of the Pioneer Instru- ment Co., 1s preparing rules and regu- lations for the race. Miss Osborne, a flying enthusiast her- self, is offering the trophy, a replica o, Col. Charles A. Lindbergh's “Spirit of St. Louis.,” as a means of stimulating | interest in aviation among peonle of the stage. She says she is convinced that the time is coming when stage people, | especially those who are touring the | country, will use airplanes just as they Unequaled for Value. .. in the field of 'low-priced sixes The greater value afforded by the new De Soto Six has been instantly recognized and gener- ously rewarded. Its heritage of Multum pro parvo Chrysler standardized qliality in point of style, beauty and comfort is apparent at first glance—and a ride reveals perform- ance abilities never before attained in six-cylinder cars of comparable price. Faeton, $845; Roadster Espanol, $845; Sedan Coche, $845; Cupe Business, $345; Cupe de Lujo, $885; Sedan, $885; Sedan de Lujo, $955. All pricesf.0.b. Detroit. 0oTO PRODUCT OF CHRYSLER MAYFLOWER MOTORS, Inec. 2819 M Street N.W. Associate Dealer Moncure Motor Co. Quantico, Va. DE Neumeyer Mctor Co., Inc. 1825 14th St. N.W. Phone North 7522 Phone North 1104 Torrey Motor Co. 2108 L St. N.W.