Evening Star Newspaper, February 16, 1930, Page 61

AVIA BY JOSEPH LIDING and soaring, de- scribed by those who have flown motorless airplanes as the most thrilling of all sports, will be introduced in the National Capital this Spring. Two | might be able to active glider organizations now are at work preparing for pri- mary training within the next month or two. Establishment of a soaring camp in the mountains west of Washington is planned later if sufficient numbers of stu- dents can be qualified in the pri- mary flying. Though some of the most famous of the early gliding flights . Were made in this country, chiefly by the Wright brothers, gliding as a sport dropped out of sight for more than 20 years. Its revival was due largely to German acti- vity resulting from the peace treaty, which forbade the use of | power driven airplanes in that country. The Germans developed gliding and soaring as a sport and science to a point beyond any- thing dreamed possible in the early days of gliding. Auto Engine Hindered Growth. Development of the automobile engine and its application to early airplanes proved the ob- stacle which discouraged the growth of gliding in this country for two decades, in the opinion of Dr. Wolfgang Klemperer, one of the world's greatest authorities on motorless flying. The rapid success of the motor-driven air- plane, he holds, rendered further gliding experiments apparently unnecessary and they have been resumed in earnest only during the past year or two. There now are large glider and soaring schools in this country at Cape Cod, Mass., in the vicinity of Detroit, and in California. Glider clubs have been organized during the past year in every part of the country and the coming Summer is expected to see the most_intense interest in motor- less flying developed in all parts of the Nation. The newly organized Washing- ton Glider Club and a glider unit of the D. C. Air Legion, local fly- ing club, have obtained charters from the National Glider Associa- tion during the past few months. Groups at the Bureau of Stand- ards and in Chevy Chase are building primary gliders. The most vivid picture of the thrills of gliding and soaring which has been brought to the National Capital so far has been painted by Lieut. Ralph S. Barna- by, the Navy's first glider pilot and the first licensed American soarer pilot. Lieut. Barnaby be- came known to the public through his recent descent in a glider from the Navy dirigible Los Angeles. The Los Angeles flight, however, ranks as a tame experience com- pared with some of his glider and soaring flights at Cape Cod last Summer. His second soaring flight there probably will stand as one of the American classics. Way to Enjoy Flying. “I am convinced that soaring is the way to enjoy flying,” Lieut. Barnaby told members of the D. C. Air Legion this week. “I have done much flying in power-driven airplanes, but I got more real kick out of soaring at Cape Cod than I ever got out of power flying.” Lieut. Barnaby became inter- ested in gliding as a boy. He built a glider in 1909, when the Wright brothers were demon- strating their first military air- lane to the War Department ere. He made a number of short flights, up to 300 feet in length in this glider. He then dropped gliding until last Summer, when he took it up in earnest at Cape Cod. On his first day there, he qualified as a glider pilot and worked up to soaring during his first week at the school. To qualify as a soarer pilot he had to make a flight of five minutes, flying at all times higher than his point of take-off. assing over the take-off point at east once and landing within 150 feet of the starting point. He was launched from the top of Corn Hill, the big sand dune frem which soarer flying is done at the Cape Cod glider camp. Rising into a 25-mile wind, he flew long “figure 8's” up and down over the crest of the dune. He was notified by those on the dune that he had completed his re- quired flight and could come down. “Not yet,” he called down to them. “I'm going to try for 10 minutes.” He continued flying up and down the dune for another five minutes and again was asked to land. “I'm having too much fun,” he called down. “Wait a while.” He continued to circle for another five minutes in the gathering dusk. Those below then began to plead with him to land so they could get the machine apart and take it to the camp before dark 80 he finally came down to a good | landing at having qualified as American soaring pilot. Wind Failed Him There. “For a week after that,” he said, “there was no soaring wind. I began to fear I was not going to be able to make another flight. My last day at the camp came around and reluctantly I packed up and got ready to leave. Then, at the last moment, a breeze be- gan to come in off the sea and we all hurried out to the dunes. ‘The breeze was strong enough but was not blowing from the right direction, striking the face the take-off point, the first of the dunes at an angle of about | 30 degrees. It was not good for soaring, but it finally was agreed that I might make an attempt.” Thus began the flight which has made Lieut. Barnaby known to glider enthusiasts throughout the country. Flying in the same soarer which he used this month for his flight from the Los Angeles, Lieut. Barnaby was launched from the crest of the dune. “I made one trip up the length of the main dune and back but with the wind blowing in at an angle, could not get enough up current to rise very high,” he said. “The instructor called up to me TION S. EDGERTON. as I passed over the starting point and suggested that if I continued on up the beach to where the dunes curved back, presenting a more direct face to the wind I iet up. “I turned and flew on up the face of the dunes about three- quarters of a mile, but they got lower and lower and I realized I was not high enough to turn back. Just ahead there was a railroad |embankment about a half mile |long and perhaps 15 feet high. “I knew that if I could reach! the track there would be enough up current caused by the wind 'bfizwmg up the embankment to keep me up and possibly to enable me to turn. Reaching the track, |1 flew along it but could not get {up higher than about half the | height of the telegraph poles on the opposite side of the embank- | ment. | Finds Another Row of Dunes. “I continued on and picked up another row of low dunes at the |end of the embankment but still |could not get enough height to turn. The dune was broken by a bayberry canadle factory, but there was enough up current against the wall of the building to carry me past and I continued up another row of dunes toward | North Truro and Provincetown. | “A little beyond the factory was |a row of low cottages on top of the bank, which gradually became { higher. The cottages increased | the height of the up currents and | I began torise a little. As I neared | the last cottage I realized that I would have to attempt a turn. I was then more than four miles from the starting point. “I flew right up over the eaves of the last cottage, got all the up | current available, and then made a sharp flipper turn right around the cottage. I lost too much alti- tude, however, and had to land. ,Tgxe flight had taken seven min- utes. | . “I sat there a half hour and | then a party came from the gllder camp. Though the wind direc- | tion was less favorable going back |than it had been coming up, it | was decided that I should attempt to fly back at least to the nearest {road, where the glider could be taken apart and carried back by automobile. “With 16 men on the shock cord |and eight holding the tail, the glider was given a good start. I over the heads of the men on the ends of the cord. I flew back| along the front yards of thei cottages, right over the edge of the bank, where the up currents were strongest. I was so low that the tip of the wing was only two or three feet above the front yards. If there had been fences I could not have gotten by. Rocks Over Chimney. “Reaching the factory again I flew with the wing just rely over the edge of the roof, so low that I had to rock the glider to lift the wing tip over a chimney. I found myself pulling up on the control stick and on the edge of the cowling, trying to lift the glider up by physical strength. “Down along the edge of the low dunes again the wing tip on top of the bank was so low it struck scrub brushes several times, but kept on going. I reached the roadway where the glider was to be loaded aboard automobiles, but thought I might get a good deal more distance and so kept going. “The wind over the railroad embankment was none too good and the ship was settling down when a long freight train came along. I realized that the train would add at least another 12 feet to the height of the wind obstruction presented by the em- bankment and would help me just that much. I flew over the train with one wing over the cars, so low that a brakeman on top of the train had to lie flat on the roof to permit the wing to pass over him. I was able to talk to | the train crew as I swept along. “Leaving the railroad bank, I started back down the final line of dunes, settling gradually until I was below the crest and skim- ming along the side of the hill. The sun was low and cast the shadow of the glider on the bank. I tried to keep the tip of the | shadow and the wing tip of the soarer six feet apart. | ~“There was just enough wind to | keep me going until there came |a break in the dune, where a lit- tle valley cut through. Here I lost |all the up current and finally |came down for a landing on the beach, just at the foot of the dune from which I had started. | | Fights for Each Puff. “When I climbed out of the ship |T was exhausted, dripping per- |spiration, from the strain of fighting for every puff of breeze, gauging every fold and bump on the ground, struggling for every inch. The flight back took 12 minutes.” _Gliding, Lieut. Barnaby is con- vinced, is the safest form of fly- |ing. At Cape Cod he witnessed |several hundred flights, many of | which ended in bad landings, but without injury to a single student |or serious damage to any of the ships. . | _Gliding is thoroughly practica- ble for flight training, he believes, {and could be employed to reduce | materially the time required for instruction in flying power-driven airplanes. Not only is gliding a | splendid method of ‘instruction in the principles of flight, he point- | ed out, but it also is the most ex- | hilarating experience to be found in flying. 1t is easier to land a glider than to land an airplane, he said. The landing speed is slower and the {fllot_ has more time to think. In anding a glider, however, there is no choice but to land. With an | airplane, the pilot can open up | his_engine if he is not satisfied {and come around for another at- |tempt. With the glider there is no second attempt. ‘The glider pilot also is seated was 50 feet high when I passed |requ THE SUNDAY LONGEST AIR ROUTE| 10 OPEN TUESDAY New Service Will Connect 16 Nations and Colonies of Two Americas. Service between the United States and South America over what is called th: world's longest sirline will be in- augurated Tuesday by the New York, Rio and Buenos Aires Lines, with ex-: tension to this city and New York later in the §) 3 Loca o the lines have been 1 offices fl‘n: o of Opened in the National Press Building ; here by Willlam P. MacCracken, } former Assistant Secretary of Com- | merce for Aeronautics, who now is chairman of the board and chief exec- | utlve officer of the air transport com- The service will connect 16 nations and colonies of the Americas and will | the most distant capitals of South i America as close to the United States as Florida is to Oregon by rail. Cuts Sea Time 12 Days. Planes will leave simultaneously from Santiago, Chile and Miami, Fla., 8,000 miles apart, to cover the intervening in eight days. The fastest Steamer time between the two cities is 20 days. Travel time between Miami and Buenos Aires is to be cut from 18 by steamer to 7 days. The planes 1 serve directly 39 ports of call on lar schedule, tablishment of the “Nyrba” Line, as it hlmpuhrly known, and its competi- tive , Pan-American Airways, which also serves the west coast of South America, is regarded as of great com- mercial significance. The rtment of Commerce places a $3,000,000,000 value on the Eastern trade route link- ing the Americas. Along this route, it is said, 78 per cent of the total world trade of Latin America is concentrated. The airline provides service to coun- tries which represent 65 per cent of the total population of Latin America, 72 per cent of its total wealth and 91 per cent of its postal activity, it is claimed. Creation of these two American alrway systems constitutes one of the romances of aviation. They face the stiffest opposition and competition in South America from the subsidized lines gl.n azmm French and British etm:- which are seeking vigorously to gain a foothold in South America. Service Started in August. The New York, Rlo & Buenos Aires Line opened its first air service on the South American continent August 21, 1929, Pan-American_having preceded it on the west coast. The first Nyrba line was between Buenos Aires and Monte- video, Uruguay. The line reduced travel time between the two capitals from 16 h]nurs by steamer to 90 minutes by plane. On September 1 service was inaugu- rated over the backbone of the Andes between Buenas Aires and Santiago, the planes flying through Upsallata Pass, 16,000 feet high. The trip by air 'l ires eight hours, as against nearly two days and nights by rail. Buenos Alres and Bolivia were linked by air November 27 on a 1,099-mile line through central Argentina to Yacuiba, -where connection is made with the Aero-Lloyd Boliviana for service to La Paz. Three days later service was ex- tended from Buenos Aires to Mar del Plata, Argentina. During the past month the first major divisions northward were put into operation between Buenos Porto legre, Santos and Rio de Janiero; Rio de Janiero and Pernambuco, Natal, For- taleza and Para, at the mouth of the Amazon River. On the first of this month there were 6,109 miles of Nyrba airways in regular ‘ation, and the comilny was _oper- T nearly 16,000 weekly on ar schedules. —— FLYING SHIP TAKES OFF FROM BED OF SOLID ICE Is Chopped Free After Being Frozen in Overnight—Lands in Snow. Chopped free when frozen into the surface of a river, a flying boat was flown off the solid ice at Detroit a few days ago and then was landed upon a snow-covered flying fleld without dam- age, to a report received here. An inspector for the aeronautics branch of the Department of Commerce and James Eastman, designer of the craft, took off the water in the Detroit River to conduct tests for ap approved type certificate for the plane. When night fell the tests were not completed and the plane was moored in the river for the night. A sudden cold snap froze it in. ‘The plane was chopped out, dragged up on the solid ice and the motor started. The metal hull slid along the ice 5o easily that only about half the run for a water take-off was necessary to get the plane into the air. Once in the air the tests were completed and the plane was landed on Grosse Ile Airport in 3 feet of snow, coming to a dead stop in about the same distance as for a water landing. REMARK BY LINDBERGH BRINGS NEW AIR SIGNAL An overheard remark made by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh has led to the de- velopment of a new type of aviation beacon to assist pilots when flying in dense fogs. Lindbergh observed that the flashes made by trolley poles oper- ating from overhead wires are notice- able in a dense fog when other types ot lights are obscured. As a result of this remark, experi- ments have been made, resulting in the construction of an electric flasher of a new type. This flasher will send out location signals in code so that the lights will not be mistaken for trolley flashes. ‘Though the light still is in an ex- perimental stage, tests have been made over a period of nearly a year, which show definitely that it is ‘superior to ordinary types of ufht for fog pene- tration work, according to reports re- celved here. In service the arc would be used only in unusually bad weather, it was pointed out, and would supple- ment existing incandescent and neon lighting equipment. —_— when you feel the top of the grass it is time to level off.” The glider pilot really learns to fly. He does not fly by instru- ment, as does the airplane pilot, but must fly by feeling and his own unsupported judgment. He becomes a real flyer, confident in his own ability and not dependent upon mechanical means of deter- mining whether he has flying speed or is doing his turns prop- rly. This is illustrated by the fact that most of the glider crashes at Cape Cod were suffered by air- lane pilots. Novices who made heir first fllghu in gliders gen- erally were better than experi- enced airplane pilots, because they had no habits to unlearn. Gliding is not a sport merely for the young, experience at Cape | closer to the ground than the air- Cod shows, but may be enjoyed hy l persons of all ages. Though the STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, FEBRUARY 16, 1920—PART FOUR. I GIANTS OF THE AIR, LAND AND SEA I SERVICE PLANES GIVEN TO OFFICERS IN RESERVE Use of Craft to Be Confined to Men Qualified to Handle Them. In an effort to further increase the efficlency of Army Air Corps Reserve pllots, Maj. Gen. James E. Fechet, chief of the Air Corps, has ordered 20 service type planes added this year to the num- ber now lable at e flelds throughcut country. These phneli are to be used by Reserve officers only, and are to be further restricted to those | Reserve officers who have qualified as competent to handle these types of air- | planes well. | The planes to be delivered will be sufficient, added to those now available, | to take care of the needs of the Reserve pilots dolng their fiying from re Air Corps flelds. No decision has made as to the numbers to be assigned to the various Reserve fields, but it is expected that each field will obtain at least one plane. — High Mileage Registered. NEW YORK (#)—Flying 5,657,929 miles in scheduled operation, planes of the Aviation ration accounted for more than one-third of the estimated total of passenger, mail, and express regular service by air. e g ‘Thought to be those of a wild pony of 5,000 years ago, bones of an animal weri found recently at Grimsby, Eng- an | Squirrels Fought To Prepare Field For Army Aviators Sergt. Olsh and Force of One Man Use Gas Against Enemies. grim and sanguinary battle is being waged for Mather Field, Sacramento, Calif., so that it may be made safe for the Army Air Corps to use during the annual maneuvers in April. The War Department is seeking to drive from Mather Field a great army which has resorted to tunneling in the landing area to consolidate its . Against the army in its dugouts the Air Corps sey pc;:eya N. z": com| en! class, and is wel warfare, the medium being used in this Arrayed against Olsh and his com- mand is a horde of what are known that section as “varmints.” Specifically, they are ground squirrels. The squirrels in their mini and sapping operations dig tunnels which trip up the wheels of unwary airplanes and cast up mounds which are no joy to pilots. Sergt. Olsh and “ground straf- fing” army are seeking to oust the lmfe invaders from the entire 640 acres & e ik THREE NAVAL AVIATORS ORDERED TO CAPITAL Lieutenants Now Aboard the Lex- ington Are Assigned to Duty in Aeronautics Bureau. | squaaron 35: VB Squadron 1B, and Squadron 1B. - . Henderson, , VT Harry S. Ken- VS _Squadron 1B, aboard the carrier U. 8. S. Langley, g)"r. duty at the Anacostia Naval Air Lieut. Comdr. as- William ‘Thomas, sistant naval attache at the United has been Wwill be needed for the maneuvers of the 1}315 Arry planes to be concentrated there. SR S al one of the exits in a series o{“gnfinu groun squirrel burrows. In stentorian then orders his of Mather Field, every acre of which | reports. NOW REO PRICES RANGE FROM %1195 10 $1945 YOU'VE always wanted a fine car...a car you could be really pmui of...a car that would be good not for just a year or two, but for four years, five years, as long as you wanted to drive it. Perhaps you had about made up your mind that such a car was a “later on™ proposition. It isn’t. Today, right now, that fine car is within your grasp. Today you can buy a Reo in the model you need, the body style you want, and the Pprice range you can afford. Now you can choose, from the greatest selection of models ever offered by Reo. Now the Reo comes in three models and three sizes. Now Reo prices range from $1195 to $1945! And Reo is a fine car that will stay fizc. For Reo is good—really good— for 100,000 miles—with close to new-car performance, new-car smoothness, new-car thrill, of ownership all the way. | formance tests of civil aircraft to pro- | test pllot at the Anacostia Naval Air | of Standards. Speelal instruments to g::ermme just what is happen! 3 | peratures away from the effects of the t- | are the maximum d | the stalling or landing URGES FOUNDING OF TEST AGENCY Flight Pilot Favors Formation| to Protect Public Against Misleading Advertising. Establishment of some independent flight testing agency to conduct per- tect the public against possible mis- | leading advertising claims of perform- ance and at the same time to safeguard the interests of airplane manufacturers was suggested by Lieut. Edward W. Rounds, Naval Reserve, veteran mght‘ Station, in & lecture before the Stand- ards Flying Club this week at the Bureau There is no standardization of per- formance tests, Lieut. Rounds pointed out, and no yardstick by which pros- pective airplane purchasers may meas- ure the performance claims of the vari- | ous manufacturers. He described the precise and pains- taking manner in which flight tests are conducted by the Navy flight test sec- tion and which he applied to the flight testing of a commercial airplane in the only official commercial flight tests conducted under Federal sanction. Absolute Accuracy Assured. In conducting these tests every in- strument used is calibrated to insure absolute accuracy, down to the scales on which the plane is weighed, the stop watch with which flights are timed and the thermometers used in the plane and on the wing struts. are !naullua to lur- , he said. These include a strut thermometer to measure air tem- the tests, engine; an air pressure gauge either of the altimeter or barograph type or both; an air speed indicator or auto- matic recorder or both; tachometer to record engine revolutions; statoscope to show when the plane is holding & con- stant autitude and a stop watch, He described the methods employed in cali- brating all of these instruments. Certain facts regarding airplane per- formance may be determined with great accuracy, he said. Among these at sea level, hs of a mile per hour; landing speed, which may be determined within one mile per hour, and the maximum rate of r:lmbé determinable within 15 feet minute. Thg“minmum rate of climb of an airplane usually is one-third between i peed, he pornted o At imum he pointed out. higher llv.gmdm ;l:éo betweje‘t:“ eh.: high and low dg the rate of climb, lomme holds good at all altitudes up to the maxi- mur At the maximum ceiling, he sald, there is only o ne speed, is the maximum rate of climb, because | Pilot Learns Art Of Sgluting His Friends at Night ‘Those who like to a cere- less hand and say “Hello,” with= d con- Pabst, forrher Marine Ni ‘York- yxt‘hh.t.:k mnmon "tnl: ew -Atlanta run, through this city. Pabst is a genius in the art of waving hello on the run. He is s the middle of the night. always greets his friend, C. Q. Schaefer, night electrician at Logan Field, Baltimore, in this fashion. In his hand, when he waves, 1s a lighted flashlight.’ In Schaefer’s hand, when he waves back is another iighted flashlight. It is a nightly ceremony. at any other speed the plane will lose altitude. The maximum ceiling, which is the highest ble point to which an air- plane will fly, he said, is an uncertain point which cannot be measured with any degree of accuracy. The service ceiling, however, which ‘is the point at which the rate of climb falls to 100 feet per minute, can be determined with a fair dey of accuracy and is the | figure which should be used in comput- !u'l}d performance characteristics, he Testing Methods Described. He described in detail the methods of testing, of installing the instru- ments and of computing the results. The lecture was illustrated with slides showing the various instruments em- ployed in flight testing; the automatic recordings magde by certain of these in< struments, and the mounting of the in- struments in the airplane. On Tuesday night of this week Lisut, Rounds will tell the club of the 13 testing of airplanes entered in Guggenheim ‘“safe airplane” contest, which was won by the Curtiss Tanager airplane, cqu!sped with wing slots and flaps and floating ailerons. Lieut. Rounds was a test pilof in this contest. The lecture, which also will be illus-. trated, will be given in the east lecture room of the east building of the Bureau of Standards, Connecticut avenus and Van Ness street, at 8 pm. The public 1s invited. Device Checks Air Passage. 'rheD;urnu ?th S!Illildlr]fl and the Navy Department have developed a spe- cial apparatus for calculati .mo amount of air which passes through parachute fabric. This is necessary gauj controlability and rate of de- scent of the parachute. RADIATORS-FREEZEPROOF BT, WITTSTATTS RADIA FENDER & BODY WORKS O Wit Sl REO MODEL 15— Standard Coupe. Siz wire wheels and two fender wells optional at slightly increased price. 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