Evening Star Newspaper, May 4, 1930, Page 66

AVIA TION ‘BY JOSEPH S. EDGERTON. ASH is so strong in the Spring-time, ‘When garlic grows rank in the yard!” ~From the Boarding House Ballades. Here is a little Spring-time aeronautical hash, strength not guaranteed—— Speaking of Spring-time and its reputed effect on the human species, have you heard about the Navy's “Hot Papas’? That may sound like the most arrant €« Jjoshing, but it's not, really. Each/| of the Navy's aircraft carriers| has on duty on the flight deck while flying Is in progress a man who is known to his companions as “the Hot Papa.” The title is based on fact—on the most un- comfortable truth. The man really | is a very warm individual. He is| warm of necessity. Moreover,: duty may call him into the hot- test places imaginable. He is in veriest truth a Hot Papa. ‘The Hot Papa is dressed in an asbestos suit, resembling, some-| what, a deep sea diver’s outfit. He | is protected at every point from | the heat—external heat, that is.| The heat which the gentleman| may generate by internal com- bustion, and which remains con- fined within the asbestos suit,| which naturally forms just as| good insulation from one side as from the other, is what earns him his euphonious title. Once in| the asbestos suit, the luckless can- didate becomes a most Super- heated Padra within a few min- utes, able only to perspire most profusely, keep on the alert inj case duty calls, and pray urgently| for relief. Pilots Are Inflammable. Flying airplanes off a carrier| deck and landing them thereon| present problems to the pilot. Not all landings are the graceful af-| fairs the same pilot may make habitually on shore. There are heavings of the carrier deck to contend with. There are compli- cations due to the arresting gear. ‘There may be up or down cur- rents over the edge of the flight deck. Crashes are not at all im- robable, and crashes often result fires. Fires are not good for aviators who may be "strapped into their cockpits. Aviators in burning planes with gasoline tanks which may burst and burn are combustible, if overlong ex- posed, it has been found. Here is the big opportunity for the Hot Papa. He is cast for the role of the hardy, flame-defying rescuer. .His the duty of hiking with what elan he may muster to the assistance of the aviator who may be so unfortunate as to find himself, to his great embarrass- ment, sitting in the middle of a bonfire. Encased in his asbestos rig, the Hot Papa is supposed to dash into the flames with more or less impunity and drag therefrom _the less suitably clad comrade-in- arms. All this, while not officially an- nounced by the Navy, is based on what is considered to be unim- peachable authority. The Navy has gone into the Hot Papa busi- ness in a big way. Those of you who may in the past have looked to Hollywood in the Spring-time for bigger and more glowing Hot Papas now may turn with the utmost confidence to Uncle Sam. WHXLE on the subject of fires, } consider the Bureau of $tandards. For the past two weeks arson has been the word of Incendiarism has run The Federal fire-bug has done his stuff with blow-torch, match and gasoline-soaked waste. But it was all in the name of acience. ° For weeks and weeks the na- tional committee on wood utiliza- tion, manufacturers of automatic fire control apparatus and other interested organizations were at work in the bureau grounds erect- ing a modern airplane hangar. It was a better hangar than you will ind on many and many an airport, with a concrete floor, ap- proved clearance below the roof trusses and ample room for a half dozen or more average airplanes. THE SUNDAY MANY WAR PLANES 10 FLY IN RACES Five Standard Types Will Be in Anacostia Contests. Others Shown. Virtually every type of military plane ; used by the United States Navy will be | shown to the public in connection with | the Curtiss Marine Trophy races, to be ! flown at the Anacostia Naval Air Sta-' tion May 24 Planes of five different standard types will participate in the | races and others will be seen in the re- | view of 160 fighting planes from the | scouting and battle fleets. A number of experimental types are in the hangars at°the station undergoing rigid | examination at the hands of flight test ' pilots. | There will be separate races for each | of the five types of planes entered in the races—fighter, observation, amphib- ian, torpedo and bombardment and training. Prizes will be offered for winners in each class, in addition to the Curtiss trophy for the fastest plane f all types. David 8. Ingalls, Assistant Secretary of the Navy for Aeronautics, has of- fered a trophy for the pilot whose plane makes the highest percentage of its service speed rating. All types of planes will be eligible to compete for this lmrhy on an equal footing, since each will be racing against the service speed set up for its particular type. Speeds to Be Represented. ‘The service speeds for several of the standard types which will be repre- sented in the races are as follows: F6C3 and F6C4, fighters, 155 miles per hour; OL-6, Loening amphibian, 121 miles per hour; OL-8, Loening with Wasp motor A, 118 miles per hour and with Wasp B, 121 miles per hour; 02U-1, observation plane, with Wasp A, 145 miles per hour and with Wasp B, 147 miles per hour; T4M-1, Martin torpedo and bombing plane, 112 miles per hour: N2C, Curtiss training plane, 112 miles per hour; NK, Keystone trainer. 114 miles per hour, and NY, Consolidated trainer, 95 miles per hour. One of the fighters undoubtedly will be the winner of the Curtiss Trophy, the only other type having a remote chance being the observation type known as the Vought Corsair. The Navy is expected to enter only two types of fighters in this year's races— the F6C and the F7C, both being models of the Curtiss Hawk, mounted on seaplane floats. In the Navy fighting planes are divided into two general types. There are carrier fighters, with landing wheels, used for operation from the air- plane carriers, and battleship fighters, with pontoons, used for catapult launchings from battleships and cruis- ers. Either is convertible to the other type by substitution of pontoons for wheels, or vice versa. Since the Curtiss race is restricted to seaplanes and fly- ing boats, the battleship type will -be used. ‘The Navy fighter has for its principal mission the destruction of enemy air- craft in the air, either, offensively or for the protection of ships or of the slower torpedo and bombing planes. They are armed with two propellers synchron- ized to fire through the arc of the pro- Y:ller, the guns being aimed by point- g the whole plane. The fighter has a secondary purpose—light bombard- ment. They earry up to 500 pounds of light bombs, and may be used for div- flammable fabric used in airplane fuselage and wing construction. The results are expected to be of far greater worth to the avia- tion industry than the value of the hangar, fire control installa- tion and other equipment as- sembled and destroyed to make the experiments successful. It has been another example of thor- ough digging in on a problem of importance to every one engaged in the aviation industry. NCIDENTALLY, those of you interested in the early history of aviation should have seen some of the quaint aircraft collected for the bureau fires. It was a Sargasso Sea of anclent air- craft. The Sargasso Sea, as you probably remember, is that great vortex of the Atlantic Ocean cur- rents in which, according to leg- end, were gathered the bones of derelict vessels, lost through the ages—a graveyard of lost ships. At the bureau were pathetic relics of once proud fighting planes, collected from the junk- yards of the Nation's military fields. The grandpa of all the Voughts was there, with a mount- ing for a Hispano-Suiza motor. Hoary old Martins stood around in senile dejection, awaiting a fiery finish. A Loening amphib- jan, which needed no authenti- cation as an aeronautical antique, too tired even to burn with any vigor, succumbed to the blaze after two attempts had been made to offer it up as a burnt sacrifice. A Rigger's Holiday. The crew of riggers who as- sembled the pathetic collection of rheumy old wrecks for their Roman holiday were not averse to using bomber wings on an ob- servation fuselage, and many ghastly hybrids were the result. When they ran out of interplane struts lengths of two-by-fours were made to suffice. Any aviator who saw such a col- lection of planes in a dream would know instantly that the welsh rarebit had been just a bit too unrefined or that the elbow had been crooked once too often. The Bureau qf Standards, the De- partment of Commerce, the Army and the Navy are to be congratu- lated on bringing together that aggregation of decrepit airplanes. Burning was not a bit too good for them. AVXATION has done perhaps more than its fair share in adding new words to the lan- guage. Some of these words have been fairly easy to define accu- rately. The definitions of others have caused aeronautical people some concern. The definition of the word “sailplane” or “soarer,” applied to the most advanced type of gliders, has worried officials of the na- tional advisory committee for aeronautics no little. The com- mittee is preparing a revised edi- tion of its valuable glossary of aeronautical terms and the word definition of the word, so as to cover concisely the functions of this type of aircraft and to show how it differs from the glider and from the airplane, has been one of the most difficult problems en- countered in compiling the re- vised list. The committee, however, has enlisted the aid of all the experts available and when the definition finally is made public you may rest assured that the word “sailplane” has been pinned down as secure- ly as any butterfly or beetle you ever saw with a pin rammed through its middle in a museum. OME day some one is going to embalm “mecaviator” in story and legend. ‘“Mecaviator” is the Army Air corfu' name for the Sperry gyroscopic automatic ilot for airplanes. It's a safe et, however, that “mecaviator”— short for “mechanical aviator”— is ¥olnl to get a more snappy title before he is laid away. Gyroscopic controls are not especially new. They have been used for some time to steer ocean steamers. The sailors call the The hangar was built only to be burned. It was intended to be and was the scene of fire after fire. Approximately 20 dilapi- dated and worn-out Army and Navy aircraft were assembled from hither and yon to be burned on the altar of science. Make Nero Look Sick. The fires, nearly a score of them, were run off with precision and a scientific nicety which would have made Nero green with jealousy. Everywhere you might look were scientists, hangar builders, airport operators, air- craft users, fire insurance men, reporters, photographers, under- writers, sprinkler manufacturers and firemen, busy with eyes, pen- cils, notebooks, tape measures, thermocouples and other para~ phernalia. Few fires in histo) have been so expertly watched, aporaised and indexed. The tests, financed entirely by private capital, but staged under the impartial and rigid guidance of Uncle Sam, are expected to be the determining factor in the fix- ing of premium rates for fire in- surance coverage for airport structures. They are expected to give invaluable data in the in- stallation and designing of auto- matic fire control apparatus for hangars, where the seriousness of fire problems is aggravated by the presence of quantities of high- test gasoline and the highly in GOAT MADE MASCOT Airmen Saved Animal From At- tack of Hawks. JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (#).—A young goat that was saved from a pair of hawks by two aviators has been de the mascot at the Jefferson City air- rt. W_n“ two airmen were flying low near here when they saw the hawks attack- ing the goat, which was lost in a field. The birds were diving repeatedly at the bleating animal as it ran about dis- unable to escape its tor-. | Field, Dayton, Ohlo, and from the three | tractedly, mentors. Lending in the field. the flyers went to th~ goat's reccue and drove off ithe hawks. The frightened animal was marine mechanical pilots “Metal Mike.” Great Britain has a me- chanical airplane pilot similar to “mecaviator.” The British fly- ers laconically, call him “George.” The feats of George have been sung loudly by C. G. Grey, noted British aeronautical writer, and others. “George” at His Worst. One of George’s wildest stunts, as described in Grey’s authorita- tive magazine, was the looping of a big flying boat when irritated by the smell of frying kippers prepared by the human crew on a Primus stove in the main cabin of the plane. George, who had been left alone at the controls, Grey says, was enraged because he had been offered none of the kl?Fers and looped the plane to cal the human pilots back to|y, their duties as punishment for their rudeness. It is rumored that when Lieut. Roland Birnn comes back from the California Air Corps’ maneu- vers, where “mecaviator” did ‘a noble job of flying, he is going to have a yarn that will make the fabled exploits of “George” seem simply silly. Birnn is the bright lad who served as intelligence of- ficer on the staff of the 1st Pro- visional Wing at Sacramento and whose job, while in Washington, is to see that the Army Air Corps ets more favorable publicity than the Navy Bureau of Aero- nautics. Genoa-Palermo Line Opened. GENOA, Italy (#).—The Genoa-Rome- Naples-Palermo hydroplane line, link- ing this Ligurian coast seaport with the great Sicilian sea terminus in 8% hours, is now operating every week day in both directions. The distance be- tween Genoa and Rome is negotiated in four hours—three hours of flight and one by automobile. Types of Flying Suits Tested. | Three mew types of Winter flying suits have been under test at the Army Air Corps materiel division, Wright it 1s hoped & successful type may be | obtained which will greatly increase K¢ board the plane and brought e, i kil s s Bat of 1t 4d naRed 16 YOKALT G fon: the warmth without increasing the bulk o e Wax- Be- “sailplane” is to be included. The | be ing bombardment attacks on enemy surface veasels. Two-Seater Type “Spotter.” ‘The avy observation plane, or “spotter,” as it is known, is of the two- seater type, the most widely used being the Vought Corsair, The spotter may used just as the fighter, for carrier either types lane, as its ating the or cltlg\ll'. launching, equipped with wheels or pontoons. ;oth are used. The observation name implies, is used for enemy, observing the progress of battle maneuvers, and particularly for the noting of the effect of shelifire and the reporting of corrections to the gun crews. ‘The Corsair carries two fixed machine guns in the wings, fired by the pilot and aimed by pointing the plane, and a flex- ible gun in the rear cockpit, fired by the observer. It also may carry bombs. The Navy also makes some use of the Loen- ing amphibian for observation purposes, though it is classed as a utility plane and will be flown as a separate class in 'g‘:z ::cu. . 3 do plane may carry either s lllndlr?e)hvy torpedo or bombs. For attack with torpedos, it must operate close to the surface of the water, launching its torpedo at a distance of two miles or more from the vessel it is attacking so as to escape gun fire, As a bomber it is used in the normal manner, launching the bombs from an altitude above the target. Utility planes, to be represented in the races only by the Loen! ian, also include such t: Sikorsky amphibian and the Ford tri- motored transport. They are used, as the name indicates, for general utility, including the transportation of men and materials. ‘Training planes never are used for combat work, but are employed to teach elementary flight, gunnery and radio to student pilots. They are all of the dual control type, so they may be flown either by the instructor or student and are built to withstand the shocks of bad landings and rough usage at the hands of unskilled students. They have low landing and take-off speeds, and are designed with a view to re- liability and safety. TESTS AIR TAXI SERVICE Aerial “taxicab” service on a large scale has been inaugurated in Europe by the Deutsche Luft Hansa, according to information received here by the Department of Commerce. The com- pany has 180 planes, divided among the 90 established airports in Germany, available for hire at 1.1 marks per kilo- meter, or approximately 42 cents per mile, for a single-motored plane carry- Ing from one to six passengers. 3;1:: pll{nu llnd‘ :c ;Al.abltshed air- or at any nt where it is e E}‘. to land wnhwremmble ufely?v;tle- turn flights of empty planes are not charged to passengers. Excursion and sightseeing trips also may be arranged, especially on Sundays during the Spring and Summer months. Special planes will be made available for sightseeing l"‘e‘sgcf:‘z at the seaside and larger health sure oa fast picknp, bril- liant performance. | See your dealerte STAR, WASHINGTON, DO MAY 4 1930—PART FOUR. STRONG CONTENDER FOR CURTISS - TROPHY Navy F6C Marine Trophy races. this year is to be the most hotly contested in the history of the event. Five other types of Navy planes will compete. —U. 8. Navy Photo. U..5. MAY TRY OIL- BURNING ENGINE Demonstrations Here May Lead to Experimental Work by Services. Flight demonstrations at Bolling Fleld and Anacostia Naval Afr Station of the new Pratt & Whitney oil-burn- ing aviation engine may lead to experi. mental work with the motor by the Army Air Corps and the Navy Bureau of Aeronautics. The engine, though it burns heavy fuel oil, is not a Diesel type. The engine demonstrated here is the stand- ard Wasp, with fuel-injection pumps { to each cylinder replacing the ordinary carburetion system. The ignition sys- tem remains unchanged. the fuel oil being fired by electrical spark rather than by the heat generated by compre: The engine, it is claimed, develops greater power with gasoline as the fuel than the ordinary engine and provides perfect operation at any temperature or any position of the engine in the air. Cold starting is said to be no handicap and the problem of ice forma- tion in the carburetor, a serious prob- lem under certain . conditions. with carburetor fuel vaporization, is said to be eliminated. Reliability is said to be increased, since the operation of the engine is not stopncd by fallure of one or more cylinders. The engine weight is not increased. For the demonstrations here the engine was mounted in a Boeing mili- tary plane, the standard Army P-12 pursuit type, or the Navy fighter type. In this plane the engine can be put to the most severe type of tests oc- curring in practical cperations, it is claimed. . | ~The demonstrations here were wit- nesssd by Rear Admiral Widiam A. | Moffet, chief cf the Navy Bureau of | Aeronautics, F. Trubee Davison, Assist- ant Secretary of War for Aeronautics, | and other Federal aviation heads. Airplanes in California. SAN FRANCISCO (P).—It is esti- mated that 12 per cent of the licensed | Lirplanes in the United States are reg- istered in California. sion, as in the case of the lesel.lE‘ITlN BLIMP" Is HELD SUPERIOR TO FABRIC| Metal Skin, Impervious to Air, Found to Leak Helium at Rate of 100 Cubic Feet a Day. ‘The metal skin of the Navy all-metal dirigible ZMC-2, while impervious to air, has been found to leak helium at a rate of about 100 cubic feet in each 24 hours, it is stated in a technical prepared for the American Chemical Socety. The fact that the metal sheathing s impervious to air makes the blimp” superior to fabric airships of the same type, it is stated, as there !5 no decrease in the purity of the lifting gas, due to the inward leakage of air. The addition of about 100 cubic feet of helium each day takes care of losses and the quality of the lifting medium thus remains practically constant. RADIO TELEPHONE STATION IS BUILT NEAR DISTRICT LINE* Installation of Range Beacon Is Held Up by Lack of Municipal Airport Site for Although installation of a radio range beacon station in the National Capital has been held up for lack of a | municipal airport, the construction by !the Airways Division, Department of | Commerce, of a radio telephone sta- tion on the coastal airway system now is nearing completion on a site a little | more than a mile southeast of the Dis- trict Line on the Southern Maryland road. | Beacon stations are under construc- tion at Richmond; Greensboro, N. C.; Spartanburg, S. C.. and Atlanta. These stations probably will be completed be- fore June 1, leaving the National Capi- fighter, known as the Curtiss “Hawk,” of the type to be seen in action here May 24 in the Curtiss | tal as the only gap to the beacon sys- One of the planes of this type is likely (0 be the winner of the annual seaplane classic, which | tem between Atlanta and New York. It is necessary that the beacon sta- airway adjacent to the airports they the National Capital's municipal air- | here s0 far, although a decision must | be_made soon. The radio telephone station, which need not be directly on the airway, is being built on a hilitop site overlooking the Potomac Valley, and is to be com- pleted about June 1, it was announced by airways officials. Two 125-foot steel towers are being erected. and two frequency broadcast antennas. The equipment will be housed in a frame building. From this station hourly weather re- ports will be broadcast for the assist- | ance of pilots flying the coastal air- way. These reports will be based on weather information collected from | airway. To aid in the collection and dissemi- nation of weather information the air- ways division has installed a total of “tin | 5,650 miles of\teletype circuits over the | | major airways of the country, including a circuit along the coastal airway from Richmond, Va. to Boston, including a local station in_the Weather Bureay office at Bolling Field. Establishment of teletype stations along all the major airways and their connection through an elaborate system of long and short circuits, overlappin tions be located on or very close to the| serve. Because of the uncertainty as to| port location, no site has been selected | shorter poles will be put up for high-| | Weather Bureau and Department ‘of | paper by A. R. Carr and A. C. Good| Commerce stations and observers at air- | of the College of the City of Detroit,| ports and intermediate fields along the| Capital. in many cases, is proving of the great- est importance in the speeding up and improvement of weather information service for air transport operators. Continuous weather information is provided which is of value not only to | operators and pilots of aireraft but to ) jother industries and individuals to whom knowledge of weather conditions is of importance. Such organizations as farm granges, power companies, ad- ‘lomohne associations, steamship com- panies and similar bodles have arranged to obtain weather information gathered | over the Department of Commerce tele- type system in many parts of the | country. | The teletype circuits make possible the instantaneous collection from air- ways stations along the various airways of * information regarding general weather conditions, ceiling, visibility, wind direction and force, temperature, barometric pressure, conditjon of land- ing areas and any unusual conditions which may affect the safety of flight. At strategic points along the air- ways control centers are established, | which collect information of this sort | from airways stations within their re- spective sections and compile the data ’Ior broadcasting and for the informa- tion of pilots on call. Ten teletype circuits now are in operation in the United States, ac- | cording to Eugene Sibley of the airways | division. These circuits cover the air- ways from San Diego to San Francisco, Calif San_ Francisco to Portland, | Oreg.; San Francisco to Salt Lake City; | Salt Lake City to Cheyenne, Wyo.: Cheyenne to Omaha, Nebr.; Springfiels I, to St. Louis, Kansas City, Omah: |and Chicago; St. Louis to Louisville, Ky, and Cleveland, Ohio; Chicago to Bryan, Ohio; Kalamazoo, Mich., Detrott, Toledo and Cleveland; Cleveland to New York and Richmond to Boston. Other circuits are to be installed as the necessity arises and funds become available. In addition to the stations on tkL> airways served, these teletype circuits link in secondary net stations | located from 100 to 150 miles on either |side of the airway, providing weather information not only from along the narrow band of the airway but protec- tion against sudden storms which may brew anywhere within a band 200 to 300l miler in width along the airways routes. 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