NEW AIR RECORD.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1011, 29 December 1910, Page 5

NEW AIR RECORD.

ELEVEN THOUSAND FEET REACHED By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyrieht. New York, December 27. llr. Archibald Hoxsey, the American aviator, established a world's flying record at Los Angeles, reaching a height of 11,174 feet. Ho was given an ovation by a crowd of 80,000 people', who followed the descent. In ascending, Mr. Hoxsey faced a forty-mile gale. MR. LATHAM HAS A FALL. New York, December 27. During a flight, Mr. Hubc-rt Latham, tils English aviator, was hurled . into . a gully, and his monoplane wrecked. He escaped unhurt. Mr. Badley, an Englishman, holder of tils world's speed record, will compete on Tuesday in a match race for ifilOOO.

HUMAN'LIMITATIONS IN FLYING,

INTERESTING SPECULATIONS. In discussing M. Morane's high flight in September of 8169 feet, constituting a world's record at the time, the "Manchester Guardian" .said:—'' •"Up to and including Mr. Drexel's performance- man had always been fully equal to anything that an aeroplane could do, whereas M. Morane's achievement has revealed that stago at which we. were sure to -arrive,.'soon or late, namely, where tho aeroplane outgoes man's endurance. The youug Frenchman, who is a normal and healthy typo of man, was overcome with sickness, giddiness, and headache when ho had reached the height of a mile and a half, and there were moments of partly-obscured consciousness on tho descent. He was found in a dazed condition after landing, and it was matter for'marvel that ho was'not dashed to pieces through losing control of his machine during the downward drop. He has declared that nothing will induco him to repeat such a performance, though, ho has many a time gone up to half that height and considered it the most ordinary thing for an aeroplantst to do so. We are to remember that the altitude, achieved was about fifty per cent, more than that of tho normal flying height of a dirigible • balloon. It was 3000 feet abovo what is calculated to bo the range of high-angle batteries brought to bear oh such enormously bulky and comparatively slow-moving things as dirigible balloons. In the case of such a switt-moving object as an aeroplane, and ono proportionately so . small, it must certainly bo/"'allowed that at tho. height attained Morane was quite safe from any sort of fire at present known.'■ To say that is not .to argue that a shot fired at random, from some special high-angle battery might not by chanco have reached him. The point is that a gunner would not have one chance in a thousand of hitting an aeroplane of the sizo used, such speed, at such an altitude, lhero is nothing in the matter of carburation and so forth to indicato that wo could not attain greater heights still by mere mechanical power. .Tho engine did not behave as the pilot expected during tho descent, for it stopped when about two-thirds of the way down, but that is not a real test of what the motor would do, because at tho periods of such jibbing the pilot himself was not in full possession of ; his normal faculties.

' CONTRASTED CONDITIONS. Why, it may be asked, should M. Morane have experienced such physical distress when balloonists have , ascended to far greater'altitudes and have risen to .them as quickly, though at a' rough estimate the maximum descent of , a balloon as' ordinarily, navigated is only a third, or at most a half, the speed of M. Morane's drop. He came down between 1500 ft. and 2000 ft. a minute, whereas a balloon rarely falls more, than 800 ft. to 1000 ft. a minute. Even so spectators on.the,ground, will declare that the drop seemed almost like that of a stone. lii rising in a balloon you are always drifting with whatever parcel of wind you inay be, in, consequently you have no rush of air, whereas on an aeroplane there is a rush of air past the pilot at the rate .of forty-five ,to fifty-five miles ah hour, according to the forward travel of his machine; that, in combination with the greator rarciicatiou of the atmosphere, certainly results in a condition of far greater strain on the human organisation than is occasioned in the nicrely passivo state of spherical, ballooning. Moreover, the monoplane' pilot has to work comparatively hard all the time. That explains why we may regard a mile and a half as likely to bo the practical limitation ; of .mechanical, flight from the point of view of human endurance. There is no reason • whatever " .why" • machine's should not—certainly they will—be taken to much greater altitudes; but''we may expect that in . such circumstances the pilot will carry enough petrol'with him for several hours of flight, and .lie will accustom himself to certain elevations, as, for example, taking a rest at'GCOOft., before essaying, greater heights.

|;' rapid Changes of altitude. Moreover, ho*will not dare to : drop in less than ten minutes from such an altitude, which is what Morane did. The rate of his descent'was tremendous, even, for an aeroplane. When one considers the great height from which he started, it is almost extraordinary that he did not. loss consciousness altogether, for if one recalls one's experiences in a free balloon when coming down easily, as, for example, taking fifteen minutes to drop from Morane's height, to within 1000 ft. of tho earth* ono remembers finding, one's self shouting to one's companions in the 1 car by reason of.the greatly; increased density of the air at the lower altitude. How much more trying must' bo the change to an aeroplane pilot who is being rushed through theso breezes of varying density, ■and who has :to exercise his skill and strength all the. time to prevent his machine froin assuming too steep an angle ■ of-descent. As far as all useful purposes are concerned it is as unlikely that, when we shall have, practical aeroplanes, wo shall travel at altitudes of a mile and a half as a matter of course as it is that we shall hug the ground' at a distance of forty to sixty feet, as Henry Farman does. One is as unnatijral a plane of normal flight as is tho. other. On the other hand, there.is nothing, oven at this early stage; that is unnatural in flying at a height of a thousand to two'thousand five liun-

dred feet, and it would appear, as far as it is possible to judge by performances to date, that that is the stratum in the oceaniof air that will be most'generally exploited by men. This point is of moro importance than • may appear at first sight, in that the sooner wo can fix tho altitude at which it is desirable men should bo able to navigate the sooner we shall know the limits of the task of charting the ocean of air. SOME RECENT RECORDS. The following are some recent liigli-fly. ing records:— Feet. Droxel (August 12) G,700 Morane (September 4) 8,46!) AVynmalen (October 2) 9,174 Johnstone (November 1) 9,714 . Drexel (November 24) .-... 9,970 Legnagueaux (December 10) ... 10,745