CREWLESS AIRCRAFT

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 221, 12 June 1919, Page 5

CREWLESS AIRCRAFT

! • APPLIED WIRELESS CONTROL A biabvel'oftHefuture (By H. Massac Buisi, in the "Morning Post.") Wireless telephony over long range is to-day not u drwwi'biit a fact. But,for the discovery of 'telegraphy without wires tho use of aircraft in" t/ic recent campaign would probably have bwn reduced by half, and the projection ot theulteral word instead of the written message is merely another application of the same idea. These electrical forces can be applied in a third direction, as in the lmittin- of controlling air or water craft. During tiie war motor as well as electric boats have been controlled Uy it may.bo recalled thai: some years before tho war there was given at a houseof variety entertainment in London a demonstration of a miniature rigid airship operated by wireless control gear situated on the 'slage. The power was weak but the vessel over the heads of tho audience in tho stalls, making circuits of the balcony, rising, falling, turning to left or right mid remaining s'lill at the direction ot Uie man on tho stage in charge of the wireless stops. It was then pointed out that a bomb could bo released from it by precisely the same method or conKccently two news items revealed that what was regarded as a toy before the war has now been proved on large-scuie practice. According to the "Journal in the course of experiment? a irencli! machine has down without pilot or crew on a prescribed course, embracing some predetermined detours, and a total distance of 112 miles, at the end of which it landed on the aerodrome previously selected, l'rom tho New World Mr. Baker, the United States Secretary. Jor War discloses the evolution of an automatic control of aircraft invented in the States, whereby an aeroplane without pilot or crew can travel 100 miles and fand close to a selected spot, a successful test flight having been made in j the month preceding the armistice. In both c«e» it ie Pointed out that bombs could be dropped at any instant of the WTO-β at tho will of thoso m charge of'the controlling apparatus on land.

A Hundred Miles Range. Thus it will be obwrved 'hat, even while the matter is still in the experimental stage, very practical degrees of accomplishment have already wen attained. One hundred miles, indeed, is a notable range to start with. The application of wireless control to aircraft has not and will not be confined to ono variety but to all-airship, seaplaiu., and aeroplane. During Hit war the dangers of employing electrical apparatus in association with gasbags have been minimised. Moreover, it. is not essential that the wireless .control of aircraft in action should be from ons centre pn'.y. On-the contrary, if the operation is to be over land-say, a traiw-Continnntal Highland the-range of 'iction from a control centre is. , fifty miles, it is merely necessary to hiatal the control apparatus* at stages of fifty miles, along the route to enable o. flight to be made as long as the fuel and lubricant supplies in the ma-ciimo-are unexhausted. In such projects us the Transatlantic air voyage, however, reliance will be plawd on wireless <ipparatui for seeking nnd receiving information in flight concerning weather condition*, the- course,, and so on; thougn this limitation is not because the control plant must necessarily bo established on lfiiid; on Hie contrary, an aircraft could bt> controlled by wireless means from a surface boat, even as, w t'iri; • wireless control from an aircraft in flight could be employed to regulate tho course and performance of n surfaco boat. Without Engines. Tho further wo go with the evolution of commercial aeronautics.the mure important will be the part played by the engineer aboard tho machine, and the more-Uie functions of tho pilot will approach mere .routine. There, is no aim in going into the' question of sending an aircraft on a voyage- without ii pilot if it has a crew or passengers aboard it. If it has no inelhunii-s aboard, it, as well ii.-; no pilot, the-possibilities of Inihirein semco will be enormously increased. The man in chnrgo of Wireless apparatus miles uway is unable to tell if one engine is going weak; he cannot effect any repairs or adjustment; lie ,is- un«i>lo iu ease up the machine if it (suddenly encounters stormy conditions; and we have yet a very long ivay to go before we can rely absolutely on the functioning uf .wireless -apparatus at long llm l'-'" e\ery sort of weather condition. 13y contrast, if the records of the Air Hervices were revealed, it would be discovered that during the war tho most remarkable things have been done by pilots and mechanics in mid-air, in executing improvised, repairs or nursing failing machines, whereby disaster has been, avoided. In future wars, however, massed aircraft bombing attacks without tho employment of a- single pilot or mechanic nluit, though, possibly, with one observer to a squadron of machines, are more than a possibility; they .are already a probability. When we regard-what has so far been accomplished in the employment of. "wireless," does, it not become abundantly plain that it is merely a matter of time for aircraft' to be, emancipatcd-sfrcm their present handicap of carrying powerplant, fuel ard lubricant supplies, mid to receive their necessary electrical power by wireless?' Then, nnd not till then, aeroplanes will be as plentiful as motorcycles,