BRITAIN'S MASTER AEROPLANES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 187, 30 June 1916, Page 2 (Supplement)

BRITAIN'S MASTER AEROPLANES.

FAST AS A «>KR|ffi-.AXD A BETTER CLIMBER.

By C. G. GREY (Editor of the "Aeroplane."J

Jt is interesting to learn fiom the Pans ".Journal" of April il that a new French aeroplane, titfco.l with a motor of new design, has twice beaten all world's records for speed and the record for military machines in peace tim.u.

] To use an expressive Americanism, this will mean "moving some,'' lor the world s speed record, made by two French monoplanes so far back as the autumn of l!) 13, was perilously close to l.")l) miles per hour. These two mat bines were respectively a Deperdussin with a luO-h.p. (inonie flown by Marcel Provost, and a Hanriot-Ponnier monoplane flown by Entile Vedrines, the brother of the more famous .Jules Yedrinrs, a.id also driven by a 160-h.p. Gnome.

Both these machines in the GordonBennett race at Hheiius covered 135 miles in one hour over a closed circuit of about six miles in circumference with some fairly sharp corners iu it, so that the "straightaway" speed of these machines must have been well < ver l-11l miles per hour. Provost won the race simply because ho was cleverer at cornering, but the Ponnier was ga.crallv estimated to bo actually a shade faster tha..i the Deperdussin. It is just as well to get these figures fairly firmly fixed in the mind, because people who arc only just now beginning to take an interest in flying seem to think that the Fokker monoplanes, which do anything between 100 and 120 m.p.h.. are things which were unthought of before the war. As a matter of fact, there were also a few British machines which did well over lftn m.p.h. before the war, riily they did not happen to meet with the approval of the theoretical "experts*' on whose opinion both tin- navy and the army have hitherto relied in their selection of aeroplanes. Mo.-e speed, however, is not the solo requirement in a fighting aeroplane, so that ono would like to know something more about the (limbing power of this new French machnio before going into ecstasies over it.

The Fokker machine is nnt astonishingly fast for its power, for at least rnio British aeroplane has as groat a speed with considerably loss power. The real point about the Fokker is that it nimbs so rapidly that it can overtake and attack machines which happen to !>e above it. and can also, by reaching a considerable height, dive at such victims as may lie below, and thus reach a speed which it could not attain by cngjac power alone. The French monoplanes which I have mentioned turned all their engino power into speed, and very little of it into lifting power. Consequently they do not climb fast, nor could thev climb to any considerable height, and especially was it impossible for them to land slowly. Tn fact, watching thorn laud was quite on. l of the sights of tho Rhcims meeting that year, for one saw those terrible-looking machines hurtling along at quite 100 m.p.h. close to the ground, with the pilots endeavouring to got them down to their lowest flying speed. Then the wheels would touch, and the whole machine would vanish in a cloud of dust, irom which it would finally emerge about :i mile further on. POWER IN' PURSUIT.

Naturally speed is a very iuportant factor ia any fighting machine, for without a fair turn of speed it is impossible to catch a fast enemy machine, but speed without rlmiT>in<j: power and without the ability to land slowly ; s quite a useless attribute. Even the Fokker has a very distinct limit to its climb, for a month or two ag > two French pilots—one of them Hcnn Salnut, the well-known exhibition flier at Hendon, and the other Provost, a cousin of the Deperdttssin racing pilot, made a raid at Metz, each mounted on one of the big twin-engined Caudron biplanes which have been frequently illustrated recently in various I'rene/t and British papers. The machines were well laden with bombs, but despite l their load they got up to such a height that the Fokkers, although at least 20 ni.p.h. faster than the Caudrons, were simply unable i» teach them. As soon as they crossed the German lines, half a dozen x okkers attacked them, but were luaablo to get within a couple of thousand feet of their height, so that thev made their journey, dropped their bombs, and returned unharmed to the French line*, escorted all the way by Fokkers, which flew below them, irantically endeavouring to reach them ,and, as Salmet said afterwards, "looking like a lot of gold-fish trying to get out of the wator!"

Happily we have in England machines which appear to so've all the problems of a fighting machine. One which 1 have in mind in particular is certainly as fast as any I'okker, even when carrying two men and a machinegun, and it also has a mos + astonishing climb-speed. Moreover, the constructor has solved one of the greatest defects of the fust machine in that he has evolved a perfectly simple s, stem of air brakes, winch slow the machine down in the air before it touches the iM'ouiid. The humour, or the tragedy, of the situation (according to how one looks at it) is that this machine was offered to the Government over six months ago, and they have only just decided to use it! the solution of the r.irbrake problem has been puzzling Government -experts" lor at least two year* vet the ordinary practical aeroi/lano constructor got over the difficulty ',t the first -bet when his pilot fold him that le rea'lv wanted an air brake. There i~ no doubt that British aeroplane constructors a»id engine makers ( ..,ii more than bold their own against the ingenuity of the Germans, or any other nationality, if only they are encouraged to exercise that ingenuity. - "Daily Express."