FUTURE OF FLYING MACHINES.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 231, 1 December 1916, Page 8 (Supplement)

FUTURE OF FLYING MACHINES.

COMMERCIAL USES AFTER THE WAR. The smoke of war assuredly hides marvellous progress in the man-bird way. For these aerial engines had no sooner reached a sort of sturdy infancy than tncy were plunged into military service, and developed with all the genius .nnd treasure which the belligerent nations disposed. It was a matter of chance, t-liis strange fate of a new world-force. It is unlikely that aircraft, left exclusively to private enterprise, would in so short a time as ten years have completely revolutionised the prospect cf transport —to say nothing whatever of modern warfare, which the aerial arm lias so altered that military text-books are now out of date, and must be wholly rewritten. In'" 190ti the brothers Wright gave their now historic demonstrations at Pan, in the Pyrenees. Then it was that man really flew for the first time, and far-seeing statesmen like Mr. Balfour and M. Paul Painleve (now French Minister of War Inventions) risked their lives in early bights with Wilbur Wright, solely to encourage that most modest of inventors. WAR-PLANES OF TO-DAY. The war-plane of to-day, with its daring and peculiar " brain" and hand on the control, can and does chase the swallow on the wing for sheer practice in diving, soaring and manoeuvring. One type guides the hidden battery fcy wireless, and that with such pitiless accuracy that the guns fire blindly at invisible targets. Yet the effects of sut'i bombardments can only be called volcanic. They batter and seal up the enemy's trenches, burying him alive ir; tombs of his own excavating.

Other types of aircraft bomb his railways and supply depots. There are chaser-planes—super-spies of the clouds that drive away the hostile aerial scout. There are battleplanes, too, regular aerial Dreadnoughts, armoured and armed with guns of surprising calibre that throw shells and incendiary bombs. The big Curtiss triplane has aload capacity of 30001b., and a flying radius of at least 7000 miles. Underneath is a boat-hull for water-landings, so the monstrous "bird" is an amphibian of enormous power and climbing soeed.

There are also new anti-Zeppelin bombers that soar to 10,000 feet in less than twenty minutes. So much for the heavier-thin-air types. As for mere "gas-bags" such as those to which Ferdinand von Zeppelin devoted the twilight of his days, these were from the first ignored by all the Powers, with the solo exception of Germany, who saw in them new ways of dealing Britain a mortal blow, and robbing her of her island security.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER THE WAR? Now what Is to happen when all those swarms of aircraft come home? Be sure their power and possibilities not be overlooked or wasted in civil life. The brothers Wright had commercial—even Transatlantic—flights in mind as they perfected their crude machines, and made experiments with curved planes in a wind-tunnel. And in pre-war days Zeppelin's backers formed the Aerial Transportation Company for the carriage of passengers, mails, and goods to all parts of the German Empire wnd abroad. But the first huge airship—Deutscliland—launched from the Friedrichshaven shops on this service, came to grief in a gale, and crashed down to destruction on .the tree-tops of the Teutoburg Forest, between Hanover and Westphalia. The "gas-bag," when all is said, is a poor substitute for the hbavier-than-air plane, which, indeed, is the machine of the future, alike '•! British and French hands. Germany's squirming to escape the strangle-ho'd of our sea-power led first to under-sea liners like the Bremen and Deutschland, and then to comercial air-freight-ers, v-hicii are soon to sail over New York Harbour and amaze our American friends. "Papa" Zeppelin himself is said to have piloted one of those over to the English coast in a recent raid. They claim a speed of 125 miles an hour, and were tested over Lake Constance at a height which appeared to give complete immunity from warplane attacks. It may safely be predicted, however, that the gas-bag can never hope to compete with the heavier-than-air machine. This latter type increases b* leaps and bounds in power, in climbing, as well as lateral speed, (in armament and handiness in all weathers, such --is must destroy the greatest dirigible ever built in Zeppelin's secret shops. NO MADMAN'S DREAM. Battleplanes now carry pom-pom quick-firers, throwing incendiary slieli, as well as huge bombs of enormous .'estructive radius. Night-flying, air-siek-nes>, and other obstacles of the new arm are already overcome. As tor long radius of action, one has but to consider the daring swoop towards Hussia of Lieut. Marchal. of th" French Air Service. This lad eover? l I.'MX) kilometres (312 mTTes) .without a stop, circling over Berlmltself en route to drop upon the astounded foe a little homily upon humanity—and what the Hier could do lo a huge open town if ho had the true Boche mind! It will be remembered that medical stores, vegetable seeds, and food wer* conveyed into heleagued Townshend's lines at Kut-el-Amara, on the Tigris. Fishing nets fell out of the clouds at tho feet of expectant soldiers. So did rifle clenaers, spare parts for the wireless gear, as well as tobacco, cigarettes, and other comforts. Here, then, is no dream, no "mad futurity." No wonder that statesmen in undeveloped lands look to aircraft for now and priceless benefits. Take the matter of forest fires in Canada—a. regular summer visitation of appalling blast and wide, roaring range. During the present season five hundred persons have nv-t a frightful end in

this way in the province of Ontario alone. And now the Chief Warden Quebec announces that in future be will use the aeroplane to locate these terrific conflagrations, and warn the populations of scattered townships :n the bush of their approach. Then up in the vast Yukon Territory survey and exploring work is to be done oy the aerial route; and the famous North-West Mounted Police are to have aircraft patrols, instead of dogsled and team for interminable stretches between outposts iu the frozen lands. IHE SAFEST TRANSIT. Mr. Graham-White considers the air tlrj. safest medium of transit for passengers and mails in days to come, rie pictures a London-North-of-England service of powerful planes, each carrying fifty passengers. All this within five years, and within the decade ei "aero-liners" ploying between the Mersey and New York. Motor cars (the same expert thinks) w:ll get fewer as planes decrease in cost and the peculiar thrill of aerial flight comes within reach of reasonable purses. The "aerobus for public use is beyond (i nest ion a practical scheme today. 'CVonel Sir Charles Wakefield, Lord Mayor of London, anticipates aero-cars, <nerotaxis, and "trollies" of all types at the close of the Great \\ ar. "I fully expect," Sir Charles declares, • to reach my estate at Hyihc from th:* Mansion Hoiise (seventy miles) in half ,nn hour or so. And this within, say,two years!" Such a transformation will bring the cities of Europe closer together than Thomas Cook ever dreamed. Your silk-buyer will fly over to the great Paris houses raund about the Place tie I'Opera, and be back in London in time to dress for dinner at night. Letters posted at noon in the Metropolis will be delivered in Glasgow in less than half the present time, and the gr'eat stores will have aerial deliveries of parcels far and near. Meanwhile the Central Powers ar> settling details of the " Balkan Aerial Express" whose route is to be BerlinVienna Ofenpest-Constaut'nople. This last destination is, it is safe to say. chimerical. Teuton planes will never fly over the Golden Horn. But the idea is there, all the same, and backed bv rich commercial concerns like the Austrian Lloyd, the Magyar Trade and Banking Company, and the German Survey Association. Meetings of the promoters are now being held at Ofenpest to settle the amount of .capital required, the most suitable type of aircraft. sites for the landing-places, and the postal interests of the three Powers concerned All these novel features, and others at which 1 dare not even hint, we may look for when our aircraft come home to roose, with no fog of war to hide the almost miraculous development of these machines during the past two momentous years.— W. G. FitzGerald.