Ocean Flight

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 34, 30 June 1914, Page 5

Ocean Flight

A SPECIALLY CONSTRUCTED AIIRSHIP.

CONDEMNED, ALREADY. Times and Sydney Sun Services. Received 29, 5.20 p.m. New York, June 20,

[ In the Wanamaker airship, wherewith Lieut. Port hopes to cross the Atlantic, everything is sacrificed to lightness. All the steel parts, including the propellorshaft, are hollow. Some experts predict that eomo of these parts, when working at a speed of 3900 revolutions a minute for thirty consecutive hours, will be sure to break down.

BRITISH OFFICER'S PROJECT. IN WANAMAKERIS BOAT. . M. Rodman Wanamaker has built a huge aero-boat for the Transatlantic 'flight, and he is prepared to spend £20,000 on the project. "My idea," he said, "is to develop aerial navigation and incidentally to celebrate the Anglo-American Centenary of Peace." Mr. Wanamaker is vice-president of the famous dry goods corpioration of the same name, and for years he has divided his time almost equally, between diry goods and aerona/uitiCß. The acroboat in which the trial is to be made was begun a year ago at Hammondsport, New York, and is now completed. It carries e wing-spread of 80ft., whereas tlhe laigefst aeroplanes now in general use carries a wing-spread of hardly half that distance. Its engine, instead of being tlhe 100 h.p. type in common use in the most powerful aeroplanes, has 200 h.p., and is oapabie of i driving at aixty-five miles an how an aeroboat large enough to carry two pilots, and fuel and provisions enough to make a dash to Europe the matter of a single flight. That, at least, i® the 'hope of Mr. Wanamaker and Mr. Glenn !H. Curtiss, the American aviator and engineer, who designed the turoboat. The hull is torpedo-shaped and almost entirely enclosed, so that in case of a forced descent in mid-ocean it would float for days. The wings are detachable, so that they can he dropped off-Jo ( allow the 'boat to float alone. The cock-! pit is 12ft. be/hind the motor, and in it is room for two men to sit at ease. The controls are dmpiicated, so that the j machine may be handled by iboth. men I or either.

The area of the lifting surface of the 80ft. wings is nearly 1200 square feet, and tJheir Actual lifting capacity will be several tons, tilth orogh it is not estimated 1 that any such load will be carried. A traetoi screw in front of the naohine will be used instead of tiordinary propeller. Fuel will be carried for a /light of thirty houifi. An altitude of 10,000 ft. is contemplated, as at that height the wind velocity is between four and five times great as on the .surface, and will greatly increase the speed of the craft. Meutenant Porte, a skilful and wellknown Englislh flier, was among the first to be taken into the secret, and he at once volunteered his assistance.' both in operating and in designing the big air-craft. His offer was accepted, and for months he has been using one of the Cuitiss flying boats in tong flights over the English Channel, and ewer the Mediterranean. Which of the American fliers will be invited to accompany him is undecided.

The speed of sixty-five miles an hour, which it is expected to maintain, is given as the most moderate that is to be expected. It is hoped to attain a speed of 100 mile.s an hour, and to add to this whatever velocity the winds Wowing toward the Azores' may have. Mr Wanamaker, discussing the matter recently, said: "Tlhe science of aviation has made great strides within only a few years. It has conquered many of Nature's obstacles. It Jias crossed the English Channel so late as 1009, when the accomplishment seemed utterly impossible. It has conquered the "Aflps. Yet it halts at the great ocean, and until one of our great oceans is crossed in a simple flight aviation will not have met the supreme tost. Crossing the Atlantic Ocean in one flight by an aircraft is to my mind as important to aerial navigation n« was the voyage of Columbus to transportation by water. It will be of more practical importance than was the successful expedition to the North Pole.

"What man has done once he can do any number of times. Once the Atlantic is crossed in a single flight by airship tfli«re will soon follow regular Transatlantic trips and a fixed safe Transatlantic passenger air-line. It is not a dream that wilhin a few years we sihall be able to erter an air-craft at New York on Friday afternoon, be in London on Saturday, spend the week-end there, and return to New York in time for business on Monday. Crossing the Atlantic by air is not a matter merely of initiative or daring, or even skill. It is a problem of science."