FUTURE OF FLYING MACHINES.

Taranaki Daily News, 10 November 1916, Page 8

FUTURE OF FLYING MACHINES.

COMMERCIAL USE AFTER THE WAR The smoke of war (says a wiiter in the Weekly Scotsman') assuredly bides marvellous progress in the man-bird way. For these aerial engines had no sooner reached a sort of sturdy infancy than they were plunged into military service, and developed with all the g'enius and treasure which the belligerent nations disposed. It was a matter of chance, this strange fato of a new world-fo-rce. It is unlikely that aircraft, left exclusively to private enterprise, would in so short a time as ten years havt completely revolutionised the prospect of transport—to say nothing whatever of modern warfare, which the aerial arm has so altered that military are now out of date, and must be wholly rewritten. In 14)06 the brothers Wright gave their now historic demonstrations at Pan, in the Pyrenees. Then it was tint man really flew for the first time, and farseeing statesmen like Mr. Balfour and M. Paul Painleve (now French Minister of War Inventions) risked their l : ves in early flights with Wilbur Wright, solely to encourage that most modest of inventors. WARIPLANE OF TO-DAY. The warplane of to-day, with its daring and peculiar "brain" and hand on tlie control, can and does chase the swallow on tho wing for sheer piaetiees in diving, soaring and manoeuvring. One type guides the hidden buttery by wireless, and that with such pitiless accuracy that the guns fire blindly at invisible • targets. Yet the effects of such bombardments car only be called volcanic. They batter and seal up tlie enemy's trendies, burying him alive in tombs'of his own excavating* Other types of aircraft bomb his railways and supply depots. There are chaser-plane—super-spies of the clouds that drive away the hostile aerial scout. ■ There are battleplanes, too, regular aerial Dreadnoughts, armored and armed with guns of surprising calibre that throw -shells and incendiary bombs. The big Curtis triplane lias a load capacity of 30001b, and a flying radius of at least 700 miles. Underneath 's a boathull for water landings', so the monstrous "bird' is an amphibian of enormous powe-i and climbing speed. • There are also new anti-Zeppelins bombers that soar 10,000 feet in less than twenty minutes. So much for the heavier-than-air machines. As for mere "gas-bags" such as those to wjiich.Ferdinand von Zeppelin devoted the twilight of bis days, these were from the fast ignored by all the Powers, with the sole exception of German}', who saw in them new ways of dealing Britain a mortal blow, and robbing her of lier isiaul security. vVHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER THE WAR? Now what is to happen v;lien all these swarms of aircraft come home? Be sure their power and possibilities will not be overlooked or wasted in civil life. The brothers Wright bad commercial—even trans-Atlantic —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 and abroad. It will be remembered that medical stores, vegetable seeds and food were conveyed ' into beleaguerd Townsbend's lines at Kut-cl-Amara. on Hie Tigris. Fishing nets fell out of tlie clouds at the feet of expectant British soldiers. So did rifle cleaners, 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 new and priceless benefits. Take the matter of forest fires in Canada a regular summer visitation of appalling blast and wide, soaring range. During the present season five hundred persons have met a frightful end in thjs way in the province of Ontario alone And now the Chief Warden of Quebec announces that in future he will use the aeroplane to locate these terrific conflagrations, and warn the populations of scattered townships in the bush of their approach. Then up in the vast Yukon Territory survey and exploring work is to be done by the aerial route, and the famous North-West Mounted Police are to have aircraft patrols, instead of dog sledge aiid team, for interminable stretches between outposts in the frozen land." THE SAFEST TRANSIT. Mr. Graham White considers the air the sjfpst. medium of transit for passengers and mails in to eorae. He

pictures a London-North of England service. of powerful. planes, each carrying fifteen passengers. All this within live years, and within the decade "aeroliners" plying between the Mersey and New York, Motor-ears (the same expert thinks) will get fewer as planes decrease in cost and the peculiar thrill or aerial (light comes within purses of reasonable reach. The "aerobus" for public use is beyond question a practical scheme today. Colonel Sir Charles Wakefield, Lord Mayor of London, Anticipates aero-ears, aero-taxis and "trollies" of all types at the close of the great war. "I l'ully expect," Sir Charles declares, "to reach my estate at Hythe from the Mansion House (seventy miles) in lialf-r,n-I'our or so. And. this within, say, two years!" Such a transformation will bring the cities of Kuropc closer together than Thomas Cook evei dreamed. Yolir silk.buyer will fly over to the great Paris houses round about the Place de l'Opera and be back in London in time to dress for dinner at night. Letters posted at neon in the metropolis will be delivered in Glasgow in less than half the proent time, and the great stores will have aerial deliveries of parcels far and near. Meanwhile the Central Powers are* settling details of the "Balkan Aerial Express," whose route is to he Berlin-Vienna-Oftenpost-Constantinonle. This last destination is, it is safe to say, chimerical. Teuton planes will never lly ovar the tiolden Morn. But the idea is there, all the same, and backed by rich commercial concerns like the Austrian Lloyd, the 'Magyar Trade and Pnnking Company, and the Herman Survey Association. .Meetings of the promoters are now being he'd at Ofteukost to settle the amount of capital required, the most suitable type of aircraft, site? for the landing-places, and the postal interests of the three Powers concerned. All these novel features, and others at which I dare not, even hint, we may look for when our aircraft come home to roost, with nq fog of war to hide the almost, miraculous development of these machines during the past two momentous years.