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48 U.S. AIR SERVICES August, 1931
[[IMAGE]] NEW TYPE "HORNET"
D.L. BROWN, PRESIDENT OF THE PRATT & WHITNEY AIRCRAFT COMPANY (LEFT): A.V.D. WILLGOOS, CHIEF ENGINEER; B.H. GILPIN, FACTORY MANAGER, AND C.W. DEEDS, VICE-PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY [[IMAGE]]

New High Compression Supercharged "Hornet"

The development of America's most powerful radial air-cooled aircraft engine, a new high compression supercharged Hornet, is announced by Andrew Wilgoos, chief engineer of the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Company, a division of the United Aircraft & Transport Corporation. The supercharged Hornet, according to the announcement, is a modification of the standard Series "B" Hornet, whose record both in military and commercial service is history, and will carry its former rated 575 h.p. up to 8,000 feet, and is capable of developing 775 h.p. at sea level. 

The new engine, designed primarily for military bombing planes, has recently completed satisfactory type tests at the Naval Aircraft Factory. It is equipped with an improved type of supercharger drive which makes higher supercharging possible than could be reliably obtained before. It has all the inherent characteristics of the Hornet and incorporates a propeller reduction gear of novel design, having 3:2 ratio. The same design features which have been so thoroughly tested in the various Pratt & Whitney engines have been incorporated in the new Hornet, coupled with improvements which have been proved by hundreds of hours of full throttle testing. The added performance is gained through supercharging and higher compression ratios. It is believed that the application of supercharging and propeller reduction gearing will make possible a more efficient type of military aircraft of greater tactical value to the United States Army and Navy services. 
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Airway travel is found to be getting safer each year in the third report of the committee on aviation of the Actuarial Society of America, presented at a recent meeting of the Society, with the chance of death last year among passengers in planes operated on scheduled flights averaging one in 17,000. This probability of death among passengers on scheduled flights has been reduced from one in 10,000 for 1929 to one in 4,000 in 1928. 
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Four boys flew to Washington, D.C., from Detroit, to call on President Hoover and demonstrate to him their model airplanes with which they won a national contest, at Dayton, Ohio. They were Emanuel Feinberg, Detroit; Joseph Ehrhardt, St.Louis; Steve Klazura, Chicago, and Gordon Lamb, Oakland, Calif. 

The airplane helped save many acres of timber land in California, recently, when Pilot D.C. Warren made four trips over the blazing area and was able to map the extent of the fire so thoroughly that forces sent to that region were able to check the flames in six hours and hold the damage to 840 acres of virgin timber in the Trinity National Forest. It is believed that had such survey not been made the fire would have lasted several days and spread over thousands of acres. 
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JAMES G. RAY, in his autogiro, piloted Senator Bingham, on July 9, from the Capitol Plaza to the Burning Tree Golf course. Mr. Ray, vice-president and chief pilot of the Autogiro Company of America, recently landed on the south grounds of the White House. He landed the plane on the Capitol Plaza with a run of less than 25 feet. The Senator said his flight proved that the distant country clubs could now be reached within a few minutes from a golfer's downtown office. He predicted that in the near future business men will be using autogiros to take them out to golf clubs for a few holes after regular business hours.