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August, 1931 U.S. Air Services 43
WE are told by the Boeing Airplane Company that the smallest aircraft they build, a new Army single-seater pursuit plane, has more than 30,000 different parts in its assembly, and that 3,500 of them are totally different. Somebody has also found out that there are 519 different kinds of raw materials, 813 different kinds of semi-finished and finished parts. We bet one of this year's graduating class looked up these figures. We forgot to say that the above figures do not include the parts in the Wasp [[italicized]] motor or the instruments on the dash. These will be counted by the star pupil of next year's class, or sometime during the next depression.
. . .
ERECTION of what is believed to be the longest fence in Ohio was begun at Akron municipal airport, recently, in preparation for trial flights of the U.S.S. Akron [[italicized]], world's largest airship. A total of 18,000 feet of fence will surround the port, and is designed to keep the field clear during trial flight periods.
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THE British Air Ministry has had constructed two monoplanes so designed that the aerodynamic forces operating on the wings can be measured in flight. The main feature of the construction, making the measuring of the air pressure possible, is the forming of a movable parallelogram of the wing members and a main fuselage member. The movement of the parallelogram is retarded by a cord connected to the rear spars of the wings on one end and a lever of a dynamometer on the other. The load thus read on the dynamometer is due partly to the lift and partly to the drag of the wings. Two readings are necessary to obtain the required result.
In addition to the usual controls, there is a brake on the propeller allowing the pilot to hold the propeller still and glide, thus doing away with any pressure from the slipstream. The propeller is started again with a gasoline starter.
This brings up the possibility of using such a brake on commercial and especially sightseeing planes to make them more quiet. A part of all commercial trips and an even greater part of sightseeing trips could be done while gliding and if the propeller could be stopped that part of the noise due to the whirling propeller could be eliminated. To many this is more annoying that the noise from the exhaust. A combination glider and power plane would certainly have its advantages.
Lissant Beardmore, a Canadian, had a pleasanter trip across the English Channel in his glider, the other day, than Louis Bleriot had when he made the first trip in a powered plane twenty-two years ago.
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A TWO-REEL thriller entitled "The Story of Lubrication" has been produced outside of Hollywood, by the Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa., and can be obtained for exhibition purposes, without charge except the expressage, by applying to the Bureau.
The story tells in interesting detail the downfall of the villain - friction, by the golden-haired and smooth-tongued hero - proper lubricating oil. It depicts the life of the hero from his birth in a deep well, through his training period of refining in the scorching heats of the various stills, getting rid first of his frivolous and light moods, such as gasoline and kerosene, and then polishing off some of his baser elements, such as asphalt and road-tar, until he emerges, air washed and chemically pure, even Fuller earth filtered, the flaxened haired youth ready to give battle to any form of friction, wherever met. The rest of the film shows this battle, and with the use of glass-covered bearings and many forms of test the hero is finally ready to be sold to the trade.
One feels, when the film is finished, that someone has gone to a lot of trouble to see that the lubricating oil won't give trouble when over the Atlantic or twenty-five feet above the trees in deserted Siberia.
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ASA CHANDLER, Jr., has taken delivery on his third Lockheed [[italicized]] and flew across the continent from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla. The plane was equipped to hold 100 additional gallons of gasoline, and although nothing was said about it, we suspect that several cases of Coca Cola were stored in the cockpit by this son of the founder of the Coca Cola radio half-hour.
. . .
THE E.L. Cord-owner Century Pacific Lines entered into competition with the existing lines along the Pacific Coast the first of July. They brought with them, from their operations radiating out of Chicago, the policy of rates equal to rail plus Pullman, which according to a recent survey was placed at 5.3 cents a mile. With the nine new airplane services promised by Century Pacific there will be twenty-two air transport planes operating out of Los Angeles daily, or half the number of scheduled railroad trains. They expect to operate a plane every two hours during the day between Los Angeles and San Francisco and three planes a day between Los Angeles and San Diego.
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23 Patrol Planes Ordered
THE Navy Department awarded, on July 8, a contract for 23 patrol planes for aircraft units of the U.S. Fleet to the Consolidated Aircraft Company, at Buffalo, N.Y., for $1,709,837.50. Delivery of the first plane is guaranteed by March 1, 1932, and the balance by August 1, 1932. Bids were opened on the planes June 17, five companies submitting estimates.
Contract has been awarded to the Wright Aeronautical Corporation of Paterson, N.J., for 69 airplane engines, at a total cost of $523,506.85, to be used in these patrol planes.
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TO POST AND GATTY
Fred H. Colvin
WINGS of the man-made eagle,
Motor so finely wrought
That countries wide and ocean tide
Were spanned as though time was naught.
Nor mountain high nor windswept sky
Kept them from the goal they sought.
Knowledge of plane and motor,
Muscles like tempered steel,
Reading the stars and dials
Watching the miles unreel,
Though mired by bog and blurred by fog,
Fate gave them a winning deal.
Marvel of man's achievement,
Conquering earth and sky,
Rivalling winds in swiftness
Distancing birds as they fly,
Showing the way of the modern day
Its new found wings to try.
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Transcription Notes:
The poem, "To Post and Gatty," appeared on the middle of the newspaper page, interrupting the primary story.
