The Way of the Air 17

The Way of the Air 17

“I have given up all hope, the earth seemed rushing up to meet

us, and I prayed that our agony might not be prolonged. I

shut my eyes and waited for the final crash, when, wonder of

wonders, the machine began to right herself. Hardly daring to

believe my eyes, I looked to the pilot’s seat. The headlong

rush through the cool air must have brought him round, and he

was making strenuous efforts to regain control.

 

“Luckily the enemy had given us up for lost, had ceased to

shoot, and we immediately began to climb again. Then the

Germans opened fire, and we only escaped with our lives through

the superb pilotage of L----, with one leg shattered and blood

flowing in streams. At 8000 feet he again seemed to be sinking.

I hastily scrawled a note urging him to descend. He read it,

shook his head decidedly, pointed to me with a smile on his

white drawn face, then pointed in the direction of our lines,

and carried on.

 

“At times he would faint, and then, recovering himself,

redouble his efforts. At last we were over the lines, but it

seemed utterly impossible that he should be able to land the

machine in his condition. But he did. Choosing a large green

meadow about three miles behind the trenches, he landed as

gently and as easily as if he had only been up for a practice

flight, brought the machine to a stop, and fainted dead away.”

 

This gallant pilot, as he lay mortally wounded in the field hospital,

and knowing that he was dying, thought only of the terrible time his

observer must have had. Thus he wrote to his mother in England:--

 

“MUMMY DEAR,

 

“Don’t be alarmed at my little escapade; will be all right

again soon and be with you.... Poor P----, what an awful time

he must have had after I fainted and we were nose-diving

headlong for the ground!

 

“P. S.--Please don’t go talking about this business to all the

old dowagers of your acquaintance.”

 

Officer R---- M---- was on a bomb-dropping and reconnaissance

expedition in the neighborhood of Y---- in the late summer of 1915.

When twenty miles from our lines he was hit by shrapnel and mortally

wounded in the thigh, but making up his mind not to be taken prisoner,

he kept bravely on, crossed the lines, and disdaining to take advantage

of the cover thus afforded and land in the first available spot, kept

resolutely on to the aerodrome from which he had set out, though losing

blood rapidly and knowing he had not long to live. There he made a

beautiful landing, handed in his report, and fell unconscious, never to

come round again.

 

* * * * *

 

Early in the present year an air raid was organized to bomb a town not

far from Constantinople. The raid was duly carried out, but on the

journey home one of our aeroplanes was hit by a shell and forced to

come to earth in marsh lands beside a small river. Immediately a party

of Turkish infantry rushed up to take charge of the craft, but before

they could reach it another of our machines swooped down on the scene

and landed close by. The pilot jumped out, ran across a field swept by

Turkish rifle fire, picked up the wounded pilot, and placing him on his

back, staggered across to his own machine. Still subjected to a violent

fusillade, he unthrottled his engine, and with the wounded man carried

before him, bravely flew off and made his own base again.

 

 

 

 

PART III

 

OTHER CRAFT AND THE FUTURE

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XXIII

 

THE EVOLUTION OF THE AIRSHIP

 

 

The airship is the aristocrat of the air. In jealousy and scorn the

aeroplane may refer to her as “gasbag,” “sausage”; may poke fun at

her by reason of her unwieldy size, and laugh at her lack of speed;

she still looks down on that craft with as much haughty disdain as a

duchess of royal blood would bestow on a _nouveau riche_. Has she not a

pedigree as long as may be forgotten?

 

She may trace her genealogy back to the Greek mythology and may

number among her progenitors such men as Leonardo da Vinci, Cyrano de

Bergerac, Francisco de Lana, Joseph Montgolfier, Blanchard, Santos

Dumont and Count Zeppelin. The aeroplane is but an invention of the

Twentieth Century!

 

Italy was the birthplace of the lighter-than-air craft; throughout

the interesting history of the airship the names of famous Italian

scientists predominate, and particularly those of the monastic order.

Perhaps it was that convent life was inducive to study; untrammeled

by the cares of the outside world, men turned their attention to the

sciences and developed their imaginations. Be that as it may, we find

that to-day the Italian airships are the finest in the world.

 

But although Italy may have done more than the other nations, history

tells us that it was two Frenchmen, Stephen and Joseph Montgolfier, who

were the first to bring the lighter-than-air craft prominently before

the world.

 

The story goes that while rowing, Stephen’s silk coat fell overboard

into the water. It was placed over a hot oven to dry, and watching it,

Joseph noticed that the hot air tended to make it rise. The upshot of

the affair was the Montgolfier balloon.

 

Throughout history the lighter-than-air craft has figured prominently

in warfare. In the Franco-Prussian War, during the siege of Paris

alone, as many as 66 balloons left the stricken city, carrying 60

pilots, 102 passengers, 409 carrier pigeons, 9 tons of letters and

telegrams, and 6 dogs.

 

Gaston Tissandier went over the German lines and dropped 10,000 copies

of a proclamation addressed to the soldiers, asking for peace, yet

declaring that France would fight to the bitter end.

 

In the American Civil War an aeronaut named La Fontaine went up in a

balloon over an enemy camp, made his observation, rose higher into the

air, and succeeded in getting into a cross-current, which carried him

back to his place of departure.

 

The first cross-channel flight was made by balloon in 1785, by

Blanchard, who had with him an American doctor named Jefferies,

together with a large supply of provisions, ballast and oars. This

weighed the balloon down to such an extent that she almost sank into

the sea a few moments after starting. Ballast was thrown overboard, and

she rose, only to sink again. More ballast was dropped. Then they rose

into the air and eventually landed in safety on the hills behind Calais.

 

* * * * *

 

Having thus shortly outlined the development of the one, we will

endeavor to discover the fundamental difference between aeroplane and

airship. It is simply the matter of “lift” obtained in the case of the

latter from the property of being lighter than air, whereas the other

craft being heavier than air must obtain its “lift” by mechanical

propulsion.

 

The airship is merely an improvement on the old-fashioned balloon: a

balloon to which mechanical propulsion has been applied. Different in

shape, indeed, and fitted out with many modern improvements, its flight

is still governed by the same laws of “aerostatics.”

 

For practical purposes we will divide the airship into two portions:

the envelope or balloon, and the car. Atmospheric conditions influence

the envelope to no small degree. The effect of heat upon gas--with

which the envelope is filled--is to make it expand, and consequently

cause the craft to rise. Cold, on the other hand, causes the gas to

contract, and the craft to descend. Air pressure is another factor

which must be taken into account, and this is greatest at sea-level.

The greater the altitude, the less the pressure becomes, and the less

pressure on the outside surface of the envelope the easier it is for

the gas to expand; but this is compensated for by the fact that the

atmosphere is considerably cooler at a high altitude.

 

There are three types of airship: the “non-rigid,” in which the two

portions, the car and the envelope, are entirely separate portions,

being held together by means of rigging; “semi-rigged,” in which the

car is partly attached to the envelope, a type greatly favored by

French and Italians; and the “rigid” airship, of which both car and

envelope are in the same framework. The Zeppelin is of the latter class.

 

Like other great airships the Zeppelin does not rely on one single

balloon for “lift.” Instead, the envelope forms merely the outer

covering for eighteen balloonettes, which can be regulated in the

matter of expansion and contraction from the control-car of one of the

three gondolas below.

 

We have by no means yet seen these wonderful craft at their deadliest;

the German pilots are extremely brave men, yet lack that initiative and

dash peculiar to the British Air Service. Were the position reversed,

one dreads to think what might happen to this country.

 

The future is all with the airship, in the rôle of commerce-bearing

aircraft. The aeroplane and all heavier-than-air craft are of little

value save as units of war, and even then their uses are infinitesimal

when compared with those of the Zeppelin. And the secret of the success

of the Zeppelin is that she has the “lift,” double and treble the

lift of the aeroplane, and is developing beyond belief, whereas, in

proportion, the aeroplane develops little year by year.

 

Taking everything into consideration we must have Zeppelins! It is

imperative for the future safety of our nation. The longer we submit

thus meekly to these aerial invasions, the longer will the war go on.