The Way of the Air 19

The Way of the Air 19

There are three distinct phases of aerial combat to be

considered--aeroplane _versus_ aeroplane, airship against airship, and

aeroplane against airship. It is a difficult matter to decide which is

the more useful as a fighting unit, but thus far one is inclined to say

the light, high-powered aeroplane. Zeppelins and airships are for the

most part clumsy and unwieldly. Seaplanes, again, are usually heavy

and slow to answer to their controls.

 

The important factors are the lifting power of the machine and weather

conditions. The property of “lift” is determined on the one hand by

mechanical devices, and on the other by the balloon portion of the

craft which is lighter than the air. Lift spells speed, endurance, and

climbing powers, and therefore the machine with the greater lift is the

better equipped for fighting purposes.

 

 

WIND AND CLOUD

 

Next in order of importance is wind. The engine may be giving a speed

of sixty miles per hour, and the craft be flying in the teeth of a 20

m.p.h. wind, thus its actual speed would be forty, not sixty, miles an

hour. Again, two enemy machines, A and B, are approaching one another

to give battle. Both have a speed of 60 m.p.h., but A is flying “down”

with a fifteen-mile wind at the back of him. Their relative speeds

would be: A seventy-five, B forty-five, or an advantage of thirty miles

an hour for A; but on the turn--the majority of aerial combats are

fought out on the principal of circling and wheeling--the advantage

would be transferred to B. Good pilotage is of extreme importance; the

pilot who is able to get the most out of his machine and knows it best

will almost invariably gain the day.

 

Clouds are often made great use of by pilots. Almost every day we

read of a machine dashing out from behind a bank of cloud, and taking

another by surprise. On the other hand, clouds may prove disastrous

to both combatants, owing to the peculiar property they possess of

influencing the stability of the machine.

 

Lift, however, is still the great factor, since the fight always

develops into a struggle for the upper berth, and is usually fought in

an upward direction. It is climb, climb, climb; then, with the wind

at his back, a last swoop down on the enemy--taking him in his most

vulnerable position--and the fight is over. Various expedients are made

use of to gain this end, such as getting between an opponent and the

sun, “diving” suddenly and “looping.” With either aeroplane or airship

it is the uppermost position that counts.

 

The type of craft most useful for this work is the high-engined biplane

of the “tractor”--propeller to the fore--type, the machine-gun firing

through the blades of the propeller. The essentials of these machines

are speed and ability to climb quickly. The slower machines, with

greater powers of endurance, are more useful for bomb-raiding and

reconnaissance purposes.

 

 

“LIFT” THE FACTOR

 

Airship combat has yet to materialize. Many opinions and theories,

often widely conflicting, have been put forward concerning the

possibilities and probabilities of such conflicts, but nothing

definite can be advanced until a battle between airships has taken

place. The opinion of the majority of the experts is that an airship

would be little better than useless to meet an airship, and for our

own particular requirements--that is, the repelling of Zeppelin

raids--aeroplanes are of more use; which brings us to the combat

between aeroplane and airship.

 

Considering first their main qualities: the airship has great “lifting”

powers, is more heavily armed, can climb at a faster rate, and has

greater powers of endurance; whereas the aeroplane has greater speed,

is more easily maneuvered, and is less unwieldy.

 

The tendency of the Zeppelin commanders is to increase rather than

decrease altitude with every raid, which renders attack by aeroplane

more difficult; but, on the other hand, aeroplanes are being built

which can develop so remarkable a speed that they will soon be able to

climb above Zeppelin altitude. When that occurs the Zeppelin menace

will end for ever.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XXVI

 

THE AIR--THE WAR--AND THE FUTURE

 

 

Had either Orville or Wilbur Wright, when they first glided down the

low sand-dunes of the Pacific shore on a frail, uncontrollable air

machine, in the earlier part of this century, or Count Zeppelin, as

he worked unceasingly on his giant airship, been blessed with the

imagination and the gifts of a seer--what remarkable vision would have

been theirs!

 

To see that frail glider increase and grow into a motor-propelled,

double-winged aeroplane, darting through the air with the speed of a

cyclone: that unwieldy airship, capable at the most of remaining for

half-an-hour in the air at a time, develop into a craft, to which the

crossing and re-crossing of the wide expanse of the North Sea was an

everyday occurrence: to see the aeroplane climb up to 18,000 feet in

the sky, to attain a speed of over 100 miles per hour, and remain in

the air for hours on end....

 

The Zeppelin originally intended to be a peaceful carrier of the

commerce of the world, converted into a ship of war, with machine-guns

mounted fore and aft; and with a cargo on board deadly enough to wreck

the half of a city....

 

The far-flung battle-line of Flanders, over which there creep, like

great gray wasps, French, Belgian, German and British aeroplanes alike;

the elongated shapes of raiding Zeppelins, darting hither and thither

over a darkened London, among piercing searchlight rays and bursting

shrapnel! Yet a few years, and the shapes and structures may undergo

even more marvelous change; for every talent and accomplishment,

every art and science of modern civilization will be devoted to the

development of this new science of aeronautics.

 

 

THE WAR AND AVIATION

 

One may say, without much fear of contradiction, that the war has done

more towards the development of aviation, and has rendered more things

possible to be done in two years than would have been accomplished in

ten years under pre-wartime conditions.

 

It has necessitated the production of many thousands of craft of

varying degrees of size and shape, and the number of factories engaged

upon the production of aeroplanes, airships, and spare parts for the

respective craft has trebled. For one trained and experienced aviator,

in 1914, there are to-day at least ten, if anything more capable, and

certainly better experienced.

 

As a test of the durability and the capabilities of aircraft, flying

under war conditions cannot be equaled, for various reasons. Firstly,

maneuvers, which in times of peace would be considered risky to life

and thus avoided, must be endured daily by pilots flying over the

battle area. Flying under shell-fire frequently necessitates maneuvers,

entirely unaccounted for by the constructors of the machine, which put

a very great strain on the framework, wings, struts, etc. To compensate

for such strain, every wire, strut, and part of the framework is

constructed of a strength at least eight times greater than that of

the actual strength required. Thus the weak points of the machine are

discovered, also the centers at which the greatest strain takes place.

 

 

FUTURE TYPES OF CRAFT

 

The shape and general build of the aeroplane has not thus far changed

materially from the original models of Orville and Wilbur Wright, save

that the majority of the modern machines are tractors (_i. e._ with

the engine in front), whereas the older types were “pushers” (with

engine at the rear). The new principle has naturally both advantage and

disadvantage. With the tractor engine, the machine has a great speed,

and is able to climb at a much faster rate, but the inherent stability

of the craft is seriously affected--by shifting the engine 80 per

cent. of the total weight is moved from the center to the nose of the

aeroplane. To compensate for this the wings have had to be extended,

and this has added considerably to the weight in aggregate. But this

evil has again been remedied, by bringing the extreme ends further to

the rear, and slightly indenting each wing-tip: in a word, constructing

the aeroplane more and more after the fashion of a bird in flight. Such

is the peculiar working of the human mind, however, that when some new

theory or substance is evolved, similar to the one in question, it

is content to concentrate on the original formula, and develops that

rather than apply the same principles to an entirely new formula. Thus,

after some twelve years of flying, we have only four distinct types of

craft: the balloon, the airship, the aeroplane, and the seaplane--the

two former being very similar both in principle and shape, as also

the two latter. Exception cannot be made for the “triplane,” for that

machine, with three planes, has the same shape as the aeroplane.

 

The principles of aero-statics, and aero-dynamics by no means confine

the constructor to these two standard forms; and in the near future

the aeroplane will be built on similar lines to the ocean-going liner,

and the airship very much on the same principle.

 

Development in size and speed depend on future experimenting, and

flights have already been made both in France and Russia by giant

aeroplanes, in which, in one case nine, and in the other fifteen

passengers, exclusive of the pilot were carried at one time; while the

later Zeppelins are capable of lifting to a height of over 12,000 feet,

a crew of thirty odd, with a further weight of bombs and war material

aboard, and flying distances of over 800 miles. Again, there are the

orthropic and the ornithropic types of craft, which their inventors

claim to be capable of rising vertically from the ground to a height

of 10,000 feet. Combining these principles we ought within the space

of ten years to be in possession of aircraft capable of flying at

over 150 miles an hour, with a cargo of many hundred tons aboard, and

with a radius of over 3,000 miles, able to start and land with ease

in a confined space about the size of Leicester Square. The aerial

landing grounds will be the flat roofs of gigantic buildings specially

constructed in the center of London. Automatic lifts will convey the

passengers from the air level to the street level, where they will be

deposited in electric trains, running in all directions. Impracticable,