jumt
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1937.
AVIATION
AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY
IN WAR
-
Training Royal Air Force
Squadrons
Aerial photography ranks among the essential duties of a military air service. Evidence secured by the airborne camera Fields vital Information to the staff officer and the artillery commander.
contest, the winner, now announ- ced, being No. 101 Bomber) Squadron, which is stationed at Bicester. No, 101 Squadron, flying Boulton-Paul Overstrand biplanes. actually secured 92.7 per cent of total possible marks in this most diicult contest.
for During
This
high rate of climb and service "ceiling," long range, and great *ase and power in manoeuvre which appear to advantage in the aerial combat staged each year at the Royal Air Force Display be- tween one of these big biplanes and a flight of single-seat fighters, It is built entirely of metal, with fabric covered wings and fuselage. GUN-TURRETED BOMBER The Overstrand is notable as the first acroplane in the world to be Commissioned for service with a rotatable gun-turret similar in working and purpose to naval gun- Mounted in the nose of turreta. the fuselage is an egg-shaped en- closed structure, with transparent sides.
accommodation of machine-gun and gunner. turret is mechanically operated. Detalls of the contest vary from thereby relieving the gunner of the year to year. In essence euch com- immense physical exertion required peting unit must produce a photo-to move" and train the gun graphic "mosaic" of an area of fast moving target at high air country within 30 miles of its home speeds. For some years past the The area must not ex- ever-increasing speeds of military Lerodrome. ceed 30 square miles in extent and aircraft have severely strained the may be triangular or irregularly physical capacities of the man quadrilateral in shape. The scale entrusted with a free gun; some
Maye times gunners to which the "mosaic" must be
sustained Developed under the stress of i produced lies between 1 in 8,000 and physical injury in their efforts to the war years to a high standard
support themselves against the of efficiency, acrial photography
tremendous "acceleration" forces has made big strides since 1918.
set up in aerial evolutions. In the Cameras capable of far more exact
turret fitted to the Overstrand, the working are now in general use;
gunner is called upon for DO good pictures can be, obtained in
physical effort. conditions of visibility that would have closed down all photographie activity twenty years ago; and the discovery of "infra-red" photo- graphy has extended the scope of the camera ege to incredible dis- tances. Each L;! device is ex- amined with a view to its adoption by the Royal Air Force.
the War, work done by the photo graphie aeroplanes. especially on the western front, was an essential cog in the machinery of ground operations, revealing in a wealth of detail the state of affairs on the Lenemy line and behind It, showing day to day changes in the disposi- tion of troops and earthworks, and providing exact information for the guidance of long range teries.
AWARD OF TROPHY
H
bat-
|
weather
In 20.000. No photographs pre- viously taken may be used, Marks are awarded for speed in produc- tion and, despatch for judging to the School of Photography, as well as for the technical excellence of the product. Each competing unit must report exactly the conditions prevailing between the amelal opening day of the contest and the date of despatch of the "mosale." It must also report the times taken in the actual photo- graphic flying and in the produc tion of the "mosaic" from the photographs secured. The methods adopted are not excessively stereo- typed, and
are taken into
011 3
He merely points
the gun in the desired direction. and the mechanism does all of the work
In the upshot, the more favour able conditions under which the gunner works have vastly increas- ed the accuracy of fire from free guns in aircraft, and the majority, of new multi-seater types of war- plane now being built in British factories embody some form of con-protective turret. Experience shows that even an aeroplane flying fast across the bows of an Overstrand can be kept on the sights of the turret gun; and experts believe that the tnvention will mean a rd volution in tactical ideas to over- come the effectiveness of this new defensive armament.
The importance of efficient aerial photography is recognized annually In the Royal Air Force #ideration by the fudges. by award of a trophy, the gift of The Boulton-Paul Overstrand is Sir Philip Sassoon. Under-Secretary a twin-engined craft with Bristol of State for Atr. the unit of the. Pegasus motors, and provides an Bervice which does best in a exceptionally steady platform for and photographic stringent test devised by the School | bomb-aiming of Photograph, Farnborough. Ten | work, Its other qualities include units entered for this year's ability to carry a big useful load.
MOTOR
JOTTINGS
WHY TOUGHENED GLASS
LOOKS MOTTLED
Taking Care Of "Hibernating" Cars
RUNNING ENGINE HELPS
01
thing nut a happy New Year.
The thought of spending a fiver on a new front window for a car worth about the same figure in a mare or less open market is not a pleasant one, the less so because there is no alternative,
I hope my notes on amperes,, Hore-Belisha and hle minions any- volts, and ohms did not shock you too much last week. As a matter For fact, I am now wondering if I Far not the one who has been
Quite 2. number sbocker! readers want to know more about these things. And there I sat thinking all the time I was one Enger typing of the hundreds of people who would turn to the next page after reading my Arst few Ines, writes "Owner Driver" in the "Bulletin."
I wonder what the relative po- pularity of toughened glass is to the sandwich type among the dis- gruntled thousands who are now Ailing the purses of the safety glass people.
been brought to a great heat and then chilled,
"When glass is heated it expands and on chilling, the outside faces or skins contract violently and much too fast to allow the cors to get into normal position. The core then finds itself with slightly insufficient mass to accomplish the task of Alling the space be- tween the chilled surfaces and is subjected to certain stresses and variations in density. With even density the fluorescence would be polarised by refraction on leaving the body."
ATLANTIC AIR SERVICE
Experiment With Flying-Boats
TEST FLIGHTS
EMPIRE
T
FLYING-BOATS
Sleeve-Valve Engines To Be Fitted
A small number of the fleet of 28 flying-boats now in process of de- livery to Imperial Airways will be fitted with the new sleeve-valve A number of experimental long, engines in place of the Bristol distance fights by the Imperini Pegasus engines originally speci- Airways flying-boats Caledonia ned. An arder has been placed and Cambria are being planned in with the Bristol Aeroplane Com- preparation for the projected re- gular Atlantic service. One flight the will probably be made by Caledonia very shortly.
panty for 25 Perseus engines. one of the three sleeve-valve typer which the company has had in The nature of these nights has development for several years. Im not yet been decidded upon, but perial Airways has already tested the Caledonia and the Cambria,
one type of the Bristol sleeve-valve which is still under construction
engine in its aircraft over a long -May make test hlights under
period of regular operation. and Atlantic conditions to obtain data.
the report on those tests was high- The Caledonla was selected to
ly gratifying both as to trust- see how her type will act underworthiness and economy. certain conditions of flight and weather. The Cambria will be completed in about a week's time.
The Caledonia of the same de- sign
as the
Empire flying-boats now in service, but there are small modifications and no passenger accommodation. Instead, extra fuel tanks have been fitted. The Cambria is a similar type of boat designed by Short Brothers, of Rochester, for the Empire routes.
The Perseus engine in its earller form gave an output of less than 700 hp., and this was about 200 hp. below that of the Pegasus whose place in some of the boats the latest Perseus will take. It is thus to be concluded that the output of the Perseus has been largely in- creased in later developments. The last four or five of the big flying- 'boats to come off the stocks will The Caledonia, which is the arst thus be the first commercial air- of the Imperial Airways flying craft in the world to use this latest boats to be fitted for experimental development of the sleeve-valve. long-range Atlantic test fights, engine, and in that sense they will created a new record for com-serve to give the engine its opera- merelal aircraft by flying non- tional tests. The order on the stop from Alexandria to Marseilles, other hand indicates the confd- a distance of 1,700 miles, on De-ence of Imperial Airways in the Cember 21. It covered the distance type. from Egypt to France in eleven It weighs and a quarter hours. eighteen tons and has a top flying speed of 200 m.p.h.
It has not yet been decided who be. When the crew will the Caledonia made the record Medi- terranean fight the pilots in charge were Captains W, N. Cum- ming and G. J. Powell, assisted by
First Officer W. L Garner.
A new air base is to be ea- tablished at Hythe, Southampton, for the use of the Empire air service, and the Caledonia and the Cambria will operate from
there.
36
PLANS FOR THE SERVICE The announcement that experi- mental long-distance fights would be undertaken this year was made in the House of Commons in July last. Details were given then of the progress made in the scheme for establishing a transatlantic
AIR SOUVENIRS AS FURNITURE
Air-minded Americans are com-
Reginald Langhorne Brooks, now mon enough. But Mr. and Mrs.
visiting London, are exceptional even for Americans. Not only are they both pilots; their apartment in New York is almost entirely fur- nished and decorated with nero- plane fittings.
The curtains are make of para- chute slĺk. The cushion-covers have the Maltese Cross and the concentric rings of the German and Allied markings. Their flat also contains 76 scale models of historic aircraft.
Aeronautical furniture, so much in vogue after the war, really dates air mall service, which, it was back 150 years. Collectors, it was stated. would be operated by told, are now paying attention to company set up by Imperial Air-early French and British work in Ways, a
company nominated by which ballooning scenes are depict- the Irish Free State, and a third ed on various articles. company nominated by the Cana- dian Government. Under this arrangement
There is in London a set of but- Imperial Airways tons each with a device represent- would subscribe 51 per cent of the ing a balloon. They are believed to be a set designed for the uniform capital and the Canadian and Irish
And now you know all about companies would share the re-uf Napoleon's Arst regiment of
there spots. Or don't you?
WHAT ABOUT CELLULOID?
Now, I have read that brainy explanation several times, and it seems to me that what it means 'of the
is that, if the density toughened glass was the same all the way through and over the en- tire sheet, the light passing
mainder.
It was also stated that when the service begins the company would
be subsidised by Britain, Canada.
Aerostiera,
the Irish Free State, and New-mudas in the winter months, but preference is to be given to the foundland.
At the outset the route of the direct route via Ireland and New service may be by way of the Ber-foundland,
A nice
through it would not be distorted, than having glass specially cut. I "hot-water-bottle" effect.
don't know, but it seema to me beat at the fire, as it were, on a that celluloid might solve serious cold night. problems. for those who own cars
As
with fancy shaped screens.
⚫ but because of the internal stresses due to the surfaces cooling Arst and quickly, these spots are bound to be produced and to remain,. By the way, and this is my point, I understand it, that is just what have
you noticed that sort of the makers want to do, so that
The material used to stand up appearance that the when the skin is fractured the fairly well some years ago, when toughened type of glass presents internal stresses sort of crack up it was used for side windows and when viewed from <ertain angles? the core and the glass falls into the screens of side cars atted to cynical on this subject of coddiing The whole sheet gives the impres-fragments which cannot do any motor cycles. sien of having been dabbed with harm because they have no catting
I observed it a long edges. A blue-bay.
One reader asks if I fondly Imagine that anyone will bother Fabout the technical definition of mottled
an ohm. Perhaps I put it in just to let you know that I know One does get a kick occasionally, by recalling all the valuable things learned from high-dom d teachers
My reader asks me if it is worth while covering the car with dust sheets. Well, the sheets will not do it any harm; in my experience, nelther will the dust. I fear I am
coachwork. The coachwork on my own car is as good to-day as it A reader asks
me for some
was when I bought it (never mind advice about how to look after the
how long ago), and it has cer- matter of fact, I belleve car which has been put to bed fortainly never been wrapped in cot- one's fate at the end of the session.I have asked many people who that the cause of many cheap the winter. Does it do any good ton wool. On the contrary, it has It is only when you grow in years ought to know just what it was wine glasses and tumblers fractur- to run the engine now and again. and, let's hope, wisdom that you and how it arose. Here 18 aning without warning is due to Imper- and, if so, at what speed? realise how neficial those long answer from one who is by way of hours were that you spent over text books. It's an old saying that education really commences when you teave school.
who had the power of determining time ago, and, as occasion offered As a
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THIS ONE?
being an expert.-
"To explain the presence of these spots without plunging into a maze of physics is somewhat difficult, but it may be put this way. It is caused by the sodium
15
been exposed to the storms of the wild Atlantic for weeks on end per cooling which sets up internal The answer 16, Yes. By all while standing in open fields, and stresses in the glass. And, if any means give the engine 's run at when it is cleaned (not very often mistresses read this they may now least once a week at a speed equal this weather? It looks perfect.. be more sympathetic towards the to about that at which it would If the garage in which the car servant who declares that it came turn over" at a road speed ofis hibernating is wooden and un- away. in my hand" Or have 1 about 20 miles an hour in top heated it might be better to use dropped a brick by suggesting that genr. In very cold weather I make a cover, and. under such con- a point, when the car is not likely ditions. I would run the engine as
Batery glass is the subject of the molecule resonating to an exciting anyone buys cheap glass? moment with many owners of not-radiation. If the wave-length or But to resume about wind-to be used for several days of often as convenient. Many people fentirely-new cars, and I can the angle of incidence of the screen. What about fitting a sheet running the engine at least every remove the battery and jack up imagine those people who are exciting light altered theof good-quality celluloid to the second night. I run it until it is the wheels, and while there." is contemplating their old bus having fluorescent spots will change their windscreen? Even if it were, neces- thoroughly heated, This practice something to be said for taking Sto be atted with safety glass be- form or even disappear. This is mary to replace it several times removes all condensation, gives the the weight off the tyres, the re- fore they can take it on the road because toughened glass is case during the remaining life of the battery a slight boost," and gene- moval of the battery renders Pat the end of March wishing Mr, hardened glass-glass that has car it might prove to be cheaper rally has what might be termed a starting up a troublesome job.
SANDEMAN
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