FLYING SHIPS
MAY REPLACE
SEAPLANES
WASHINGTON, June 19 (by Asso
ciated Press).—Flying ships instead of
flying boats will be the logical evolu
tion of navy seaplanes, navy experts
believe, as a result of the first air trip
across the Atlantic. First impressions
of the lessons taught by that trip had
already taken definite shape in the
minds of the men who conceived and
created the NC machines before Lieu
tenant Commander A. C. Read had
manoeuvered the NC-4 to a safe moor
ing at Plymouth, England.
Strangely enough, it was to the ex
perience of the NC-1, lost off the
Azores, and the NC-3, battered out of
usefulness by heavy seas before she
made port at Ponta Delgada, that the
inventive genius of the department
turned for inspiration; not to the NC-4
that battled her way triumphantly
through the historic journey.
As far as they have yet gone and
lacking detailed reports and comments
from the seventeen men who set out
from Rockaway on the great adven
ture, the experts apparently have
reached definite preliminary conclus
ions to guide them in future seaplane
designing. They are convinced that to
play its full part in naval strategy, the
seaplane must become as independent
a unit as a modern submarine or de
stroyer. It must be able to keep the
seas in heavy weather, riding it out
on the surface. It must be able to lift
itself into air or to pjane down to a
safe landing even when tall seas are
running and it must provide for its
crew safety, shelter and reasonable
comfort under adverse circumstances
for the efficinecy of the plane depends
upon the efficiency of its men.
* Also, to fulfill its function as scout,
this plane of the future must be able
to communicate at all times by radio.
When the NC-3 was formed down west
of the Azores with Commander John
H. Towers, flight commander aboard,
she became dumb. As a scouting unit
her value to a fleet was lost from
that moment. Whatever her com
mander might have learned of vital
importance to the fleet commander
could not have been transmitted.
The answer to all of these require
ments in the minds of the experts
spells larger craft; veritable flying
-- ships. The vision toward which the
designers are looking is that of flotil
las of seaplanes, relying wholly upon
their own power for transportation on
the surface or in the air and operat
ing from swift “mother ships” as sub
marines and destroyers now operate.
These conclusions will be written
into new designs gradually. As battle
ships have developed from 11,000-ton
predreadnaughts to the 43,000-ton mon
sters for which the navy is now con
tracting, as naval officers say, sea
plane evolution will come type by
type and year by year, each advance
being based on results obtained with
preceding types. This is the program
laid out by the navy department as
the basis for the request recently made
to congress by Secretary Daniels for
$45,000,000 for aviation development
in the next fiscal year.
Part of this appropriation, if grant
ed, will go into lighter-than-air devel
opment. The general board is expected
to recommend immediate purchase of
a British rigid dirigible for personnel
training and the construction of a sim
ilar vessel on American designs as
pilot ship of a fleet of air cruisers.
The purchase of the British “Zeppe
lin” would permit the training of a
crew to handle the first American
.. craft when completed.
iJUO UttVJ- Utsptti lllltJUL IS SiUU LU UtJ
ready to proceed with Zeppelin con
struction on its own plans whenever
congress grants authority and appro
priations. The ship, it is understood,
would not be patterned exactly on the
British modifications of German Zep
pelin construction. The discovery of
non-combustible helium gas to inflate
the bags is said to have pointed the
way to some radical changes in de
sign. Details of what is contemplated,
however, have not been disclosed.
Naval experts point out that in both
seaple and dirigible development one
of the most important elements to be
considered is that of getting efficient
power. The Liberty motors have prov
ed highly satisfactory so far as en
durance goes on the transatlantic
flight but no means have yet been
evolved to get full benefits of their
power. The problem is the same as
that encountered with steam turbines
in surface craft. The efficient engine
speed of any gasoline motor now
known is too high for efficient pro
peller speed. Connected direct to the
engine shafts, the propellers revolve
so rapidly that the length and pitch of
the blades cannot be set so as to ob
tain all of the lighting power the en
gine could furnish.
The navy has been working for
months with a reduction gear system
to go between the engine and the pro
peller. A similar device has permit
ted destroyers to use turbine engines,
but it has found a difficult task to de
sign a lightweight reduction gear for
seaplanes or other aircraft. Should
this device be worked out-, the NC sea
planes could be made much more ef
ficient and their cruising radius be
greatly increased.
As to the sea-keeping qualities of
the NC planes, the experience of the
NC-1 and NC-3 indicate to experts that
some way must be found to get the
plane surfaces higher out of water.
This would save them from battering
into the sea when riding the surface.
A monoplane type flying boat is being
experimented with which may develop
enough to warrant search in that
direction.
New gasoline motors for lighter than
air craft have been worked out and
received their first test on the flight
of the dirigible C-5 from Montauk
Point, Long Island, to St. John’s, New
foundland. So well did they function
that decision had been made to at
tempt at a direct flight to Ireland with
the C-5 before the ship was blown to
sea and wrecked. Another attempt to
cross the Atlantic will be made as
soon as similar engines can be install
ed in another aircraft of the “C”
type.
Extensive tests with dirigibles driv
en by the motors previously employed
for this service are said to have dem
onstrated that the big gasbags could
not carry enough fuel to insure safe
passage across the Atlantic. A Pa
cific coast concern then turned out the
engines which went into the C-5 after
they had been tested at the navy yard
gear in a 275-hour continuous run
which gave remarkable results in fuel
economy. Details of engine construc
tion and performance have not been
disclosed, but it is understood that on
the 26-hour continuous flight of the
C-5 from Montauk Point to St. John’s,
the motors did better than was ex
pected.
Bulgarian and sweet butermilk. Call
Northwest Soda Works. Phone 187.
If you do not receive your copy of
the Times regularly, please notify the
circulation manager.
I ■flllMlIIJIllNlllllrliiiii-n.....-.
DEMOBILIZED MEN
GET TRANSPORTATION
TO THEIR HOME TOWN
SAN FRANCISCO, June 19 (by As
sociated Press).—Soldiers upon de
mobilization are entitled to transpor
tation at five cents per mile either to
their bonaflde home town, or to the
point of enlistment, according to new
orders now in effect in the demobiliza
tion camp here, it was announced by
Captain Roger H. Waite. Heretofore
transportation was granted only to the
point of enlistment or induction. Under
the new arrangement, regardless of
where the soldier entered service, he
is entitled to transportation upon dis
charge to his real |home.
Demobilization officers are empow
ered to transfer men to other camps
nearer the home town, or give trans
portation direct to the home town,
whichever is most desirable.
Many soldiers previously discharged
from the army and granted three and
one half cents mileage, are entitled
under the ruling to the additional
amount to make up the five cents per
mile. To obtain these discharged
soldiers should present themselves to
the nearest army recruiting office or
communicate with the nearest recruit
ing station. The recruiting station will
send a copy of the discharge and an
affidavit to the zone finance officer,
Lemon building, Washington, D. C.,
who will thereupon send a check for
the amount due to the discharged
soldier.
CALIFORNIA FIG TREE
REACHES 125 YEAR MARK
SACRAMENTO, Cal., June 19 (by
Associated Press).—George H. Hecke.
state commissioner of horticulture, re
cently endeavored to obtain a list of
the oldest fig trees in California and
found three that had passed the half
century mark, including the one at the
Mission San Jose, which is said to be
the oldest in the state. It is said to
be 125 years old and its trunk meas
ures seventeen feet in circumference.
One was listed from Corninf, Te
hama county as being sixty years old,
with a trunk thirteen and one-half feet
in circumference, and R. H. McCloud,
of Stockton, reported to Heckethat he
had p fig tree in his back yard that
had passed the half century mark,
which produced a bountiful crop each
year.
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Of the hours of backbreaking work
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