Part 9

A dirigible balloon, it has been suggested, is comparatively safe while moving in the air, but is subjected to severe strains when anchored to the ground, if exposed. It must have either safe harbors of refuge or actual shelter buildings--dry docks, so to speak. In an enemy's country a ravine or even a deep railway cut might answer in an emergency, but the greatest reliance would have to be placed on quick return trips from a suitable base. The balloon would be, perhaps, a more effective weapon in defense than in attack. Major Squier regards a flying height of one mile as giving reasonable security against hostile projectiles in the daytime. A lower elevation would be sufficient at night. Given a suitable telephotographic apparatus, all necessary observations could easily be made from this altitude. Even in the enemy's territory, descent to the earth might be possible at night under reasonably favorable conditions. Two sizes of balloon would seem to be indicated: the scouting work described would be done by a small machine having the greatest possible radius of action. Frontiers would be no barrier to it. Sent from England in the night it could hover over a Kiel canal or an island of Heligoland at sunrise, there to observe in most leisurely fashion an enemy's mobilizations.

At the London meeting of the Institute of Naval Architects, in April, 1911, the opinion was expressed that the only effective way of meeting attack from a flying machine at sea would be by a counter-attack from the same type of craft. The ship designers concluded that the aeroplane would no more limit the sizes of battleships than the torpedo has limited them.

For the more serious work of fighting, larger balloons would be needed, with net carrying capacities perhaps upward from one ton. Such a machine could launch explosives and combustibles against the enemy's forts, dry docks, arsenals, magazines, and battleships. It could easily and completely destroy his railroads and bridges; perhaps even his capital itself, including the buildings housing his chief executive and war office staff. Nothing--it would seem--could effectually combat it save air craft of its own kind. The battles of the future may be battles of the air.

There are of course difficulties in the way of dropping missiles of any great size from flying machines. Curtiss and others have shown that accuracy of aim is possible. Eight-pound shrapnel shells have been dropped from an aeroplane with measurably good effect, without upsetting the vessel; but at best the sudden liberation of a considerable weight will introduce stabilizing and controlling difficulties. The passengers who made junketing trips about Paris on the _Clément-Bayard_ complained that they were not allowed to throw even a chicken-bone overboard! But it does not seem too much to expect that these purely mechanical difficulties will be overcome by purely mechanical remedies. An automatic venting of a gas ballonet of just sufficient size to compensate for the weight of the dropped shell would answer in a balloon: a similar automatic change in propeller speed and angle of planes would suffice with the aeroplane. There is no doubt but that air craft may be made efficient agents of destruction on a colossal scale.

A Swedish engineer officer has invented an aerial torpedo, automatically propelled and balanced like an ordinary submarine torpedo. It is stated to have an effective radius of three miles while carrying two and one-half pounds of explosive at the speed of a bullet. One can see no reason why such torpedoes of the largest size are not entirely practicable: though much lower speeds than that stated should be sufficient.

According to press reports, the Krupps have developed a non-recoiling torpedo, having a range exceeding 5000 yards. The percussion device is locked at the start, to prevent premature explosion: unlocking occurs only after a certain velocity has been attained.

Major Squier apparently contends that the prohibition of offensive aerial operations is unfair, unless with it there goes the reciprocal provision that a war balloon shall not be fired at from below. Again, there seems to be no good reason why aerial mines dropped from above should be forbidden, while submarine mines--the most dangerous naval weapons--are allowed. Modern strategy aims to capture rather than to destroy: the man[oe]uvering of the enemy into untenable situations by the rapid mobilization of troops being the end of present-day highly organized staffs. Whether the dirigible (certainly not the aeroplane) will ever become an effective vehicle for transport of large bodies of troops cannot yet be foreseen.

Differences in national temper and tradition, and the conflict of commercial enterprise, perhaps the very recentness of the growth of a spirit of national unity on the one hand, are rapidly bringing the two foremost powers of Europe into keen competition: a competition which is resulting in a bloodless revolution in England, necessitated by the financial requirements of its naval program. Germany, by its strategic geographical position, its dominating military organization, and the enforced frugality, resourcefulness, and efficiency of its people, possesses what must be regarded as the most invincible army in the world. Its avowed purpose is an equally invincible navy. Whether the Gibraltar-Power can keep its ascendancy may well be doubted. The one doubtful--and at the same time perhaps hopeful--factor lies in the possibilities of aerial navigation.

If one battleship, in terms of dollars, represents 16,000 airships, and if one or a dozen of the latter can destroy the former--a feat not perhaps beyond the bounds of possibility--if the fortress that represents the skill and labor of generations may be razed by twoscore men operating from aloft, then the nations may beat their spears into pruning-hooks and their swords into plowshares: then the battle ceases to hinge on the power of the purse. Let war be made so costly that nations can no more afford it than sane men can wrestle on the brink of a precipice. Let armed international strife be viewed as it really is--senseless as the now dying duello. Let the navy that represents the wealth, the best engineering, the highest courage and skill, of our age, be powerless at the attack of a swarm of trifling gnats like Gulliver bound by Lilliputians--what happens then? It is a _reductio ad absurdum_. Destructive war becomes so superlatively destructive as to destroy itself.

There is only one other way. Let the two rival Powers on whom the peace of the world depends settle their difficulties--surely the earth must be big enough for both!--and then as one would gently but firmly take away from a small boy his too destructive toy rifle, spike the guns and scuttle the ships, their own and all the rest, leaving to some unambitious and neutral power the prosaic task of policing the world. Here is a work for red blood and national self-consciousness. If war were ever needed for man's best development, other things will answer now. The torn bodies and desolated homes of millions of men have paid the price demanded. No imaged hell can surpass the unnamed horrors that our fathers braved.

"Enforced disarmament!" Why not? Force (and public opinion) have abolished private duels. Why not national duels as well? Civilization's control of savagery always begins with compulsion. For a generation, no first-class power has had home experience in a serious armed conflict. We should not willingly contemplate such experience now. We have too much to do in the world to fight.

* * * * *

The writer has felt some hesitancy in letting these words stand as the conclusion of a book on flying machines: but as with the old Roman who terminated every oration with a defiance of Carthage, the conviction prevails that no other question of the day is of comparable importance; and on a matter of overwhelming consequence like this no word can ever be out of place. The five chief powers spent for war purposes (officially, as Professor Johnson puts it, for the "preservation of peace") about $1,000,000,000 in the year 1908. In the worst period of the Napoleonic operations the French military and naval budget was less than $100,000,000 annually. Great Britain, on the present peace footing, is spending for armament more rapidly than from 1793 to 1815. The gigantic "War of the Spanish Succession" (which changed the map of Europe) cost England less than a present year's military expenditure. Since the types for these pages have been set, the promise of international peace has been distinctly strengthened. President Taft has suggested that as, first, questions of individual privilege, and, finally, even those of individual honor, have been by common consent submitted to adjudication, so also may those so-called "issues involving national honor" be disposed of without dishonor by international arbitration. Sir Edward Grey, who does not hesitate to say that increase of armaments may end in the destruction of civilization unless stopped by revolt of the masses against the increasing burdens of taxation, has electrified Europe by his reception of the Taft pronouncement. England and the United States rule one-third the inhabitants of the earth. It is true that a defensive alliance might be more advantageous to the former and disagreeably entangling to the latter; but a binding treaty of arbitration between these powers would nevertheless be a worthy climax to our present era. And if it led to alliance against a third nation which had refused to arbitrate (led--as Sir Edward Grey suggests--by the logic of events and not by subterranean device) would not such be the fitting and conclusive outcome?

The Taft-Grey program--one would wish to call it that--has had all reputable endorsement; in England, no factional opposition may be expected. Our own jingoes are strangely silent. Mr. Dillon's fear that compulsory disarmament would militate against the weaker nations is offset by the hearty adherence of Denmark. A resolution in favor of the establishment of an international police force has passed the House of Commons by a heavy majority. It looks now as if we might hope before long to re-date our centuries. We have had Olympiads and Years of Rome, B.C. and A.D. Perhaps next the dream of thoughtful men may find its realization in the new (and, we may hope, English) prefix, Y.P.--Year of Peace.

FOOTNOTES

[A] According to press reports, temporary water ballast will be taken on during the daytime, to offset the ascensional effect of the hot sun on the envelope.

[B] The contestants for the Ryan prize of $10,000 were Moisant, Count de Lesseps, and Grahame-White. Owing to bad weather, there was no general participation in the preliminary qualifying events, and some question exists as to whether such qualification was not tacitly waived; particularly in view of the fact that the prize was awarded to the technically unqualified competitor, Mr. Moisant, who made the fastest time. This award was challenged by Mr. Grahame-White, and upon review by the International Aeronautic Federation the prize was given to de Lesseps, the slowest of the contestants, Grahame-White being disqualified for having fouled a pylon at the start. This gentleman has again appealed the case, and a final decision cannot be expected before the meeting of the Federation in October, 1911.

[C] The high wind velocities of the southern circumpolar regions may be an insurmountable obstacle in the Antarctic. Yet Mawson expects to take with him a 2-passenger monoplane having a 180-mile radius of action on the expedition proposed for this year.

[D] It seems that tomorrow has come; for an aeroplane is being regularly used (according to a reported interview with Dr. Alexander Graham Bell) for carrying mails in India.

Books on Aeronautics

=FLYING MACHINES TO-DAY.= By WILLIAM D. ENNIS, M. E., Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn. 12mo., cloth, 218 pp., 123 illustrations =$1.50 net= =CONTENTS=: THE DELIGHTS AND DANGERS OF FLYING--Dangers of Aviation--What it is Like to Fly. SOARING FLIGHT BY MAN--What Holds it Up. Lifting Power. Why so Many Sails. Steering. TURNING CORNERS--What Happens When Making a Turn. Lateral Stability. Wing Warping. Automatic Control. The Gyroscope. Wind Gusts. AIR AND THE WIND--Sailing Balloons. Field and Speed. GAS AND BALLAST--Buoyancy in Air. Ascending and Descending. The Ballonet. The Equilibrator. DIRIGIBLE BALLOONS AND OTHER KINDS--Shapes. Dimensions. Fabrics. Framing. Keeping the Keel Horizontal. Stability. Rudders and Planes. Arrangement and Accessories. Amateur Dirigibles. Fort Omaha Plant. Balloon Progress. QUESTION OF POWER--Resistance of Aeroplanes. Resistance of Dirigibles. Independent Speed and Timetable. Cost of Speed. Propeller. GETTING UP AND DOWN; MODELS AND GLIDERS; AEROPLANE DETAILS--Launching. Descending. Gliders. Models. Balancing. Weights. Miscellaneous. Things to Look After. SOME AEROPLANES--SOME ACCOMPLISHMENTS. THE POSSIBILITIES IN AVIATION--Case of the Dirigible. The Orthopter. The Helicopter. Composite Types. What is Promised. AERIAL WARFARE.

=AERIAL FLIGHT. Vol. 1. Aerodynamics.= By F. W. LANCHESTER. 8vo., cloth, 438 pp., 162 illustrations =$6.00 net= =CONTENTS=: Fluid Resistance and Its Associated Phenomena. Viscosity and Skin Friction. The Hydrodynamics of Analytical Theory. Wing Form and Motion in the Periphery. The Aeroplane. The Normal Plane. The Inclined Aeroplane. The Economics of Flight. The Aerofoil. On Propulsion, the Screw Propeller, and the Power Expended in Flight. Experimental Aerodynamics. Glossary. Appendices. =Vol. II. Aerodonetics.= By F. W. LANCHESTER. 8vo., cloth, 433 pp., 208 illustrations =$6.00 net= =CONTENTS=: Free Flight. General Principles and Phenomena. The Phugoid Theory--The Equations of the Flight Path. The Phugoid 1852-1872. Dirigible Balloons from 1883-1897; 1898-1906. Flying Machine Theory--The Flight Path Plotted. Elementary Deductions from the Phugoid Theory. Stability of the Flight Path as Affected by Resistance and Moment of Inertia. Experimental Evidence and Verification of the Phugoid Theory. Lateral and Directional Stability. Review of Chapters I to VII and General Conclusions. Soaring. Experimental. Aerodonetics.

=AERIAL NAVIGATION. A practical handbook on the construction of dirigible balloons, aerostats, aeroplanes and aeromotors=, by FREDERICK WALKER. 12mo., cloth, 151 pp., 100 illustrations =$3.00 net.= =CONTENTS=: Laws of Flight. Aerostatics. Aerostats. Aerodynamics. Screw Propulsion. Paddles and Aeroplanes. Motive Power. Structure of Airships and Materials. Airships. Appendix.

=AEROPLANE PATENTS.= By ROBERT M. NEILSON. 8vo., cloth, 101 pp., 77 illustrations =$2.00 net= =CONTENTS=: Advice to Inventors. Review of British Patents. British Patents and Applications for Patents from 1860 to 1910, arranged in Order of Application. British Patentees, arranged alphabetically. United States Patents from 1896 to 1909, arranged in order of issue. United States Patentees, arranged alphabetically.

=THE PRINCIPLES OF AEROPLANE CONSTRUCTION.= By RANKIN KENNEDY, C. E. 8vo., cloth, 145 pp., 51 diagrams =$1.50 net= =CONTENTS=: Elementary Mechanics and Physics. Principles of Inclined Planes. Air and Its Properties. Principles of the Aeroplane. The Curves of the Aeroplane. Centers of Gravity: Balancing; Steering. The Propeller. The Hélicoptère. The Wing Propeller. The Engine. The Future of the Aeroplane.

=HOW TO DESIGN AN AEROPLANE.= By HERBERT CHATLEY. 16mo., boards, 109 pp., illustrated (Van Nostrand's Science Series) =50 cents= =CONTENTS=: The Aeroplane. Air Pressure. Weight. Propellers and Motors. Balancing. Construction. Difficulties. Future Developments. Cost. Other Flying-Machines (Gyroplane and Orinthoptere).

=HOW TO BUILD AN AEROPLANE.= By ROBERT PETIT. Translated from the French by T. O'B. Hubbard and J. H. Ledeboer. 8vo., cloth, 131 pp., 93 illustrations =$1.50 net= =CONTENTS=: General Principles of Aeroplane Design. Theory and Calculation. Resistance, Lift, Power, Calculations for the Design of an Aeroplane, Application of Power, Design of Propeller, Arrangements of Surfaces, Stability, Center of Gravity, etc. Materials. Construction of Propellers. Arrangements for Starting and Landing. Controls. Placing Motor. The Planes. Curvatures. Motors.

=AIRSHIPS, PAST AND PRESENT. Together with chapters on the use of balloons in connection with meteorology, photography, and the carrier pigeon.= By A. HILDEBRANDT, Captain and Instructor in the Prussian Balloon Corps. Translated by W. H. Story. 8vo., cloth, 361 pp., 222 illustrations =$3.50 net= =CONTENTS=: Early History of the Art. Invention of the Air Balloon. Montgolfieres, Charlieres, and Rozieres. Theory of the Balloon. Development of the Dirigible Balloon. History of the Dirigible Balloon, 1852-1872. Dirigible Balloons from 1883-1897; 1898-1906. Flying Machines. Kites. Parachutes. Development of Military Ballooning. Ballooning in Franco-Prussian War. Modern Organization of Military Ballooning in France, Germany, England and Russia. Military Ballooning in Other Countries. Balloon Construction and the Preparation of the Gas. Instruments. Ballooning as a Sport. Scientific Ballooning. Balloon Photography. Photographic Outfit for Balloon Work. Interpretation of Photographs. Hectography by Means of Kites and Rockets. Carrier Pigeons for Balloons. Balloon Law.

D. VAN NOSTRAND CO., Publishers

23 MURRAY and 27 WARREN STREETS, NEW YORK

Transcriber's Note: Italics are delimited by underscores; bold by equal signs. Four occurrences of the oe-ligature in the word man[oe]uver are left as [oe]. The four footnotes have been moved to the end of the book. A few words were judged to be printer errors and were changed. These include two occurrences of horse-power in the unhyphenated form, the spelling of Tabuteau as Tabuteaw on p. 162, and the spelling of hélicoptère as helicoptéré on p.208. On a few of the figure captions, missing accents were added to some French names.

End of Project Gutenberg's Flying Machines Today, by William Duane Ennis