Continued Flight Research Articles

Man on the South Polar Plateau

Giant leaps, such as the celebrated ones of Apollo 11 and of Christopher Columbus, have a way of leap-frogging a multitude of partially resolved and even unrecognized problems in the biomedical sphere which, further experience demonstrates, may hold the seeds of damage or disaster for later explorers. Scurvy was one such hazard for Columbus, only much later identified and eliminated as a serious threat to health of sailors or explorers forced to subsist long periods on diets deficient in natural vitamin C. Berry, in a recent report, 1 summarizes the halting steps of space biomedicine to Apollo 11, and states flatly that, since "man is not inherently qualified for space missions," then "more sophisticated physiological and behavioral studies are now required to qualify man for continued space flight." A similar but less crucial situation, in many ways, also exists for man in Antarctica. All men (and women), including those who

The airworthiness and reliability of aircraft electrical systems

Standards for the airworthiness and reliability of electrical systems and equipment are discussed in relation to the overall standards for the aircraft and its engines, and the effect of duplication of systems and equipment is considered.The control and protection of generating systems is examined in relation to experience, particularly of total power failure, and it is concluded that systems have not proved sufficiently reliable in the past to justify entire reliance on them in aircraft which depend on electrical supply for their continued flight. Various methods of providing duplicate and emergency supplies are described.The electrical controls of engines and propellers is discussed in relation to engine reliability, and recommendations are made for improvement.Inadvertent operation of some services (e.g. control-surface trimmers, propeller reversing) may constitute a major hazard to the aircraft; a detailed assessment of the causes of such operation is made and of methods of avoiding it.In an aircraft which carries large quantities of fuel and uses other inflammable fluids at high pressures, the extensive use of electricity may involve a considerable risk of fire or explosion unless the most stringent precautions are taken. Some of the risks and the measures taken to combat them are described.

Performance of a Jettison System

IN the design of long range aircraft, the high percentage weight of fuel carried lias always tended to necessitate the provision of a system by means of which this fuel could be rapidly jettisoned, in the event of forced landing or continued flight on partial power. The provision of such a jettison system is now an important problem in ancillary design.

On the Structural Specilization of Flying Fishes from the Standpoint of Aerodynamics

A LARGE variety of flying animals has been studied by the early designers of aircraft, but it was not until there was a radical departure from any of these that a real conquest of the air was made with heavierthan-air machines. We may consider those animals that have been examined for such purposes, beginning with the lower groups. Except for the ballooning spiders, which simply drift by means of their wide flung silk on light breezes, or the flying squids that are little more than animated darts, there are no flying invertebrates except the insects. These are highly diversified and exceedingly successful. Their wings are usually of light stiff membranes stretched on supporting rods and superficially, at least, somewhat resemble the wings of a modern aeroplane. There are two important and interlocked differences, however. The first is that in all cases they are locomotor in function, and no insect attains a large (absolute) size. With such small sizes the manipulation of delicate structures is mechanically possible and indeed advantageous, if not absolutely necessary. Long continued gliding is impractical for bodies of such light weight, whereas, on the other hand, the manipulation of such thin expansive areas in a larger size is out of the question for either animals or machines, due partly at least to the fact that the weight increases by the third power of the length. Thus it is evident that such superficially aeroplane-like insects as dragon flies are really not miniature planes at all, but are working on radically different principles inl which the paired outstretched wings vibrate practically all through flight in such a manner that their tips describe a figure. eight in addition, to rotating slightly back and forth along their long axis. Considering the vertebrates, we may examine, the birds, which for so long have been studied by would-be fliers. The flapping flight of the bird wing is conditioned by its peculiar lattice-like fenestration due to the complicated form and placement of the feathers. All the smaller birds fly by rapid wing beats, only the larger, such as buzzards, hawks, condors, albatrosses, etc., sustain long continued flight by soaring. Such flight is by far the closest approach to that of a plane (a motorless glider) that we have examined as yet, although it is still a far cry from a plane in its methodof getting under way, control, or appearance in the air. The flying mammals, such as bats and flying squirrels, although having solid wings are still further from the successful plane. The bats with their elaborate wing flapping have as yet never been successfully repro-