The Mastery of the Air Part 14

There are risks in all means of transit; indeed, it may be said that the world is a dangerous place to live in. It is true, too, that the demons of the air have taken their toll of life from the young, ambitious, and daring souls. Many of the fatal accidents have been due to defective work in some part of the machinery, some to want of that complete knowledge and control that only experience can give, some even to want of proper care on the part of the pilot. If a pilot takes ordinary care in controlling his machine, and if the mechanics who have built the machine have done their work thoroughly, flying, nowadays, should be practically as safe as motoring.

The French Aero Club find, from a ma.s.s or information which has been compiled for them with great care, that for every 92,000 miles actually flown by aeroplane during the year 1912, only one fatal accident had occurred. This, too, in France, where some of the pilots have been notoriously reckless, and where far more airmen have been killed than in Britain.

When we examine carefully the statistics dealing with fatal accidents in aeroplanes we find that the pioneers of flying, such as the famous Wright Brothers, Bleriot, Farman, Grahame-White, and so on, were comparatively free from accidents. No doubt, in some cases, defective machines or treacherous wind gusts caused the craft to collapse in mid-air. But, as a rule, the first men to fly were careful to see that every part of the machine was in order before going up in it, so that they rarely came to grief through the planes not being sufficiently tightened up, wires being unduly strained, spars snapping, or bolts becoming loose.

Mr. Grahame-White admirably expresses this when he says: "It is a melancholy reflection, when one is going through the lists of aeroplane fatalities, to think how many might have been avoided. Really the crux of the situation in this connection, as it appears to me, is this: the first men who flew, having had all the drudgery and danger of pioneer work, were extremely careful in all they did; and this fact accounts for the comparatively large proportion of these very first airmen who have survived.

"But the men who came next in the path of progress, having a machine ready-made, so to speak, and having nothing to do but to get into it and fly, did not, in many cases, exercise this saving grace of caution. And that--at least in my view--is why a good many of what one may call the second flight of pilots came to grief."

CHAPTER XLVI. Accidents and their Cause (Cont.)

One of the main causes of aeroplane accidents has been the breakage of some part of the machine while in the air, due to defective work in its construction. There is no doubt that air-craft are far more trustworthy now than they were two or three years ago. Builders have learned from the mistakes of their predecessors as well as profited by their own.

After every serious accident there is an official enquiry as to the probable cause of the accident, and information of inestimable value has been obtained from such enquiries.

The Royal Aero Club of Great Britain has a special "Accidents Investigation Committee" whose duty it is to issue a full report on every fatal accident which occurs to an aeroplane in this country. As a rule, representatives of the committee visit the scene of the accident as soon as possible after its occurrence. Eye-witnesses are called before them to give evidence of the disaster; the remains of the craft are carefully inspected in order to discover any flaw in its construction; evidence is taken as to the nature and velocity of the wind on the day of the accident, the approximate height at which the aviator was flying, and, in fact, everything of value that might bear on the cause of the accident.

As a good example of an official report we may quote that issued by the Accidents Investigation Committee of the Royal Aero Club on the fatal accident which occurred to Colonel Cody and his pa.s.senger on 7th August, 1913.

"The representatives of the Accidents Committee visited the scene of the accident within a few hours of its occurrence, and made a careful examination of the wrecked air-craft. Evidence was also taken from the eye-witnesses of the accident.

"From the consideration of the evidence the Committee regards the following facts as clearly established:

"1. The air-craft was built at Farnborough, by Mr. S. F. Cody, in July, 1913.

"2. It was a new type, designed for the Daily Mail Hydroplane Race round Great Britain, but at the time of the accident had a land cha.s.sis instead of floats.

"3. The wind at the time of the accident was about 10 miles per hour.

"4. At about 200 feet from the ground the air-craft buckled up and fell to the ground. A large piece of the lower left wing, composing the whole of the front spar between the fuselage and the first upright, was picked up at least 100 yards from the spot where the air-craft struck the ground.

"5. The fall of the air-craft was broken considerably by the trees, to such an extent that the portion of the fuselage surrounding the seats was practically undamaged.

"6. Neither the pilot nor pa.s.senger was strapped in.

"Opinion. The Committee is of opinion that the failure of the air-craft was due to inherent structural weakness.

"Since that portion of the air-craft in which the pilot and pa.s.senger were seated was undamaged, it is conceivable their lives might have been saved had they been strapped in."

This occasion was not the only time when the Accidents Investigation Committee recommended the advisability of the airman being strapped to his seat. But many airmen absolutely refuse to wear a belt, just as many cyclists cannot bear to have their feet made fast to the pedals of their cycles by using toe-clips.

Mention of toe-clips brings us to other accidents which sometimes befall airmen. As we have seen in a previous chapter, Mr. Hawker's accident in Ireland was due to his foot slipping over the rudder bar of his machine.

It is thought that the disaster to Mr. Pickles' machine on "Aerial Derby" day in 1913 was due to the same cause, and on one occasion Mr.

Brock was in great danger through his foot slipping on the rudder bar while he was practising some evolutions at the London Aerodome. Machines are generally flying at a very fast rate, and if the pilot loses control of the machine when it is near the ground the chances are that the aeroplane crashes to earth before he can right it. Both Mr. Hawker and Mr. Pickles were flying low at the time of their accidents, and so their machines were smashed; fortunately Mr. Brock was comparatively high up in the air, and though his machine rocked about and banked in an ominous manner, yet he was able to gain control just in the nick of time.

To prevent accidents of this kind the rudder bars could be fitted with pedals to which the pilot's feet could be secured by toe-clips, as on bicycle pedals. Indeed, some makers of air-craft have already provided pedals with toe-clips for the rudder bar. Probably some safety device such as this will soon be made compulsory on all machines.

We have already remarked that certain pilots do not pay sufficient heed to the inspection of their machines before making a flight. The difference between pilots in this respect is interesting to observe. On the great day at Hendon, in 1913--the Aerial Derby day--there were over a dozen pilots out with their craft.

From the enclosure one could watch the airmen and their mechanics as the machines were run out from the hangars on to the flying ground. One pilot walked beside his mechanics while they were running the machine to the starting place, and watched his craft with almost fatherly interest.

Before climbing into his seat he would carefully inspect the spars, bolts, wires, controls, and so on; then he would adjust his helmet and fasten himself into his seat with a safety belt.

"Surely with all that preliminary work he is ready to start," remarked one of the spectators standing by. But no! the engine must be run at varying speeds, while the mechanics hold back the machine. This operation alone took three or four minutes, and all that the pilot proposed to do was to circle the aerodrome two or three times. An onlooker asked a mechanic if there were anything wrong with that particular machine. "No!" was the reply; "but our governor's very faddy, you know!"

And now for the other extreme! Three mechanics emerged from a hangar pus.h.i.+ng a rather ungainly-looking biplane, which b.u.mped over the uneven ground. The pilot was some distance behind, with cigarette in mouth, joking with two or three friends. When the machine was run out into the open ground he skipped quickly up to it, climbed into the seat, started the engine, waved a smiling "good-bye", and was off. For all he knew, that rather rough jolting of the craft while it was being removed from the hangar might have broken some wire on which the safety of his machine, and his life, depended. The excuse cannot be made that his mechanics had performed this all-important work of inspection, for their attention was centred on the daring "banking" evolutions of some audacious pilot in the aerodrome.

Mr. C. G. Grey, the well-known writer on aviation matters, and the editor of The Aeroplane, says, with regard to the need of inspection of air-craft:--

"A pilot is simply asking for trouble if he does not go all over his machine himself at least once a day, and, if possible, every time he is starting for a flight.

"One seldom hears, in these days, of a broken wheel or axle on a railway coach, yet at the chief stopping places on our railways a man goes round each train as it comes in, tapping the tires with a hammer to detect cracks, feeling the hubs to see if there is any sign of a hot box, and looking into the grease containers to see if there is a proper supply of lubricant. There ought to be a similar inspection of every aeroplane every time it touches the ground. The jar of even the best of landings may fracture a bolt holding a wire, so that when the machine goes up again the wire may fly back and break the propeller, or get tangled in the control wires, or a strut or socket may crack in landing, and many other things may happen which careful inspection would disclose before any harm could occur. Mechanics who inspected machines regularly would be able to go all over them in a few minutes, and no time would be wasted. As it is, at any aerodrome one sees a machine come down, the pilot and pa.s.senger (a fare or a pupil) climb out, the mechanics hang round and smoke cigarettes, unless they have to perform the arduous duties of filling up with petrol. In due course another pa.s.senger and a pilot climb in, a mechanic swings the propeller, and away they go quite happily. If anything casts loose they come down--and it is truly wonderful how many things can come loose or break in the air without anyone being killed. If some thing breaks in landing, and does not actually fall out of place, it is simply a matter of luck whether anyone happens to see it or not."

This advice, coming from a man with such wide experience of the theory and practice of flying, should surely be heeded by all those who engage in deadly combat with the demons of the air. In the early days of aviation, pilots were unacquainted with the nature and method of approach of treacherous wind gusts; often when they were flying along in a steady, regular wind, one of these gusts would strike their craft on one side, and either overturn it or cause it to over-bank, so that it crashed to earth with a swift side-slip through the air.

Happily the experience of those days, though purchased at the cost of many lives, has taught makers of air-craft to design their machines on more trustworthy lines. Pilots, too, have made a scientific study of air eddies, gusts, and so on, and the danger of flying in a strong or gusty wind is comparatively small.

CHAPTER XLVII. Accidents and their Cause (Cont.)

Many people still think that if the engine of an aeroplane should stop while the machine was in mid-air, a terrible disaster would happen. All petrol engines may be described as fickle in their behaviour, and so complicated is their structure that the best of them are given to stopping without any warning. Aeroplane engines are far superior in horse-power to those fitted to motorcars, and consequently their structure is more intricate. But if an airman's engine suddenly stopped there would be no reason whatever why he should tumble down head first and break his neck. Strange to say, too, the higher he was flying the safer he would be.

All machines have what is called a GLIDING ANGLE. When the designer plans his machine he considers the distribution of the weight or the engine, pilot and pa.s.sengers, of the petrol, aeronautical instruments, and planes, so that the aeroplane is built in such a manner that when the engine stops, and the nose of the machine is turned downwards, the aeroplane of its own accord takes up its gliding angle and glides to earth.

Gliding angles vary in different machines. If the angle is one in twelve, this would mean that if the glide wave commenced at a height of 1 mile, and continued in a straight line, the pilot would come to earth 12 miles distant. We are all familiar with the gradients shown on railways. There we see displayed on short sign-posts such notices as "1 in 50", with the opposite arms of the post pointing upwards and downwards. This, of course, means that the slope of the railway at that particular place is 1 foot in a distance of 50 feet.

One in twelve may be described as the natural gradient which the machine automatically makes when engine power is cut off. It will be evident why it is safer for a pilot to fly, say, at four or five thousand feet high than just over the tree-tops or the chimney-pots of towns. Suppose, for example, the machine has a gliding angle of one in twelve, and that when at an alt.i.tude of about a mile the engine should stop. We will a.s.sume that at the time of the stoppage the pilot is over a forest where it is quite impossible to land. Directly the engine stopped he would change the angle of the elevating plane, so that the aeroplane would naturally fall into its gliding angle. The craft would at once settle itself into a forward and slightly downward glide; and the airman, from his point of vantage, would be able to see the extent of the forest. We will a.s.sume that the aeroplane is gliding in a northerly direction, and that the country is almost as unfavourable for landing there as over the forest itself. In fact, we will imagine an extreme case, where the airman is over country quite unsuitable for landing except toward the south; that is, exactly opposite to the direction in which he starts to glide.

Fortunately, there is no reason why he should not steer his machine right round in the air, even though the only power is that derived from the force of gravity. His descent would be in an immense slope, extending 10 or 12 miles from the place where the engine stopped working. He would therefore be able to choose a suitable landing-place and reach earth quite safely.

But supposing the airman to be flying about a hundred yards above the forest-an occurrence not likely to happen with a skilled airman, who would probably take an alt.i.tude of nearly a mile. Almost before he could have time to alter his elevating plane, and certainly long before he could reach open ground, he would be on the tree-tops.

It is thought that in the near future air-craft will be fitted with two or more motors, so that when one fails the other will keep the machine on its course. This has been found necessary in Zeppelin air-s.h.i.+ps. In an early Zeppelin model, which was provided with one engine only, the insufficient power caused the pilot to descend on unfavourable ground, and his vessel was wrecked. More recent types of Zeppelins are fitted with three or four engines. Experiments have already been made with the dual-engine plant for aeroplanes, notably by Messrs. Short Brothers, of Rochester, and the tests have given every satisfaction.

There is little doubt that if the large pa.s.senger aeroplane is made possible, and if parliamentary powers have to be obtained for the formation of companies for pa.s.senger traffic by aeroplane, it will be made compulsory to fit machines with two or more engines, driving three or four distinct propellers. One of the engines would possibly be of inferior power, and used only in cases of emergency.

Still another cause of accident, which in some cases has proved fatal, is the taking of unnecessary risks when in the air. This has happened more in America and in France than in Great Britain. An airman may have performed a very difficult and daring feat at some flying exhibition and the papers belauded his courage. A rival airman, not wis.h.i.+ng to be outdone in skill or courage, immediately tries either to repeat the performance or to perform an even more difficult evolution. The result may very well end in disaster, and

FAMOUS AIRMAN KILLED

is seen on most of the newspaper bills.

The daring of some of our professional airmen is notorious. There is one particular pilot, whose name is frequently before us, whom I have in mind when writing this chapter. On several occasions I have seen him flying over densely-packed crowds, at a height of about two hundred feet or so. With out the slightest warning he would make a very sharp and almost vertical dive. The spectators, thinking that something very serious had happened, would scatter in all directions, only to see the pilot right his machine and jokingly wave his hand to them. One trembles to think what would have been the result if the machine had crashed to earth, as it might very easily have done. It is interesting to relate that the risks taken by this pilot, both with regard to the spectators and himself, formed the subject of comment, and, for the future, flying over the spectators' heads has been strictly forbidden.

From 1909 to 1913 about 130 airmen lost their lives in Germany, France, America, and the British Isles, and of this number the British loss was between thirty and forty. Strange to say, nearly all the German fatalities have taken place in air-s.h.i.+ps, which were for some years considered much safer than the heavier-than-air machine.