Fair Balloon?

Two decades ago, no first-rate fair in the U. S. failed to feature a balloon ascension. Last week there was talk that Chicago's World's Fair might boast the greatest balloon ascension ever witnessed in the U. S. Shaggy-haired Professor Auguste Piccard visited the fair grounds with his twin Brother Jean, said he might ascend from Soldier Field to the stratosphere, if U. S. balloon manufacturers would back him.

Macon Aweigh

Stamping the concrete floor to keep warm, a shivering crowd surrounded the silver hulk of the ZRS-5 in the cavernous airship dock at Akron, Ohio one day last week. A band of 325 high-school pupils blared "Dixie." From the dock offices athwart the bow of the airship marched Mrs. Jeannette Whitton Moffett, mother of two Naval flyers with her spry 63-year-old husband Rear Admiral William Adger Moffett. With them came Goodyear-Zeppelin officials & wives, Mayor G. Glen Toole of Macon, Ga., eight beauteous Macon girls heavily bundled against the northern chill.

The group mounted a bunting-draped platform beneath the airship's bow, just forward of the control car. The band changed to "Anchors Aweigh." There were speeches. On behalf of his city Mayor Toole presented to Commander Alger Herman Dresel a silver service for the ship's wardroom.* Someone handed Mrs. Moffett a red-white-&-blue cord suspended from the airship. Declaiming "I christen thee Macon!", she yanked the cord. Two hatches in the underside of the Macon's snout flopped open, spilling out 48 alarmed pigeons which flapped excitedly about the dock. Thirty-four of the birds then streaked through the aperture of the great orange-peel doors. Outside, two of them (Miss Macon & Miss Georgia) detached themselves from the rest, bent a course for Macon 500 mi. away. The others, veterans of the christening of the Akron in 1931, had to flutter only three miles to the coops of Tire Builder Frank Eisentraut on the north side of town and were home in five minutes. However, 14 of the Eisentraut flock disgraced themselves by choosing comfortable perches among the lofty girders of the dock, where they remained until the next day.

Release of the pigeons signalled the climax of the ceremony. While Commander Dresel, his 50 officers & crew stood at salute, Erection Foreman V. W. ("Red") Coffelt ordered "Up ship!" His workmen slacked off their cables, let the Macon's partial load of helium buoy her into the air some five feet. Another command and she was hauled down again, made fast. The Navy's second airship scouting cruiser had taken the air. She will remain in the dock a few weeks more for finishing touches.

The Ship. Third U. S. Naval vessel to bear the name,* the Macon is identical to her sister Akron in dimensions and general structure. Most important changes are invisible, e. g. saving of some 8,000 Ib. under the Akron's weight by improvement of engine mountings, electrical installations, gas cells; and increase of maximum speed to 74 knots (the Akron's is 70) by better propellers, better streamlining.

Some visible changes in the Macon:

P: The eight outriggers supporting the propeller shafts are cowled with '"pants" to cut down wind resistance.

P: Engine radiators, instead of being mounted on the propeller outriggers, are faired into the lines of the hull.

P: The internal telephone system (17 stations) is dial-operated.

P: Instead of numerous four-bunk staterooms for the crew, there is one 8-bunk room for chief petty officers, one 20-bunk bay for crew.

P: During final construction the Macon's hull bristles with hundreds of quill-like gadgets. They are part of a "teledeflectoscope" system by which engineers can measure hundredth-inch deflections in the entire structure during load tests. The "quills" are fitted with lenses, prisms and mirrors. An observer perched on one of the catwalks of the dock can peer through a telescope at the line of gadgets and virtually "see around the corner" of the hull.

Following about six weeks of testflights to begin April 1, the Macon will be flown to the new Navy dock at Sunnyvale, south of San Francisco. It is not yet decided whether that will be her permanent station or whether she will exchange places with the Akron at Lakehurst.

The Captain. Whatever his rank, the commanding officer of a Navy ship is "captain," and is so addressed while on duty. Captain Alger Dresel, 44, is the first officer to command in turn three U. S. airships. From the Los Angeles he succeeded Commander Rosendahl on the Akron. He is quiet, serious, barrel-chested, a onetime Annapolis footballer and boxer. He has commanded nine cruisers, won the Navy Cross for helping sink a submarine near the Azores.

Goodyear-Zeppelin, builders of the Akron and Macon for a total of $8,000,000, worried last week about what to do next. All their hopes were pinned on the McNary-Crosser Merchant Airship Bill which would have authorized the Postmaster General to grant contracts for ocean airmail three years hence. Plans were ready for G-Z to begin building merchant ships for International Zeppelin Corp. The bill passed the House last year, was at the top of the Senate list of unfinished business when Congress adjourned its last regular session. Meanwhile the company will busy itself with numerous smaller jobs such as building rocket cars for the Chicago Exposition, and duralumin tank cars for gasoline.

Savonius Revived

Into the office of Professor John D. Akerman, Russian-born head of the department of aeronautical engineering at the University of Minnesota, lately walked a 15-year-old boy with a large box under his arm. From the box the boy extracted an odd-looking contraption, a model flying machine. He looked hopefully up at Professor Akerman.

"Is this thing any good? Can I enter it in your originality contest?"

The professor took the machine out to the lawn, wound the rubber motor, launched it. Few minutes later he was advising the youngster about patents. Also he wrote the august National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Washington. D. C. about what he had just seen.

One night last week the boy, Harold Hatlestad, Minneapolis high-school student, appeared with 30 other youngsters and 30 model machines at the University's Chemistry Auditorium. It was the annual Originality Contest (sponsored by Professor Akerman) of the Twin City Boys' Air- plane Model Makers Club. There were designs ranging from a maple leaf type offered by Clarence Maihori, a Japanese, to a futuristic conception of 21st Century transport submitted by Robert Hillberg. Harold Hatlestad's rotor ship took first place.

The Hatlestad model has a conventional propeller, but in place of wings there are freely spinning horizontal rotors 14 in. long and 2 in. in diameter. The rotor is composed of two semicircular vanes on an axis--in cross section shaped like the letter S. As the plane moves forward, air pressure causes the rotor to revolve backward. That action, combined with the forward movement, produces low pressure on top of the rotor, increased pressure (lift) on the bottom. If the motor should quit the rotor continues to spin in descent, the lift force stretching the plane's course into a long glide. Unconsciously Designer Hatlestad had employed the Savonius windmill principle.* His scheme is not to be confused with the Flettner rotor or recently publicized paddle-wing rotorplanes, both of which involve power-driven rotors.

Exclaimed Professor Akerman, long experienced engineer for commercial airplane companies: "This boy has discovered a completely new method of sustension ... so original that it will be of worth while importance to the aviation world."

800 Horses

If horsepower alone were required in an airplane engine the designer's problem would be simple. He need then only build bigger & bigger engines, yielding more & more power, higher & higher speed. But for flying purposes weight, head-resistance and fuel consumption must be reckoned in the same equation with power. Hence U. S. motor-makers (Wright; Pratt & Whitney) are proud of the fact that in the past five years they have upped airplane engine power from 525 to 700 h. p., reducing at the same time the weight per horsepower.

Last week Pratt & Whitney boasted that it had produced the most powerful aeronautical engine in the U. S.--800 h. p./- It is a Twin Wasp, with 14 cylinders in two concentric radial banks of seven cylinders each. Weight: 1.36 Ib. per h. p. Pratt & Whitney began experiments in increased power four years ago, decided on the two-bank radial design largely because it offers no more head resistance than the ordinary single-bank type. Observers guessed that the Twin Wasp would be installed in the new high-speed Boeing transports for United Airlines, and in the giant Sikorsky amphibions being developed for Pan American Airways.

* To be used only on formal occasion in port. The regular mess equipment is made (if beetleware, aluminum.

* First was a Confederate wooden gunboat which plied the Savannah River in 1864. Second was a steel freighter used as a cargo carrier in the World War. The city is in the Congressional district represented by Carl Vinson, chairman of the House Naval Affairs Committee.

* The ordinary windmill will turn only when facing the wind. The late Capt. F. J. Savonius (died 1931) of Finland invented a mill with S-shaped arms which could catch wind from any direction.

/- Most powerful engine in service in the world: Isotta-Fraschini's 1,000 h. p. in an Italian Fiat fighter. Most powerful engine ever to fly: Rolls Royce's special job for the 1931 Schneider Trophy, rated at 1,600 h. p., supercharged to 2,700.

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