65_HS1-834228961_62-HQ-83894_SUB_A

Text

This text came with the file. It may have mistakes. When the text and the image disagree, the image is right.

•
•
~
-
-~
·~
they
disc-type
~ I believe
are
aircraft,' says­
RICHARDS,
G. TILGHMAN
assistant
senior Research
lecturer at the
and official
Kensington Science
South
Museum, London,
who
has
•
studied all the
evidence.
\
- there is still, a considerable bcJ ,
of technical opinion not satisfied
that perfection has been reached •
.4lid here. I think. lies the real
answer.
This body of opinion has been
conUnually searclling for
the
" safe" design. Designers of many
nationalities have been striving
since the early 1920's with great
success toward a foolproof p"lane
Enlar gements from flying saucer
pictures- front-paged last week
of disc type.
In 1934-35 Charles H. Zimmer­
- which set everyone talking.
They were taken bY
Farmer
mann. in the United States, built
a disc wing airplane combined
Trent, McMl'nnvllle, Oregon, U.S.
with a
helicopter capable of
verUcal ascent and descent and
must, of necessity, be subject to a high forward speed.
these dangers. TheY. turned aside
tolvestigate possible wing forms
w 'ch should be safe from stalling
an spinning.
nong these " rebels " a f ,::w .!~!! h~T!~~,~~"}1 "
n . es have become air history.
for his patents to ~ e
Jose Weiss and Arthur Keith with
Chance Vought Aircraft Division
their completely stable swallow­
of the United Aircraft Corpora­
like monoplane In 1909.
Etnch
tion in the U.S.
and Weis in Austria In 1911,
But at that point tne O.S. Navy
evolving a stable wingform oased
stepped In, and all further devel­
on the Zannonia leaf from which
opment has been of a secret
Rumpler and the majority of Ger­
nature. though it has been stated
man builders developed the Taube
that t his combination is capable
monoplane. Dunne, with his too
of speeds from o to 500 miles per
stable, tailless, back-swept wing
hour.
biplane •in 1912. and the Lee­
_This performance IS !n accord
R ichards annular monoplane of with reports that. flying saucers
1910-14, with which I was asso­
travel at great speedsl hover,
ciated.
ascend and descend wh h little
forwa;rd motion.
It 1s perhaps a liUle hard to
NOT PERFECT
\)elieve that the1·e can, as yet, ex­
1st enough of these types to meet
WITH the outbreak of the
the many re11orts, bu't there, is no
1914 war research of
reason at a I whv such aircraft
this type was abandoned. and
;;hould not have been seen provid­
study concentrated on perform­
mg that full scale work followe
ance rather than safety.
the experimental period. And tl
Bv 1918 the modern plane was
~ecrecy would suggest that th
established, and earlier research
1S SO.
was forgotten.
And t liere could lie the m t
c ivil airlines naturally used
sol.id proof that flying saucers
aptea war planes. and then
ex1St.
me w orld War II. once more
itations were Imposed.
n spite of thr orthodoxy t,f
si!(Tl there was t h ro~
~u;_,t.he
t ,er-war vears, and =
Jily
~