Page:Popular Science December 1931.djvu/144

 WHY SEAPLANES FLY WITH BULLET SPEED (Conthiufd jrnvi pajje i^'jSj air-and-watcr crall. The I'act is that tests proved our Dornier was better able to weather a pale with the wings on than it would have been with them off. As the foam- ing waves rushed toward us, the air in front of them was pushed forward, then lifted over their tops, just as soil is carried upward by the share of a plow. These currents struck the wings of the ship and helped boost us upward so vc rode the waves like a cork. I am positive, in this way, we could have ridden out the strongest gale. One of the strangest facts to those who do not understand flying boats is what they will stand in a storm. Once a fleet of winged boats stopped for the night at the flying base at the wild Scilly Isles, off Land's End, the southern tip of England. While they were riding at anchor, a storm swept in from the sea. White-topped ridges of water bat- tered the hulls while a screeching gale howled through the rigging of their big wings. Then, as the violence of the gusts increased, the huge seven-ton boats lifted themselves bodily from the crest of an unusually high wave and flew at the ends of their big anchor cables like kites ! This year, 1031, is the twentieth anniversary of the first successful flight in an air-and- water plane. During these twelve months, the DO-X, capable of carrying more pas- sengers than any other plane in the world, has crossed the Atlantic and flown in both .■mericas; the Supermarine racer has rocketed through the air at 415 miles an hour; and the pontoon-efjuippcd Lockheed, flown by Col. Lindbergh, has followed a new northern trail to the Orient. In passenger service, record-setting, and sport, the machines that are at home in the air or on the water have come to the fore. yfSOTHER ahsorbiiis iirlicle by this yl famous designer, Kar bird, and test and racing pilot i:ill appear in an early issue. Watch for it. Next month, .issen Jordanoff, noted flying instructor, tells what his students have taught him. Read the thrilling adven- tures of a veteran of the air in teaching tyros to fly. In January issue, out December first. CALL PATAGONIA FIRST HOME OF THE MAMMALS In' PATAGONIA, southern South America, creatures first began to walk. That is the conclusion of Dr. G. G. Simpson, .American Museum of Natural History paleontologist, who has just returned from an eight-month journey of exploration. On its tablelands, he found what he calls undoubted evidence that it was the spot where mammals first originated. "We did not expect to have such astounding luck," he says. "We found the richest pocket of fossils I have ever seen." 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(Important: Print or Write name clearly) D£C£MB£R, 1931 139