Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/567

 Popular Science Mo7ithly

���At the pre- se n t time, aeronautical de- signers in America have been hampered by the fact that there is not a dependable avia- tion motor manufactured in this country to-day. In Europe there has been a great advance in the manufacture of aeronautical motors, chiefly because several automobile manufacturers turned their attention to this phase of the motor industry. Firms with international rep- utations for motor designing, such as the Mercedes in Germany, the Renault in France and the Sunbeam in Great Britain, have designed aeronautical mo- tors which are giving the greatest satis- faction under the most difficult war con- ditions.

Until very lately, the aviation motors made in this country have been manu- factured by companies which had little

��539

motor of to-day, the most formidable obstacle in the path of aviation will have been overcome.

If the war has accomplished no other useful end, it has advanced the progress of aviation many years. In the United States, without the spur of military and naval aeronautics, aviation was regarded as a profession from circus performers., whose main duty was to "loop the loop,'*' and provide thrills for the crowds. Now, with aircraft manufacturers turn- ing out aeroplanes at the rate of sixteen a day, the public is beginning to realize that it is a remarkably healthy infant industry, closely rivaling the unpre- cedented growth of the automobile industry in its early stages. One of the foremost aeronautical experts in the country recently said to the writer:

"Within one year after the signing of peace between the European powers, the

���slow speed — a fault which has probably been remedied by now. The hug,^ i;.-t ^; i.i;., „l.;„1

craft is shown by comparison with the men standing beside it. Remember that there are

some aeroplanes now flying which are even larger than the one here pictured

��or no previous experience in motor de- signing. The Packard Company has de- signed a promising twelve-cylinder avia- tion motor, and the Simplex Automobile Company is equipping the rejuvenated Wright Aeroplane with a well-designed and carefully Iniilt motor, which in its first tests has justified the hopes placed in it by its designers.

When automobile manufacturers co- operate with aeroplane builders and suc- ceed in developing an aeronautical motor which is as dependable as the automobile

��first aeroplane will make a successful flight across the Atlantic Ocean. Very soon aeroplanes will be carrying our mails to inaccessible spots. Shortly after this will come the carrying of passengers on a schedule as regular as that of our Twentieth Century Limited. Many of us will live to see the aerial expresses with many planes, multijile engines, and an enormous carrying capacity, which will take us to San PVancisco or even to Lon- don and Paris as easily as we can now ride to Kansas City."

�� �