Aircraft landing

“ As a normal landing was being completed and while the plane was rolling west on the east-west runway at about 50 miles per hour, its landing lights picked out a military aircraft directly in its path and only 600 or 700 feet away. The military plane was taxying south to north across the runway, and its camouflaging made it scarcely discernible. ”

“ Aircraft, while on final approach to land, or while landing, have the right-of—way over other aircraft in flight or operating on the surface. When two or more aircraft are approaching an airport for the purpose of landing, the aircraft at the lower altitude has the right—of-way, but it shall not take advantage of this rule to out in in front of another which is on final approach to land, or to overtake that aircraft. ”

“ Landing is still one of the most serious problems the air pilot has to face, and it is to be hoped that the aircraft builders of the near future will help him to solve this difficulty. The reason for it, as we have already seen, is that the airplane secures its buoyancy largely as a result of its speed. Wings which are large enough to support it when flying at 150 miles an hour are too small to hold it in the air when its speed is slowed down. ”

“ The objection of aviators to flying above a ground-fog, rain, snow, or heavy clouds with single motor-planes is the possibility of the motor stopping over a village, city, or other bad landing-place, with the radius of visibility so little as to afford no opportunity to pick out a place for landing. ”

“ The company procedure as to project the beam of the landing launch's searchlight in an upwind direction parallel to the row of landing lights so as to enable the landing aircraft to land between the beam from its searchlight and the string of landing lights. However, this was not done an this instance because the beam of the searchlight would have been directed toward the incoming aircraft since it was being brought in downwind and might well have blinded the pilot. ”

“ An airship can be anchored more easily with the point against the wind on water. It is quite impossible to anchor on land when assistance is not forthcoming to hold down the airship. On water, also, the airship will give a little to side winds and to alterations in the direction of the wind, without overturning. On land this danger is not excluded, even with rigid airships. Of course, a watertight and seaworthy car is a necessary condition for landing on water. ”

“ This is comparable to the ineffectiveness of a rudder on a too slow-moving boat. If a plane stall with out motor occurs so close to the earth that there isn’t time to recover control, a hard landing results. ”

“ In flying across country a sharp lookout is kept on the land below. If it be of a character unfit for landing, as woods, or thickly settled towns, the aviator must keep high up in the air, lest his engine 164 stop and he be compelled to glide to the earth. A machine will glide forward 3 feet for each foot that it drops, if skilfully handled. If he is up 200 feet, he will have to find a landing ground within 600 feet. ”

“ Dirigible elongated balloons, even when neither heavier nor lighter than the air, are accommodating craft, perfectly capable of mounting from landing spaces on the ground. Aeroplane air-ships, on the other hand, may find vital advantage in coming to, and especially in starting from, heights. ”

“ After a careful look around to see that no other planes are landing, taking off, or in the air near by, the pilot opens out the engine, the roar increases its pitch, the plane moves slowly along the ground, gathers speed and rises smoothly into the air. ”

“ In their job o' work of bombing U-boats, attacking Zeppelins, fighting enemy seaplanes, and carrying out reconnaissance and convoy duties, there is as much romance as in any particular effort in the war. In the future, grown great in size, the boats will form the winged Navy, and will carry mails and passengers over the water-routes of all the world.
Boat seaplanes, or flying-boats as they are called by the men who use them, are a true type of aircraft designed for dealing with the chances and hazards of flying over the sea. ”

“ The experienced pilot will not make a straight-away glide, but like the vulture, or the condor, and birds of that class, soar in a circle, and thus, by passing over and over the same surfaces of the earth, enable him to select a proper landing place. ”

“ When all is ready to leave the masthead for flight, the pulling of a lever in the automatic coupling releases the ship. The latter then draws astern and upward, under the influence of the prevailing wind, until it is well clear of the landing station and can proceed on its course.
The design of this apparatus is such that the landing of an airship is as easy in a wind as in complete calm. With its help an airship can land in any speed of wind in which it is safe to fly. ”

“ Such things may bother an aviator when over the enemy's country, because if a landing seems necessary in order to avoid a fatal drop, there must always arise the risk of capture. How much more serious would even the smallest engine trouble become, once they were far out over the ocean with nothing in sight as far as the eye could reach save an endless vastness of rolling waters beneath, and passing clouds overhead? ”

“ The landing launch is carefully located with respect to the landing area lights in order that it can assist in marking the landing area by the beam of its search—light and in order that it can be as close as possible to the point at which the airplane first makes contact with the water. By landing in the wrong direction Captain Lorber made it impossible for the landing launch to perform these vitally important functions with maximum speed and efficiency. ”

“ Joy-stick—The control-stick of an airplane was invented by a man named Joyce, and for a while it was spoken of as the Joyce-stick, later being shortened to the present form. It operates the ailerons and elevators.
Landfall—A sight of land by a seaplane or dirigible which has been flying over an ocean course. An aviator who has been regulating his flight by instruments will check up his navigation on the first landfall.
Pancake—An extremely slow landing is known as a pancake landing. The machine almost comes to a stop about ten feet off the ground, and with the loss of her speed drops flat. ”

“ At three thousand feet altitude the Pilot is satisfied that he is now sufficiently high to secure, in the event of engine failure, a long enough glide to earth to enable him to choose and reach a good landing-place; and, being furthermore content with the steady running of the engine, he decides to climb no more but to follow the course he has mapped out. Consulting the compass, he places the Aeroplane on the A–E course and, using the Elevator, he gives his craft its minimum angle of incidence at which it will just maintain horizontal flight and secure its maximum speed. ”

“ For those days, the landing demands were rather exacting; the machine should be able to rise without damage from long grass, clover, or harrowed land, in 100 yards in a calm, and should be able to land without damage on any cultivated ground, including rough ploughed land, and, when landing on smooth turf in a calm, be able to pull up within 75 yards of the point of first touching the ground. It was required that pilot and observer should have as open a view as possible to front and flanks, and they should be so shielded from the wind as to be able to communicate with each other. ”

“ Hereby the force of the wing and the resistance become balanced; so that, manifestly, the air is beaten by the wing with the same force as the resistance to the stroke.’
He concerns himself also with the most difficult problem that confronts the flying man of to-day, namely, landing effectively, and his remarks on this subject would be instructive even to an air pilot of these days: ‘Now the ways and means by which the speed is slackened at the end of a flight are these. The bird spreads its wings and tail so that their concave surfaces are perpendicular to the direction of motion ”

“ The principle of high wing loadings, involving a new type of approach and landing, is now so thoroughly accepted that few pilots know how it came about. The principle is inherent in current air economics and the limits have gone steadily upward. ”

“ The arrangements made for handling airships on the ground and while landing, and also for moving them in the open, provide scope for great ingenuity. An airship when about to land is brought over the aerodrome and is "ballasted up" so that she becomes considerably lighter than the air which she displaces. ”

“ After a half hour’s search I decided on the largest pasture I could see, made the best kind of a short field landing I knew how by coming down just over the treetops, with the engine wide open, to the edge of the field, then cutting the gun and allowing the ship to slow down to its landing speed. This method brings the plane in with tremendous velocity and requires a much larger landing field than is necessary, but until the pilot has flown long enough to have the “feel” of his ship it is far safer to come in fast than too slow. ”

“ There is magic in salt water which transmogrifies all things it touches. The aeroplane with its cubist outline undergoes a sea change on reaching the coast and becomes a flying-boat, a thing of beauty, a Viking dragon ship, a shape born of the sea and air with pleasant and easy lines, and in the sun, the dull war-paint stripped from the natural mahogany, a flashing golden craft of enchantment. ”

“ You then need to set gates at various points on the approach, and many operators choose, for instance, 1,000 feet above the field as a particular point when the airplane must be in the landing configuration, must be at the right speed at no more than maybe 20 knots past the target speed with the approach pass and landing checklist complete and so on, and that is the target for all approaches. ”

“ Our seaplane swung around and around like a bird about to settle, and, as the seagulls do, alighted on the waters against the wind. With remarkable skill and patience the pilot carefully steered the machine until she faced the ways on which waited a throng of air-station officers and waders. Soon we were properly placed, and a dozen men clad in waterproof clothes splashed forward into the water, and caught the floats of the seaplane's wings. As the engine had been stopped before we landed, I got the first chance to speak to my pilot. ”

“ Just as the navigator must know the sea, so the aviator must have a knowledge of the heavens and the basic principles of aerodynamics in order to become a successful pilot. Although the air is volatile like the water, the aviator flies through it as a fish moves through water. Therefore the aerial navigator must know enough about the medium through which he travels to know what to do in an emergency. ”

“ The sighting arrangements are of a wonderfully complete character, as described elsewhere, but the irregular rolling movement arising from high speed is a nullifying quantity. It is tolerably easy for the aircraft, especially an aeroplane, to evade successful pursuit, either by rising to an elevation beyond the range of the gun, or by carrying out baffling evolutions such as irregular undulating flight, wheeling, and climbing. ”

“ The sea-plane, when a flight is made, is launched upon the water down a slipway; then the pilot and his passenger embark, the motor is started, and the propeller draws the machine across the water at a rapidly increasing pace. The floats raise themselves higher and higher upon the water, as the air-planes exercise a growing lift, until they only just skim the surface. And now comes the moment when the airman, drawing back his elevating lever, seeks to raise his craft from the water into the air. ”

“ Even before the 'plane responds to some sudden gust of wind, or drops into a hole in the air, the trained aviator will foresee precisely what is about to happen. He reads it in some little thrill of his lever, a quiver in the frame, as the trained boxer reads in his antagonist's eyes the sort of blow that is coming. ”

“ Fig. 49. Monoplane is Liable to Stand on its Head if Landing is Not Properly Made Landings. Then there is a class of accidents for which neither the aviator nor the machine is responsible, as where spectators have crowded on the field, causing the flyers to make altogether too sudden or impromptu landings at angles which would otherwise not be considered for a moment. ”

“ Without going so far as to claim having predicted or foreseen in its entirety the many-sided utility of aircraft as it is to-day manifesting itself, the author can point to the fact that he has in the past taken every opportunity to insist on the importance of dynamic flight in its Military and Naval application. ”

“ THE LANDING.—The pilot who can make a good landing is generally a good flyer. It requires nicety of judgment to come down properly. One thing which will appear novel after the first altitude flights are attempted is the peculiar sensation of the apparently increased speed as the earth comes close up to the machine.
At a height of one hundred feet, flying thirty miles an hour, does not seem fast, because the surface of the earth is such a distance away that particular objects remain in view for some moments ”

“ To alight with an airplane the pilot—supposing his descent to be voluntary and not compelled by accident or otherwise—surveys the country about him for a level field, big and clear enough for the machine to run off its momentum in a run of perhaps two hundred yards on its wheels. Then he gets up a good rate of speed, points the nose of the 'plane down at a sharp angle to the ground, cuts off the engine, and glides. The angle of the fall must be great enough for the force of gravity to keep up the speed. There is a minimum speed at which an airplane will remain subject to control. ”