Payload

“ In the first place the smuggling may be done over such a wide area that it would need a whole fleet of airships to capture even one of the others, for they might choose a most unfrequented place to cross the border."
"Oh, we would be in communication with you," said the agent. "We can come pretty near telling where the contraband goods will be shipped from, but the trouble is, after we get our tips, we can't get to the place before they have flown away. But with your airship, you could catch them, after we sent you, say a wireless message, about where to look for them. ”

“ The postal service of several governments are considering this means of mail delivery; the sports use as in the past [Pg 38] will continue to flourish; express carrying may be expected in inaccessible countries where railroads and roads do not give access and where high-speed delivery by countless airplanes would aid materially in the development of newly opened countries. For airplane transportation will require no expensive right-of-way, rubber-tire renewals, etc. Minor uses of airplanes are on such duties as forest-fire patrol, working at life-saving stations, etc. ”

“ The services to the Continent, although the distance is on the short side for the merits of air transport to be properly demonstrated, effect a considerable saving in time, and it is certain that the amount of mail, especially parcels, carried on these routes will continue to increase and lead to the eventual adoption of normal rates for air postage. An extension of the use of aircraft as the regular means of carrying mails will be of great assistance in the development of air transport. ”

“ Both engineer and loadmaster must be able to think on their feet and make rapid decisions and adjustments in case an item of freight doesn't show up, or if more shows up than they expected. Exact placement of cargo and exact fuel requirements are therefore figured down to the last inch and gallon by two heads containing a sum total of years of air-cargo knowhow and experience. Aiding their calculations are the engineer's conventional slipstick, and the loadmaster's load adjuster, marked off in body stations and fuel loads, and serialized to his C-124 and that plane only. ”

“ SLOW RISING NEARLY CAUSED DISASTER AT THE START OF THE GREAT FLIGHT
The receiving equipment on aëroplanes and airships is arranged so as to indicate, with a comparatively high degree of accuracy, the direction from which wireless signals are received. The position of the sending, or beacon, station being known, the bearing of the aircraft from that station may be plotted on a suitable chart, in which small segments of great circles are represented by straight lines. ”

“ The work of preparing all that part of the naval machine which in time of peace is separate from the active fleet is purely one of logistics; it is that part of the preparation which calculates what ways and means are needed, and then supplies those ways and means. Logistics, having been told by strategy what strategy plans to do, calculates how many and what kinds of vessels, men, guns, torpedoes, fuel, food, hospital service, ammunition, etc., are needed to make possible the fulfilling of those plans ”

“ In the old days the men carried nothing but their weapons if they could help it. They now carry all burdens slung to a pole or a bamboo. A single carrier will make his load into two packages of equal weight at either end of the pole, and balance them across his shoulder, but a heavy load [Pg 301] is slung midway between two carriers, who do not hold the pole in position while walking, and touch it only when shifting it to the other shoulder for a change. ”

“ COMMERCIAL CARGO OPERATIONS- The term `commercial cargo operations' means aircraft operations by a commercial cargo or freight carrier in cases in which cargo is delivered to or flown from the installation under established schedules, except that the term does not include any cargo operations undertaken by or on behalf of any user of the installation or cargo operations related to the national defense, homeland security, and emergency preparedness missions of the installation. ”

“ It is a simple matter to calculate what size balloon will be required to lift one, two or three passengers and a given weight of cargo, for we know that the balloon envelope must be large enough when filled with gas, to displace a greater weight of air than its own weight, together with the weight of the basket, equipment, passengers and cargo. ”

“ The airman sails out over the lines of battle, so far above the earth when necessary as to be out of range of the most powerful guns, and with glasses looks down upon the whole country. His machine, whether it be a dirigible balloon or airplane, is equipped with a wireless telegraph instrument with which he is able to send brief messages back to his own line or military headquarters. ”

“ The airplane observer sends down “fire,” our operators yell the order to the telephone man who in turn shouts it into the mouthpiece of his ’phone; the ’phone operator at the battery end informs the Battery Commander and he gives the order when the guns are fired either by piece, that is one at a time, or by salvo, which is all at once. ”

“ It is just like loading a vessel, an operation in which the expert seeks to so distribute the weight of the cargo as to keep the vessel in a perfectly upright position, and prevent a "list" or leaning to one side. The more evenly the cargo is distributed the more perfect will be the equilibrium of the vessel and the better it can be handled. ”

“ It is the duty of the carrier to see that his barge is capable of resisting these forces without subjecting the carge to injury. She must be so tight that the water will not reach the cargo, so strong that these ordinary applications of external force will not spring a leak or sink her, so sound that she will safely carry the cargo in bulk through these ordinary shocks to which she must every day be subjected. If she is capable of this she is seaworthy; if she is not, she is unfit for the navigation of the river. ”

“ If a packet be found containing an enclosure, whether sealed or otherwise, or anything of the shape of a letter, such enclosure or letter will be taken out and forwarded separately to the address given on the packet. It is sent forward, of course, as an unpaid letter, but, in addition, another single rate is charged. Thus, if the article taken out of the packet does not exceed half an ounce in weight, the charge of threepence will be levied on delivery, while the remainder of the packet, if prepaid, will be delivered free at the same time. ”

“ A load-line, do what you may, is the opinion of an expert. How can you, by authority, enforce the opinion of an expert? I have had before me,” he continues, “a great many proposals for ascertaining load-lines for ships. Some of them are very ingenious. By the best of them you may get, with considerable accuracy, the cubical displacement of the empty ship, the displacement of the cargo, and so you may arrive at the cubical space left in the ship available for floating. ”

“ Another fundamental essential is that all provisions must be in packages not to exceed a certain maximum weight, which can be readily handled by one man in loading or unloading a ship or boats or sledges, particularly in an emergency, where rapid work is essential. ”

“ At times they weren't, and there was a division of opinion among the officers as to the real value of the invention.
As is the case with the wireless telegraph only one ship of a fleet can use the telephone at one time. While one ship is talking to another all the other ships must keep out of it and even the ship to which the message is being sent must keep still and not break in. The receiver must wait until the sender has got all through with what he has to say and then he can talk back. ”

“ The carrier is no more an angel than other human beings, no matter whether pink or black; he has all the imperfections and the love of self-preservation of the brother who calls himself white. I remember once having all the loads laid out ready for the start and then giving the order for each man to choose his load. It was evident the carriers had mentally marked the load each would like to seize, for a dash was made for a small box only about 18 inches square and having the appearance of a 20 lb. load—but it was a case of cartridges weighing 80 lbs.! ”

“ In order to understand how these mishaps came about, it is necessary to familiarize oneself with the duties of the pilots and the purpose of the Air Mail Service. Every day, whatever the weather, two sturdy airplanes, loaded with mail, climb into the air above their respective flying fields near New York and San Francisco, and start across the continent. At the next landing field—there are thirteen of them between the two oceans—pilots and machines are changed, just as the crew and locomotive of the Limited are changed at each division point. ”

“ For them, we say, the emphasis on clearing hawse overnight, the definition of G.M.T., the exactitude of zigzag, and the necessity of ready answer to signals. We are old stagers now, we know all these drills, we— Damn! We, too, are becoming superior! In turn, the commodore who is to sail with us has his say. Signals and look-out, the cables of our distance, wireless calls, action guns and smoke-screen, the rubbish-heap, darkening ship, fog-buoys and hydroplanes, he deals with in a fine, confident, deep sea-voice. ”

“ His couple of 12–pounder carronades were double-shotted, and as the lugger sheered up under the stern of the “Cornwallis” she got such a storm of grape and canister along her decks as took the heart out of her for boarding; while as she fell away in some confusion the Packet’s starboard guns came to bear, and were discharged at short range with terrible effect. ”

“ The operator held his hand over the sending key.
“Shall I tell who they've got and to turn around and try to make us before they burn up?”
“With three hours? Tell them they haven't got the Huron, man! Tell them quick! Tell them to call it, call it, and keep on calling till they get it. It's their only chance! Tell them to think of nothing else! If they were steaming for us now we couldn't reach them in seven hours!”
“But you can't get a ship by 'wireless' if the man isn't at his key, sir! Or even if he was in the room without his receivers strapped to his ears! ”

“ Its disadvantage lies in the fact that whereas the heavier and more robust apparatus needed for it can easily be employed in the stationary beacon stations, few aircraft will be able to support wireless sending apparatus of sufficient weight to carry over the long distances they must cover in trans-oceanic aërial travel. ”

“ However great the speed and load, there is no value in air transport, whether for passengers or mails or goods, unless it is safe and also compares favourably from an economic point of view with the older methods. ”

“ Both the West India and American Mails were ready yesterday by about noon, but what with the passengers in different and distant inns, the Packets in different places, the cartage of the mails, the purchasing of their anchors in very deep water—pilotage not one man-of-war ever goes to sea without, so dangerous is the passage—that I see very clearly we shall not gain anything in getting to sea, though the mail arrives here in the morning.... ”

“ Military transport—other than water and rail—may be classed in respect of the means employed as draught and pack, and in respect of its organization and functions as transport on the line of communications and transport in the field, the latter being subdivided into first line and second line. The British army, on account of its frequent expeditions into undeveloped countries, makes a large—in the view of many, far too large—use of pack transport, for which mules, camels and human carriers are employed. ”

“ They were, however, certainly of greater weight than the “Hinchinbrooke’s” 9–pounder carronades, and at the short range at which they were discharged, did great execution on the Packet’s hull and rigging. ”

“ The types of machines that had evolved from the War were very fast, very efficient, and very expensive, although the bombers showed promise of adaptation to commercial needs, and, so far as other machines were concerned, America had already proved the possibilities of mail-carrying by maintaining a mail service even during the War period. ”

“ The difficulties are obvious; but if these could be overcome, it would present many advantages besides velocity; for if an attendant resided at each station, the additional expense of having two or three deliveries of letters every day, and even of sending expresses at any moment, would be comparatively trifling; nor is it impossible that the stretched wire might itself be available for a species of telegraphic communication yet more rapid. ”

“ Such a person is apt to be carefully slung with four or five carriers of one description or another, from bulging cargo pockets to clever military-grade strap-on pouches with biometrically keyed closures. ”

“ And yet, with our small navy we may at any time need all of our steam packets for actual service, and the Government should always have the right to demand them for transport service. We have abundant evidence that our mail packets are well fitted for carrying an armament, and being highly efficient in war duty. ”

“ In addition to operating Army transport planes, the Air Transport Command contracted with the country’s major airlines to fly Army men and materials. Thus many of the transport planes which in peacetime flew over our countryside went into war service and began to fly over distant lands. ”

“ The landing or shipment of cargo is not necessarily confined to certain fixed stations, as is obligatory on railways, but boats can stop at any point on their journey to load and unload, and discharge their cargoes direct over the ship's side. ”

“ Concurrently with these and other measures for reducing the cost of the service, my brother sought to do something towards meeting its inevitable expense by a moderate increase of postage in quarters where the charges for conveyance were proportionately the heaviest. Experience had shown that, where transmission necessarily occupies a long time, increase of correspondence depends far less on lowered rates than on increased speed and frequency of transmission. ”